Posted 8-30-19
Hi all! Welcome back to the Digital Cornbread table this threshold day of the long Labor Day weekend! Be careful out there on the roads this weekend!
I am going to revisit one aspect of mom today that I have addressed before, but if you are to know her, you need this one: her creative/artistic nature and its influence on her family.
Mom is a true artist. I have mucho respect for people who study art or music or other avenues of creativity. Some just like these fields and want to learn more and/or perhaps get better at it while others are already artistic, but are looking for credentials/practice/experiences that help them on their artistic journey. Mom, to my knowledge, never took an art class after her school days (if she had one at her school?). She apparently took a little piano in the early- to mid-1950’s. Over all, though, mom was a self-taught artist. She did “crafts” (made super-cute birdhouses, country-craft things, etc…) and she painted a few times, but her main joys were piano and doodling, the second of which we will chat (mostly) about today. (Note: there are a lot of pieces about her piano time as well as several videos sprinkled throughout the blog).
Doodling is kind of like **whittling, only in reverse. Instead of chipping away the wood in small pieces to reveal the art underneath, mom would doodle away the white in small pieces to “reveal” the art. (Maybe that is just the definition of art anyway, but I digress) In doodling, each individual little doodled picture or shape isn’t, in an of itself, ultra spectacular, but they make up a whole and the finished work is what is amazing. But you know, come to think of it, the whole work is dependent on the seemingly “common” little things she would draw.
(Side note: this doodling example isn’t unlike the miracle of God’s providential plan. It is filled to the brim with 1,000,000,000,000 small/medium/large events and situations and good/bad things, yet every single thing that happens wouldn’t have happened unless our Sovereign God would have caused or at least allowed it to happen. Nothing has no significance. There are creatures/whole species all over the world that not one of the billions of humans have ever seen, but are loved by a mighty God for His own purposes. His plan is so big that the component parts…the flat tires, the sick days off work, the picnics, the hurricaned-out cruises, the turtle in the road that I dodged, the weddings and the funerals, the cowlick that will not smooth down before church, the cloud that is shaped (or Photoshopped to) like a bear and the patient with dementia…each of these parts fit like a perfectly-shaped puzzle to make up the doodle that we live in. Each and every event is important because we are important to our Creator, and He crafted us all. While everything that happens may alter our course, not all things that affect us are “about” us. The Creator…the Divine Artist and Author…and His big picture plan are what truly matters even when it may not always seem so to us, His beloved doodles.)
Sadly, I am not sure I have anything left that is readily accessible that she has drawn for me other than the little fella she drew while at the behavioral health hospital. There are pieces here and there, especially at her house, but most of her doodles are on and in books, on long discarded napkins, and on notes of encouragement/birthday cards. Here is the one from the hospital:
Despite the fact that the tangible archives of art and music that she has blessed us with for our whole lives is gone, the legacy of mom’s creative side is sprinkled throughout the family and could last hundreds of years. Here are a few examples (If I miss you, I am super sorry…):
- I write…a lot. I deeply appreciate music…although I am not talented in any way in producing it.
- My wife sings and is artistic and is super creative. (….and she is beautiful, but that is off topic…)
- My oldest child is a grade school music teacher and a clarinet ninja. She is also a gifted writer and has completed probably 5,000 pages of journalling in her childhood in her “Common Place Notebooks”.
- My middle just declared a major this week at Southwest Baptist University and chose Art. She also played flute and is a music buff. She was accepted with several substantial scholarships to an art college, but chose SBU. She is also a gifted writer/poet.
- My son is a senior at Bolivar High School and would like to become a vocal coach…and plays a mean clarinet. He knows more about vocal music than pretty much anyone I know, and is only 17. He is also a gifted writer and super creative.
- My sister is super creative and married a guitar/singing virtuoso
- My brother doodles and paints and draws and can carry a tune and his wife is also talented in those areas.
- On my brother’s side: his kids (mom’s grandkids) are all super creative. His oldest plays violin, builds amazing artistic tools like his own kiln and blows glass. His middle daughter was a skilled flute ninja. His youngest is a super creative wordsmith among many creative talents.
- On my sister’s side: Mom has a super artistic granddaughter who owns an online clothing and accessory business who married a now skilled guitarist
- Her grandson is a sax virtuoso and is very creative.
- Mom has two step-daughters from a previous marriage who are both super artistic and talented .
- There are others…and extended family…and neighbors…and friends…all of whom have been touched by mom’s creativity.
I certainly miss mom’s creativity in her current stage of the disease, but I can still see sparks of it most times I visit with her. She is creative in trying to make us smile and in her few words. It is truly part of who she is and will be featured extensively in heaven as an attribute given to her by her Creator for His glory. I can only imagine the quality of her drawings when she gets there. 🙂
Update: According to my stepdad, she had an outstanding day yesterday. She said more words than normal and was quite happy. I am torn as to whether to go today after work since I have been sick, but I am sure I got sick from one of her fellow residents anyway, so it would probably be no worse than anything else.
**Note: Whittling, according to one of my favorites blogs (The Art of Manliness) is a form of woodcarving. Read here for more about this unique activity.–