9 Weeks and The End

The last of my postcard exchange images:

Two of my family members and one of my colleagues are expecting babies in October or November this year.  I decided to do colored pencil studies of what their babies might look like at this point in their pregnancies.  This is 9 weeks.


I should mention that I'm behind on posting these so they are no longer at this # of weeks.

12 Weeks

For the postcard exchange . . .

Two of my family members and one of my colleagues are expecting babies in October or November this year.  I decided to do colored pencil studies of what their babies might look like at this point in their pregnancies.  This is 12 weeks.

I am a bit behind on posting these - they aren't at this number of weeks anymore.

13 Weeks

For the postcard exchange:

Two of my family members and one of my colleagues are expecting babies in October or November this year.  I decided to do colored pencil studies of what their babies might look like at this point in their pregnancies.  This is 13 weeks.  

I should mention that I'm a tad bit behind posting these - so they aren't at these weeks anymore.

Dream Image

These are the last of my postcard exchange images.  Here's what I said about this one:

This is a dream-image, although this image is actually like symbol of the dream-image which was a symbol in itself.  The text reads in part:  “In the dream I gave birth to a baby face up with an audience of many watchers.  The baby was born with open eyes, laughing, and singing.”

Outer Gates of the Underworld

Another postcard:

I started reading through the Inanna myth in the Wolkstein/ Kramer version and immediately the Gate called to me.  Here it is, my version of the “outer gates of the underworld,” for today. Solid, earthy wood outlines them.  Curtains which look very vulvular block most of the way. Neti looks something like a House Elf or a Ferengi and wears only a loincloth, but he holds a very modern stop sign. I’m not sure what the bird is doing there, but he came, so there he is.

Inanna Tal Mask

My postcard image for the week before last:

I read a book to my kids about Tal masks from Korean traditions and my oldest got really enthused about making masks.  We didn’t have the materials to hand so he decided to draw designs instead and insisted that I draw one, too.  So I decided to draw Inanna, with her crown of the Steppe, eye ointment, and locks of hair.  No necklace, etc., to be true to the mask idea.

Seven "Me"

Last week's postcard:

And my message:

I told the story of Inanna this week to a private class, and listened to a 2010 call about art assignments, in which Virginia suggested assigning oneself parts of stories we tell.  So I decided to assign myself the Seven Me for this postcard, because I couldn’t remember them all when I told the story this week!  I thought drawing them might help me learn them by heart.

Laborynth Slides

My postcard for this week:

And what I said about it:

My family’s had a stomach bug this week so for this postcard I’m ‘cheating’.  This is a collage of the Laborynth images I made as a slideshow to show to a private class I did a year ago.  I had my 5-month-old daughter with me and was concerned about my ability to draw the visuals, hold the baby, and be fully present to the parents.  It worked out rather well, although I do prefer to draw it by hand with parents when possible!

Listening to the Great Below

This is the next postcard:

And what I said about it:

I made the sculpture shown here during a class while the parents were making birth power figures.  I know what it symbolizes for me: myself, belly empty of babies for now but shaped by pregnancy and birth, with my hand to my ear, listening intently to the Great Below as I enter a period of great change in my life.  But I hope it’s an image which may speak to others, too.  Thanks to my husband Matt who is a professional photographer and copied the sculpture for me!

Postcards

A fellow Birthing From Within Mentor created a postcard exchange for Mentors this winter and spring.  I've agreed to create and send 12 postcards to fellow Mentors and should receive about that many in return as well.  I thought I'd post them here so everyone can see all of them.

Here's my first:

 And here's what I said about it:

This image contains photos of 7 generations of women in my family, the last 5 of whom were only daughters.  Around them I have drawn a tree of life with roots in the earth stretching into the sky, with a moon and stars.  Over it all is a strand of DNA.  “Tara” is the name given by one researcher to the woman my/our mitochondrial, matrilineal DNA comes from.  Of the women in these pictures, my mother (far right in the color photo, baby in the middle photo) is the only one who was born in a hospital, while my grandmother (middle of color photo, left in middle photo, baby in top photo) is the only one who did not give birth at home. . . . Somewhere in BFW, Pam talks about learning our family histories around birth.  I’ve always wanted to find processes for doing this more intentionally with my students.