Art and Inspiration

One of the bloggers I follow is Val Erde at Arty Old Bird.  Val is a very talented artist and generously allows us to use her art in our posts.

In a recent post Val asked Are You a Fan of Anything? and this was the piece of artwork that accompanied the question:

Val saw this image as a fan obviously, but I saw it as a woman running  towards her future.  But on looking at it again and in further detail I see a woman swimming towards her destiny.  There are red, wild and dangerous waters behind her but mostly clear blue seas ahead.  What do you see in this painting?  I would love to hear from you and do go over and read the post from Val and all the comments.  Very illuminating.

Almost a year ago Val set us a challenge in one of her posts – “It can be drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, knitting, crochet, animation, digital artwork, poetry, dialogue, short story, anything creative that you like, really!”  To accompany the challenge and to act as inspiration she gave us this painting :

Picture challenge by Val Erde

Val has now changed her blog and the original post is no longer available for me to give you the link.

I immediately saw a woman evolving and becoming and as I said at the time, I don’t paint, sculpt, knit, crochet or do any of the other things suggested by Val so  I wrote a poem having been reminded of one of my all time favourite poems Becoming the Woman I Wanted by Jayne Relaford Brown. 

While my poem in no way compares in the writing style of this poet, I was quite pleased with this my first attempt at writing poetry.  And in an unabashed show of self promotion, I am republishing it here.

This Woman I am Becoming

Memories flowing through me
Making me who I am
Warm thoughts to banish cold nights
And sunshine to dry the tears.

This woman I am becoming
Is learning patience
Learning grace
And learning that love is enough.

I am enjoying this woman I am becoming
She knows where she is going
And where she belongs
She has her place in the world.

So thank you Val for the inspiration and the use of your fabulous artwork.  I hope that I have followed the rules for using these pieces.  If you want to reproduce any of Val’s images please go to http://artyoldbird.com/using-my-images  to see the conditions for doing so.

Related Posts aka More Blatant Self Promotion

• Finding Her Here
• This Woman I am Becoming
• I am Becoming the Woman I’ve Wanted