Tuesday 28 June 2011

FIERCE TIGER ...

This page started with me messing about with Distress Inks - then splashing water on the page which gives a lovely effect. It works best if you let the inks dry thoroughly first. I found this tiger lady among my stash of Artchix collage images and it reminded me how fierce I can get if anything hurts or threatens my daughters (and one of them was very poorly recently). The thing about motherhood which most amazed me was how much I wanted to protect them - from anything or anyone, especially when they were little. I used to tell them that I would fight tigers for them - this being significant because in childhood I used to have a recurring nightmare about an escaped tiger coming to get me. So tigers are the scary monster for me, but I knew I could be (uncharacteristically) brave in the defence of my children.
So I started to journal about that - then for some reason (it must have made sense at the time) this lady's stripy swimsuit seemed a bit tigerish too, and anyway she's shaped like me, so in she went!
And of course (you know me) I have to fill the pages up with all sorts of doodles or little extra comments - I even added my tiger claws at the bottom of the page.

For a while I thought that, as the girls grew older (and could fight their own battles) this sense of fierce protectiveness had faded. I was wrong. When one young man broke my girl's heart - well let's just say that if he'd come round here I'd have torn him limb from limb. That same daughter is 30 plus now, and the others in their late twenties, but just let anybody make them cry and WATCH OUT for tiger mummy!!

3 comments:

Diane said...

Great journal page, and yes, we are very protective of our children, no matter what the age. Love that background too!

alexa said...

Wonderful how an image of something with the potential to frighten us, can be grabbed and co-opted by our psyche to fuel and energise part of us that needs it. A sharing of a great truth to inspire and give us courage too! Thank-you, Rosie. That is very meaningful for me today. :)

Ann said...

I've just stumbled upon this blog site and cannot believe my luck! Rosie, thank you for sharing your thoughts, emotions and art with us - we are truly blessed to know you (albeit within a pc). I'm from South Africa and we are starved of arty stuff and have to look to overseas artists for inspiration and arty/crafty bits and pieces. Hope you're doing okay, kind regards, Ann