JBird Can Fly

I decided to do a slightly different approach today for my image.

This is a self portrait that I did when I was a sophomore in college. The medium I chose was charcoal and gouache paint. I did more gouache painting back in high school, and really enjoyed doing very fine detailed paintings. Charcoal, I was learning at the time which is a messy, "color" and erase medium, just fun! I don't want to explain my reasoning behind it, so that you may have your own interpretation. (If you do wish to know, leave a comment and I will write about it in my next post.)

Even though years have passed since this piece, it still has the same basic meaning to me. Just different place in my life, which I think is kind of cool. Guess it was a good self portrait then huh?

I've been reading this book - Secrets of the White Buffalo. The book is about Native American healing remedies, rites and rituals. I read something last night that made a lot of sense to me. The Aduha Ceremony. "This is a ceremony for giving away possessions of a loved one who has recently died" Now your thinking, well everyone does this. It's done very differently here. It starts the same where family and friends gather everything and decide who could use what. This takes about a year. The "ceremony has important psychological benefits for the person in mourning, as gathering items occupies the person's mind, and gives the individual something to do." Here's where the difference is, and I wish more knew about it, and practiced it. On the day of giving away of items, family and friends all gather. As one item is given away that person will recall a memory about that item. The ones in mourning hears all these stories and is able to keep the happy memories alive.

I think this helps a lot with the mourning process. Death shouldn't be one of those things we just don't talk about. It's nice to hear the shared memories. If the loved one meant that much to you, you should talk about them, share your memories. By doing so you keep them alive in your heart. Which directly makes the heart hurt less. So, what's your fondest memory?


To keep with my pattern, I'm not doing a smiley. This is my baby, my pride and joy that I designed, modeled, and animated. You can see him in action on my portfolio site which is linked on the side. If you need more info on him again leave a comment and I'll talk about him in my next post.