The birth of my first child was the most life changing event I've ever gone through in my life. Labour is hard work, and if you let it, it's so beautiful it could make you cry just to think back upon it. When my water broke late at night this May, I took a deep breath and allowed the process to overtake me. 16 hours passed swiftly and before I knew it my exhausted body was completely naked for all the world to see and my son was being placed in my arms. He was covered in all manner of things that would normally make me pale, but all I wanted to do was kiss him, stare at him and hold him. He became, in that moment, the very perfect definition of love.
Here's a sneak peak at what I'm working on right now. It's a small painting that captures my husband and I moments after the birth of our son. It's a part of the Growing Up show this November. I feel that there have not been many things in my life that have cemented the feeling of being "all grown up" than having a baby. Labor was a beautiful, life changing event that still completely empowers and rejuvenates me when I stop to recall it.
When I was growing up I lived on a farm. In true rural teenage fashion, I got involved in 4-H and the halter breaking of young cattle (steers and heifers). This painting symbolizes how attached and comfortable I felt with the animals I was training. I may have done this on the rare occasion that I took my steers outside of their pen (where sitting on the grass may have been less frightening as there were less droppings present).
It's hard to believe that I've been a mom for 2 months now! I borrowed fellow illustrator mom Rachelle Anne Miller's idea and photographed Dexter each week of his life... it's been amazing to see him grow so quickly in photo's (I'll admit that I'm sorry now that I didn't bother changing up Rachelle's design more than the font choice - it seemed too difficult to make more of an effort than I put in when he was one week old - Shame on me!! I guess I never expected to have the time to blog about the photo's I was taking). Dexter is 9 weeks old now and every moment I grow more confident as a mom and we learn new things about each other every day.
On May 24th, 2009 I gave birth to my lovely son, Dexter Nolen Driedger. Birth was a profoundly spiritual and empowering experience and being a mother has taken me by surprise. I'm grateful for this experience and can hardly wait to paint and draw my memories of labour and early motherhood for my growing up show come this fall. Of course, I should probably try to catch a few zzz's before I crack open the sketch book. This parenting business is really lots of hard work! Thanks for checking in!
Finished another painting for this fall's Growing Up Show. This one depicts me taking my new kitten home from my parents farm. He later went on to cry the entire trip home.
And me, my piece on Tammy and Jr. ;)
