Art therapy - share your work here

[Changing4Best]

SICK

When little critters
take over my brain,
as well as my nose
they really raise Cain.

I think I am going
a bit out of my mind;
these little buggers
sure ain't kind!

Add this to my usual
brand of craziness;
all I can say is that
my life became a mess.

sk

 

[Deleted member 33052]

So, I've decided to use this thread for an entirely different sort of therapy: accepting failure. I have been playing around with carving and having some fun with it, but I am a perfectionist. I'm getting the hang of imperfection but more often than not, I will ruin a piece because I can't stop tweaking (don't know an artistic term) it.

One of my Chinese students loved my dog so I was carving a little wooden dog for her. I suspect that if I'd stopped early on, it would have been a decent job, but I kept at it and at it, trying to get the head right. Well, you can only shave and sand so much, right? I ended up with a pinhead dog fail!

I was really upset with myself a few days ago, but now I'm finding it kind of funny. Here's a photo of my pinhead dog. I hope it gives the true artists among us a smile. I am NOT posting this so they everyone will tell me what a great first try it was. I really do want to share my errors.

 

[Deleted member 33052]

Ok, bad photo. Its head almost looks normal...

 

[Deleted member 41765]

Ok, bad photo. Its head almost looks normal...

I'm sorry, but the photo makes him look super cute.

 

[Deleted member 33052]

Haha, his head was reduced to about half its proper size!

I'm gonna try again. If I can get the head right, at least, I could always turn him into a Frankenpuppy!

 

[Tornadic Thoughts]

No worries. Remember back in the day when dogs that would cross breed and looked funny were called mutts and cast aside, but now, they're referred to as designer dogs and are all the rage? lol Thanks for sharing your work. Create your own breed called the love breed and carve on. :)

 

[Crow]

Thanks for this thread.

This was my first attempt at expressing my little one's pain



And this is the same child five years later after I had done some trauma therapy

 

[Deleted member 33052]

Thanks for this thread.

This was my first attempt at expressing my little one's pain

View attachment 4745

Wow, that's intense! You've come a very long way, CrowFeather! It's so hard to imagine someone with that level of turmoil ever reaching that peaceful place. :)

 

[Deleted member 33052]

No worries. Remember back in the day when dogs that would cross breed and looked funny were...

I still get pissed off when I see someone charging a thousand dollars for a *crossbreed*.

 

[Crow]

It's so hard to imagine someone with that level of turmoil ever reaching that peaceful place

It's definitely not constant but the intensity of the bad stuff is so much less. Thanks

 

[Deleted member 41765]

And this is the same child five years later after I had done some trauma therapy

Inspiring!

 

[Deleted member 41765]

I wrote this poem decades ago and was reminded of it in a letter. It was a friend's favorite, in fact I believe she is the only one who's seen it, so I've dedicated it to her. I've misplaced the self that wrote this. Perhaps posting here will call her back...

witches: ocean beach, california
for Tricia McCauley

four rocks, teeth
and eagle claw and bean pendant
plant leaves to boil tea
jasmine, echinacea

How do you enter?

(remember when we played
light as a feather stiff as a board
at thirteen
repeating words
until one of us levitated

even then
we knew about blue shadow
& the absence of mirrors
how to use black hair dye
as a charm against pregnancy
& how to unlock liquor cabinets

we knew how to darken doorways
with the force of our laughter
& how to call the four corners
of fish butterfly bird snake)

a small leather purse
has passed down to each
like a promise ring

(mother water sister tree
the ground and sky have been scratching)

tonight
we offer these glasses of gin
we invoke thee

out of sleep