A Strong Woman….

I haven’t worked in my art journal for a very long time.  But my paints and papers have been pulling at me, and  to prime the pump, I pulled a prompt from  the Spirit Lifters room at the Cafe.    I chose item #1, “Reread passages of books and single poems that have moved you.”

I got out my screaming paints and papers and a copy of Marge Piercy poems and set out to work on my journal, pondering the words of one of  my favorite poem, For Strong Women.

I began rolling the words over in my mind and let them soak in.  See, my life has been filled with a series of toxic people and sometimes I feel so worn out with dealing with them.  But then I settled upon a line from the poem: “A strong woman is a woman bleeding inside.”    A strong woman is a woman bleeding inside.    This line resonated over and over in my heart.  After an hour of slapping on gesso, paints, papers and prints, this imaged emerged in my journal.

A woman with a bleeding heart reclines in a forest under a inky dark sky.  But she feels strong.  She knows that whatever is heaped upon her comes from scared, weak people who fear her inner strength.  The more they abuse her, the stronger she gets.   They cannot win.

PostScript:   I just recreated this image in a digital version.  To see it, visit Into the Blue.

L. Gloyd (c) 2010