Life is full of unexpected obstacles, and that of an artist is full of deep, uncharted waters, with uncertainty and faith at the helm, alongside normal everyday activities. How we handle these waters as they toss us about uncontrollably in the storms defines who we are as people.
Mornings for my family consist of waking up to cuddles with our Littles, singing the “Good Morning” song, giving the kitty his morning treats and going downstairs to have breakfast. Jaime usually reaches the treat jar on her own, and can bring it to me but on Monday, things were a little different in my room and catastrophe struck!
Currently, with small space to work with, my desk and studio setup is in the corner of my bedroom. At this particular moment in time my drafting chair and Allen’s gaming chair were stationed in front of my desk together, blocking the path to the treat jar.
Upon noticing this roadblock, I offered to Jaime that I would get the jar this time and she could still hand out Angel treats, and she agreed. I got up and began meandering around the chairs blocking the path when suddenly everything changed!
Allen watched the whole thing play out and swears, even when trying to use his trusty big math brain, the physics didn’t match what happened, and the outcome is still completely unexplainable and remains a mystery, even after reenacting the event.
When I reached for the treat jar, I accidentally BUMPED my desk, not very hard, but because the floor is not even in my room (our place was built in the ’70s and needs some TLC from its future owner) it was enough to somehow knock my light pad that I am working on a smaller project with, off the top shelf of my desk, corner first, straight down to the desk surface, where I have been working on my larger elephant project since March. The result was devastating.
After analyzing the events and actions play by play, reenacting the entire event in attempts to make sense of the result of the initial event, my aspiring mathematician husband and I were unable to explain logical physics to the end result, and believe there had to have been some supernatural force behind it.
My less than 2 lbs. A4 plexiglass and LED light pad somehow managed to fall a short (roughly) 2 ft., front (ROUNDED!!) corner down, onto the Elephant, with EXCESSIVE force, through the paper (yes, that’s right, THROUGH the paper), AND transferred a smidge of plexiglass (enough to give the table the illusion of being seriously scratched, GOUGED even, which was my initial impression and an entirely new wave of heartbreak hit me) to the glass surface of my table! WITHOUT DAMAGING THE LIGHT PAD! Not kidding, not a scratch on it and it works perfectly…
Guys, I cried.
Would have been totally fine if the light pad died and the art went unblemished.
Awesome review for those guys in the works.
My Jaime was upset for me. She made me giggle a little when her sweet little self said to her daddy after I left the room, “Oh no, Mama elephant hurt.” And that is when I got it together.
I came back into the room to truly assess the damages. Allen swiftly eased my mind about my table being scratched upon my reentering the room and picked the piece of plexiglass off the surface effortlessly. I looked over the light pad, plugged it in and tested it, and then turned my attention (painfully) to the Elephant. My heart broke all over again, but this time, I kept it together.
Oh, make no mistake, I sulked for the whole day over it, and even now I am still screaming the “HOW?!!”’s and the “WHY????!!!!”’s inside, but I have put way too much hard work and effort into this project to give up on it over a hole in a horrible place. So, while I sulked, I plotted and planned and thought things through on how I might handle the damage and I think I have a plan.
Now that I am done sulking, with a lot of love and encouragement from my Allen, I will be working toward finishing the piece and will be unveiling the final product in the upcoming weeks.
This piece is all pencil work with varying types of Derwent Professional Pencils and is a labor of love in which I am pushing my own boundaries and expanding my understanding of depth in my work… and is taking me what seems like forever to perfect… but what I am learning from it is the most exciting part!!!