Today’s theme for World Childless Week is “Childlessness and the arts”. I am always fascinated to see the way in which people can express trauma and work through their emotional pain using art. It is something that I am in awe of as I am completely artistically challenged when looking at being artistic in the usual sense of the word.
Yes, I can paint a picture with a thousand words, which is a talent that I am eternally grateful for.
I can also make curtains and am good at dressing a room. Talking about dressing, I know my way around a dressmaking pattern too. By the time I was six I was helping my mother make my clothes. Fast forward to when I was 12 years old, I was making my own clothes without her help. By, clothes I do mean PROPER CLOTHES. I think I was doing this a few years earlier: however, an incident when I was 12 stands out in my memory.
I had gone up to “big school” and missed my first needlework lesson of the year. The second lesson my teacher came to check that I had completed by homework, which was to buy a pattern and the necessary materials for the items I was going to make that term. Unlike my classmates who were sticking to simple things like T-shirts or aprons I picked something that would be useful and challenging.
My teacher was NOT impressed when I showed her the pattern for tailored trousers and the yards of grey corduroy, I had begged my mother to buy.
“You. Stupid. Girl! Why on earth did you mother waste so much money?”
Not daunted in the slightest I replied:
“I don’t mean to be rude Miss, but do you like my skirt?”
“Yes it’s very nice Nicola, now please explain why you thought you could make these?” waving the pattern in my face.
“I asked about the skirt because I made this all by myself. My mother didn’t help me at all.”
The skirt was fully lined and was made from a woollen check. It had a proper waistband, button with buttonhole, zip and kick-pleat. There were three square buttons, set on the diagonal, as a design detail running from the waistband to the pleat.
So yes, I could/can dress-make which is creative if not artistic.
Yet give me a paintbrush and I become a quivering wreck. My heartbeat increases as the stress mounts. Even typing about it I can feel stress creeping into my body.
Which is a great shame because I frequently hear about people finding benefit from art therapy. It’s something that I’d like to explore and yet, being artistically challenge, the fear takes over and I do nothing about it.
Until now, that is. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone, ignoring the sweaty palms and the racing heart.
This year I am going to pick up a paintbrush and see what happens.
Good a buying art supplies
My cunning plan
Final preparations
I am PAINTING!
The Great Potato Print Experiment
The Unveiling
Are you ready to CANBACE?
Have you got to the stage of wanting to change your story?
Are you are feeling anxious about taking those first steps?
Would you like a gentle introduction to ease you into the process?
If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, then please check out Sunday’s blog when I will be sharing details about a new way to start moving forward with CANBACE.
If anything I have written resonates with you, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I appreciate that this can be a difficult subject to speak openly about. If you don’t want me to publish your comment on the website, simply include “NOT FOR PUBLICATION” in your comment and I will keep your words private.
In Canbace friendship
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