Black & White

I am now all caught up with the Documented Life Project’s challenges.  This week’s prompt (and how are we 36 weeks into the year already?) was simply Black and White.  I appreciated that it was a completely open subject because it enabled me to take a more minimalist approach and catch up.  I also often work in monochrome so the challenge was well within my comfort zone.

Immersed as I am in Greek Mythology at the moment, due to my Drawing a Day challenge, I somehow landed on the idea of drawing Danae with baby Perseus, set adrift in a wooden chest by Acrisius.  I am fond of doodling and a doodle approach was perfect for this drawing because I could fill in a section or two and then put my pen down to go attend to something else and then return and doodle in a bit more.  I, therefore, have no idea how long the drawing took me as I was doing it in bursts of a couple of minutes throughout yesterday afternoon.  It is quite meditative to focus on creating pattern within shapes so I also had doses of decompression from the stress of dealing with boxes and finding new homes for stuff – such a lot of stuff – in our new house and struggling emotionally with a difficult anniversary.  Interestingly, when I showed it to my kids, the youngest two did not see it as being Danae but instead interpreted it was representing me and their baby brother who was stillborn six years ago today.  Perhaps sub-consciously that was what prompted me to pluck this subject matter from the ether.  Drawing can definitely be therapeutic.  My husband commented that he thinks this is the best of my Art Journal pages.  He even used the word “stunning”.  He’s biased, of course, but I will still take the praise.