Art Journal: Celebrate Life & Mourn the Dead

There seems to be a tendency these days to acquire accolades without putting in the hard work. We start this at school level already, when we give kids medals and trophies for simply participating, instead of motivating them to put in the discipline and to practice so that they can attain an award on merit. We do the same thing when we loose someone. Nowadays, we get invited to Life Celebrations, instead of a gathering of friends and family at the church after a funeral or cremation. It is as if we wish to skip the stages of grief and head right on to happiness, in the process neglecting to acknowledge our own feelings, or those of others. I contemplate this in today's art journal blog.

I start today's project with a white charcoal pencil on black paper.

I draw the rough outlines of some poppies.

I use red soft pastel to colour the poppies.

I then add shadows with a black pastel.

Highlights are added with a white pastel.

I spray fixative over the drawing to prevent it from smudging.

I then use a white poly chromos pencil to write the journalling. It reads as follows: "Celebrate life, but mourn the lost. More and more often these days, I am confronted by people arranging celebration parties after funerals. In essence I have no problem celebrating the life of the deceased., but I do have to wonder if it isn't an attempt to avoid dealing with the deep pain and loss that the passing of the deceased have left. It is skipping past all the stages of grief in complete denial of everyone's emotions. Why? Stop! Take time to grieve. More importantly, allow a space and time for others to acknowledge their own emotions. There will be time enough for fond memories."

The completed layout in the art journal.

You can watch a short compilation video of the steps above on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/yUZ3Tm_DRlo

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy my books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.
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