Mother’s Day: Legacies and Milestones

I was out purchasing art supplies a few weeks ago and when I cashed out the young girl handed me a flyer and said, “We are having a Mother’s Day Art Show. Here’s how you can enter.”  I took the flyer but didn’t think much of it.  I still consider myself to be a newbie so to enter an art show seemed sorely premature. However, on the drive home, I strongly started to consider entering the show. In my mind, I thought it would be a great way to get over the ‘first art show’ jitters, after all, the show was at a local art store, not at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Right?

OK, that relieved me a bit.  So, then I remembered a picture I saw on Facebook that I’d seen months early and at the time thought I’d like to draw it one day.  I mostly remembered the tenderness I saw between the two subjects (a grandmother and first grandchild) and wanted to try to portray that on paper with graphite.

I contacted the the friend who posted the photo.  I explained how I wanted to draw the photo and enter it into the art show. She gave permission so I started drawing.  Last week I entered the drawing into the art show and on May 9th there will be a reception and prizes.

Honestly, the reception and prizes part is not my primary reason for submitting. I just wanted to have this ‘step’, this milestone, behind me. I can now say I have entered an art show having works submitted from multiple artists around the city. :).  Don’t get me wrong, if I happen to win a prize that would be terrific … and a great motivator to continue improving my skill and blessing as many people as possible.

This is my legacy.  I’ve never had the opportunity to be a mom. As I’ve gotten older I began to wonder what legacy I could leave.  Over the past two years, I’ve discovered that each of my drawings, in the many homes they now in, both in the States and overseas, will be a perfect legacy.  Each of my drawings carries within each stroke a piece of me.

So here is the piece that I submitted. It is called ‘Grand Love‘.