MEDITATIONS ON STRENGTH

“A Woman’s place”

The words in this series were inspired by Denice Frohman’s poem “A Woman’s Place”. The red marks are inspired by 1960’s housewifes. The black marks are inspired by the natural world…Mother nature that keeps surviving.

“tired of giving in”

The swirling tangled text is inspired by women who have used their voice. Rosa Parks said, “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

“Your laughter”

The words in this series are inspired by Pablo Neruda’s love poems. The shape of the tangled swirls is inspired by bones of animals. The highlighting was produced when technology tried to translate the text.

I’d love to hear your story, or a story you love, and help make a meditation for you.

Send me a note HERE so we can work together to create gratefulness and power for all.

If you’re interested in helping build stories with me, I’ll send you a small print in gratitude.

You just need let me know which print you want, where to send it, and the story you want to share.

I’ll make a work from your story and send you a digital pic.

If you want a painting or drawing, we can make that happen too!

Here is a video poem to share a bit more of my story.

It was made for a feminist themed conference on “Women, Freedom, Life”.

Below is an excerpt from the above video poem

A poem for my mother and my children

I am a 47-year-old white woman with privilege.

I grew up in an affluent suburb of an America city.

I have a sick mother.

A mother that is amazing and loves me.

She gave me her goodness, compassion, and strength.

I wonder if she is soul sick from being a mother from an affluent family from the 1950’s with expectations to be more than she could be.

I have a mother that raised me in the 1980’s and struggled to balance work and family.

I had an education that missed I was dyslexic which may have added to her struggle.

I am a mother of an 11-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son of an affluent family in an American suburb.

I have children that are dyslexic that are getting help to prove this is a strength not a weakness.

I wonder if things are changing for the better.

I could have been a sick mother for my children.

I have a new vision for my life.

I do NOT want to make work that is angry, frustrated, or that focuses on dissension.

I do NOT want to make work that puts more oppression, frustration, and antagonism into the world.

I have efficacy over my own life, and I get to choose what and how I say it.

I want to make work about being empathetic to one another.

I want to confront the anger that permeates our world by finding the laudable conversations to untangle from the painful.

I want to create work that encourages conversations with others about their conflicts.

I want to create work that fosters progress for equality and decency.

That is a lot of I being said.

I do not matter.

I want to know how we can talk about WE.

It feels like a tangle that must be considered carefully so the tenuous good threads don’t break in the conversations we can have together.

I hope through listening to others stories we might unravel our histories to work together for equal ground for all.

I want equality for my children and all their friends with different stories.

I hope, like dyslexia that is being untangled, that we can untangle one another’s stories to find strength for ALL of our futures.

This recent body of work is an attempt to collect feminist thinker's approaches to find a way to use my own voice to add to the challenging tangle that has been left for our future.

I want to help with small moments and thoughtful dialogues to create a better world than the one my mother grew up in.

I encourage others to shout even if I have decided to only whisper.

I hope all our voices can be heard if WE listen.

I am grateful for my vision, my life, the goodness that surrounds me, and for you.