I am sharing a painting that my son gave to his nephew on his first birthday, the first grandchild in the family, nearly ten years ago. This seemed an appropriate piece to share on Mother’s Day. It carries the theme of my grandmother’s baby quilt, Noah’s Ark, that I featured on an earlier post. Since this same quilt hung over this grown man’s crib, I am inclined to feel the trend for memory and its sentiments continue.
I think this is a good day to begin a weekly ritual. Honoring women and their accomplishments, struggles, and stories seems like a positive way to begin each week, so on Sundays I hope to feature an inspiring story on a particular woman. On this day I want to leave with a few quotes on the artist Judy Chicago for whom I named my first quilt.
“[My father] taught me critical thinking, which is essential to being able to stand up to the world. Without it, I don’t think it’s possible to have courage, because courage comes from believing in yourself, no matter what the world says.”
“I was taught that working to make the world a better place was what life was all about, and that material possessions were insignificant.”
“For a brief time, I experienced a kind of terror about my creative urges, frightened by how strong they were. I struggled with the fact that, by expressing my full power, I thought I was doing something terribly wrong.”
From Women of Courage by Katherine Martin
Lovely painting and wonderful reason for painting it.
And I look forward to posts on courageous woman. We need to see that it is possible for every woman to stand in the sunlight.
I like the image of a woman standing in the sunlight, whether imaginary or real. I hope I do justice to the idea. There are so many wonderful role models, some unknown, some in our neighborhoods!
What a sweet painting! I like the quotes you’ve shared too. Good things to think about has I start my day. (It’s the bus this morning-lots of rain again!)
We are due to have more rain here too. Quotes sometimes wrap a mood around a day and give it substance.
Artistic talent runs in your family the painting is beautiful. I love the idea of Sundays with empowering women. I think it is so inspirational to see women succeed(especially those who have succeeded in areas we’d like to succeed in ourselves). Make sure you put yourself on one of those Sundays too!
Debra Ann,
I think that there are so many women in history that were talented, brilliant, artistic, and full of dreams that never had a chance to find a significant place in history as those men of equal worth. I think it would be fun to do an archeological dig and discover what we lost along the way. If you unearth some of them, let me know!