"Grandma Marty, you're not growing any more," he said.
I replied with the usual evidence of grown-ups growing one gives to a five-year-old. Fingernails, toenails, and hair.
He thought. "But your hair isn't really growing because it's curly," he asserted.
I'm sure there's some logic there, but I'm equally sure that my hairdresser (the person responsible for the curls) and I do not share that logic.
I may have missed a teachable moment here, but I decided against a discussion of neuroplasticity in older adults.
He got me thinking, and so my April Bead Journal is "Choosing to Grow."
Technical Details:
I used Lacy's Stiff Stuff as the foundation, sprayed with green and yellow Memories Mist.
The beads are 11/0s, 8/0s, 6/0s, cubes, bugles, triangles, and a few special shapes. All the beads are green. The ones that look silver are a greenish silver.
The backstitch again dominates.
The page is 2.75 inches by 2.75 inches.
I used taupe C-lon thread.
What I Was Thinking:
With "Choosing to Grow," I focused on how we can choose to grow in our responses to difficult situations. For me, the difficult situation is the Scary Medical Tests. This year they were scheduled for late April. (Note: I passed the tests.) As I worked on this page, I repeated to myself, "I'm choosing to grow." My idea was to train my mind, change my brain and transform myself, as stated on the cover of Sharon Begley's book. Did my strategy work? Sort of. I made it through the time before the tests, the tests, and the waiting for the results without turning into a mass of quivering gelatin dessert. OK, so I may have been gelatin dessert, but at least I didn't quiver! I'll keep trying the "I'm choosing to grow" mantra. This page is a partner with "Not Quite Pink."
I selected a new green color to represent new growth. The vertical columns of beads are growing from the horizontal foundation. While they look like new plants growing, they are intended to represent personal growth.
Issues that Came Up:
I still like Nymo better than C-lon, but I wanted to use up the C-lon I had. Of course, all the time I was using it I was wondering why I didn't at least buy some in chartreuse.
The first background for the vertical columns didn't work at all. It offended my artistic sensibilities, such as they are. So I ripped it out yesterday. That was April 30. The plain background worked for this page, but it isn't my favorite technique.
This is the most representational page I have made, except for maybe the September page. I prefer making more abstract pages.
Now on to May. I'm thinking flowers. Oops! That's representational.
8 comments:
Very nice! The waviness of the vertical columns is a wonderful picture of personal growth - it's never a straight easy line!
Oh, I DO like this one a lot! (yep, anything green for me, trips my trigger)... I love how you explain your work. Makes me think. Choosing to grow rather than be a mass of quivering gelatin is always a more pleasant sight and experience. Here's the meaning of green, which you pretty much expressed here!
--How the color green effects us physically and mentally
* Soothing
* Relaxing mentally as well as physically
* Helps alleviate depression, nervousness and anxiety
* Offers a sense of renewal, self-control and harmony
Choosing to grow. It's something only adults really think about in that way. Kids just grow. Teens think they have done their growing. Then we get older and realize we might be stagnating or going on day by day in the same rut. And we don't get to decide once to keep growing; we have to decide over and over again. Great page. I like how it is all green.
Marty, the green, of course, is a perfect symbol of growth. Your thought in creating the page is an affirmation to your desire to be strong in dealing with difficult situations. Your page shows that well.
Glad your tests are all good. Congratulations on facing them head on and having them done. Not so easy to do, for sure.
Oh man... I LOVE the colors! And the texture makes me want to touch it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation with your grandson, amazing how the little ones can really get us to thinking.
Nice piece Marty.
I love this one and great minds thing alike. You'll know why as soon as I take a pic of my April BJP. On to May, but no orange for me. Hee, hee, hee....
Think I'll take on your mantra for this month... To remind me, I've printed the enlarged version of your piece and have it hanging by my computer where I'll see it every day. Your passed-up discussion of neuroplasticity in older adults cracks me up! LOL!
Beautiful expression of "Choosing to Grow!"
Robin A.
Interesting piece.
Yesterday I was complaining of body discomfort and my Indian friend made me roar out of laughing by saying "don't worry, you're growing up"... :o)
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