“When my daughter was about seven, she asked me what I did at work. I told her that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, “You mean they forget?” ~Howard Ikemoto
You don’t forget how to sneeze or to sing – these are things we are born knowing.
You haven’t forgotten how to draw.
Until tomorrow.
Jenna
Day 216 was created in graphite, acrylic, and watercolor.
Many thanks to Julia Forsyth for the quote she posted today on her facebook page – wonderful inspiration!
Today is the biggest shopping day of the year! I’m not big on waiting in lines and fighting crowds so I stayed home today but I love the Holidays. I love the decorations, the lights, the parties and the food. I love to wrap up the presents and change out the colors I use each year – it’s always a struggle to decide on white or colored lights for the christmas tree. I think I’m going with white this year and a big, huge tree! I can’t wait to create all the Holiday and Christmas themed Art Apples – stay tuned!
Until tomorrow.
Jenna
Day 57 was created with Tria Prismacolor Letraset markers and pen & ink on Bristol paper.
I am truly thankful for having such a wonderful husband! Doug has been cooking up our dishes we’re taking to his Dad’s house shortly while I make my Art Apple – that’s love!
My parents took us to the Macy’s Day Parade one year. There are three things I clearly remember. 1.) My Dad lifting us up to get on top of a door overhang on so that we could see better (not so sure that would happen these days.) 2.) It was bitter cold. 3.) CHiP’s was huge that year (now I’m really dating myself) and my Mom and I loved Ponch and he was in the parade. He was on the other side of the road when he came by and I remember my Mom yelling out “Ponch!” and he looked up with that amazing smile and looked right at her – well we think so anyway. I will never forget that day.
I have Ankylosing Spondylitis. That is extremely difficult to say and proclaim to the world. I have spent the better part of the last ten years hiding this part of who I am. I don’t think I’m alone or unlike so many people dealing with any of these similar inflammatory autoimmune diseases (Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Juvenile RA, and AS to name a few.) Before my diagnosis especially, all of my energy went into either finding an answer for the pain or doing what I could to get by.
My life became fight or flight and I didn’t have the energy or ability to do either! So, I survived by wearing a suit of camouflage and took on the stance of hunker down and hope no one noticed that I had stopped going to parties or hiking or skiing. Shoot, I cringed at the idea of becoming vertical let alone going to sit on rock hard bleachers for a game or figure out how to stand at a cocktail party (heels – hah!) The idea of making small talk when the pain medication I needed to be there made me either fuzzy or overly bubbly. I thought I had found a somewhat plausible story to tell people as to why I stopped working and the fun, crazy Jenna was just someone I outgrew. Sounds legit – get married and become boring… I became sooooo boring.
I think that the stigma is a big part of why others may hide also. Chronic pain is viewed like a modern day leprosy (my sincere apologies to anyone suffering with leprosy or Hansen’s disease – talk about a misunderstood illness and social stigma!) And that’s just it – there is a social stigma that will only diminish as more people discuss and share their lives and experiences. People who have a spotlight to actually speak firsthand about these illnesses have built their whole lives around a Hollywood façade – who’d want to hire them to be glamorous and adventurous in the movies if they actually told the story of their daily lives? I’m taking off the Camo and maybe little by little in conjunction with all the bloggers out there, like Kelly at RA Warrior who asked people to blog today about this topic, we can slowly one step at a time make a difference.
Until tomorrow.
Jenna
Day 54 was created with pen & ink with watercolor.
I have been emailing and becoming friends with a lot of new people I’ve met since I started making my Art Apples on October 1st.
Christine sends me great apple ideas and today I received an email from her after she saw yesterday’s post saying that she was going to suggest an Appletini but it looked like I had beat her to it. It was Tee-ney! So I thought I’d go with the thought. I’ve got some great apple ideas for the next few days – sign up via email or RSS to get notice of everyday’s new apple! Tomorrow is Day Fifty!!!
Until tomorrow.
Jenna
Day 49 was created with pen, ink and watercolor.
One Appletini, two appletini, three appletine, FLOOR!
I need my post it notes! What did we do before we had these simple little pieces of paper?
Blackberries, Androids, iPhones – phaaa. They are wonderful and I am addicted to my Droid but paper and pen will never… ever… go away. Please no. You cannot replace what you can touch and feel with bits and bytes. The way the hand creates a line isn’t about algorithms or vectors or hex codes.
I saw a post today that showed their list of outdated art supplies, many of which I use everyday. I could make all my art in Photoshop but where is the human-ness and spontaneity in that? I’m staying with pen and paper and – post it’s!!!
Don’t you think that life often puts things in front of you precisely when you need them the most.
I subscribe to a Newsletter from a really cool website called Brain Pickings and today it arrived with a TED video talk that completely captivated me. A woman by the name of Brene Brown speaks and writes about the concept of wholeheartedness. Her belief is that to live life whole – heartedly you must be not only authentic but also vulnerable. That is the tricky part – opening yourself up to life and exposing yourself. This has been something that I’ve struggled with. I’ve spent most of the last 8 years hiding this horrible disease from co-workers, friends, and even some family. I didn’t want to be treated differently, doubted, or ridiculed. I somehow felt that having AS made me less of a person and that I had personally failed.
I’ve come a long way in the past few years but announcing to the world that I have Ankylosing Spondylitis with this site was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. It took a long time to realize that it is part of what makes me who I am and to not be ashamed of it. Now my challenge is to continually push myself to tell more about my journey – to live life sharing not only my art but myself.
Some days it feels like a dark cloud follows you around. If that cloud could just be Whinny( oops! Winnie) the Pooh! Guess that’s what I get for whining 🙂
I was due for my Remicade infusion today but just found out that it will be at least another month for them to get the approval of the new insurance. So… just a bit down. I promise a cute, upbeat image for you all tomorrow.