The village that plays together: Un-Greeting Cards

My mother, in fear that without use I would lose my talent for art, gave me a package of plain greeting cards back in April of this year. She had decided that I could draw the front of a greeting card in a relatively short time, given my lack of time because of the children…and so would retain my ability to create art. I soon came to discover that there were like 20 cards in that stupid bag…irritation soon ensued. After I got done with about 5 to 7 of them I showed my mother…she then told me that the envelope also had to be decorated, I almost chucked the whole bag at her!

While muttering a lot in the process, I have finally finished the bag. I told my mother this and she very happily disappeared into the other room…when she returned she was carrying like 3 more bags! I told her NO! The other day she gave me a bag that only had a few in them, arguing the whole time that she was “helping” me. I took the bag and went upstairs muttering things to myself.

Before I put them up here I need to warn you that I am not an artist fit for putting on greeting cards…most of my art is anything but positive. What I have now is a bag of cards not fit for greeting anyone…so I shall call them un-greeting cards. Some of them have quotes in them; I heard them in various places and thought that they fit. A great many of them come from Criminal Minds, as I watched the whole show on DVD this summer. I will try to offer what explanation I have with each one; my art very much reflects my own life in a way, and if you know me well enough you can easily see it…if not it would appear that I am a dark and tortured soul, and in a lot of ways I am, I just hide it well.

ONWARD! #1 “Spillage”: I was under an extraordinary amount of stress and it had begun to spill out of me, affecting my health.

#2 “Watery Relief”: In the midst of this spilling I sought relief in my bath tub…I do this quite often actually…everything just seems to melt away when you are in a hot tub listening to music.

#3 “Chained” inside “The creative woman is a force to be reckoned with!”: I often feel censored and I don’t much like it.

#4 “Expectation”: What every woman feels…torn between the expected image and the real image.

#5 “Silence”…inside “Find a place inside where there’s joy and the joy will bring out the pain” –Joseph Campbell: That place is only found once the outside has been cut off and it’s only you and your thoughts…I do this through music.

#6 “Pain”: I had a headache.

#7 “Robot”: There are days when as a home-maker you feel as if you are a robot who does the same thing every day.

#8 “Numb”: I had surgery over a year ago…not cool. I also have very little feeling in my upper arms for some odd reason…hmmm.

#9 “Monster”: *insert smile here*

#10 “Love”…inside “There is no safe investment, to love at all is to be vulnerable” –C. S. Lewis

#11 “Heartbreak”: I can’t speak of this one here.

#12 “Break”…inside “Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training” –Anna Freud: Have you ever been at that point where you are sure that you are going to start ripping your hair out of your head?

#13 “Stew”: I would never cook my children, but sometimes they can sure drive you nuts!

#14 “Helpless”…inside “When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.” –Hymn #166: There are times when all you want is to feel the loving arms of your savior as you cry.

#15 “Scar”…inside “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars” –Kahlil Gibran: We all carry scars, and sometimes they hurt bad.