Like everyone in the country I was devastated when I read and watched the events unfold at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT. Just devastated not only for the parents of the children who were killed, but for the autism community as well after the media reported the killer as having asperger syndrome, a form of autism.
As we were driving to my Mom's home for a Christmas celebration the day after the shootings I couldn't help but try to alleviate the anxiety I felt within my heart by using my creativity as my therapy ...so I started to sketch...
My heart just ached for the families that lost a loved one...for the autism community...for my son who was diagnosed with autism at age three. I just felt that we all needed some kind of Hope...something we could hold on to and to try to release the pain.
I decided to use my Dr. Ph. Martin's India Ink set as the paint because of the bright, bold colors they had to offer. The inks are very similar to watercolors so they are very easy to work with...
I didn't have a plan on what I wanted the piece to look like with the inks. That is what is so amazing and therapeutic about art...just let yourself go and whatever comes to your mind, paint, get it down on your canvas...
Colorful, cool greens and blues in the stem and leaves...
Finally I used aquamarine blue and violet in the background to help the flower really pop and to give the piece a more soothing feeling.
I went back over the black outline of the initial sketch with more dark outlines and I wanted to highlight more areas of the flower to add depth (Wite out pens work really well for this!)
While a simple piece of art cannot take away the heartache, the pain, the fear of that day - it did help me sort through the different emotions I was experiencing.
We cannot change the events of that day - the one quote I remember reading that day was one from (of all people) Mr. Rogers. His mother used to tell him not to focus not the bad things that were on TV but to focus on the people that were helping and how people come together so quickly in a crisis situation. So true...so very, very true.
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