Art Stories

December 8, 2007 in Uncategorized

In some cases, the essays chosen at random for artists participating in the 37days Challenge Card project were the right essays, the very one they needed. Such was the case for Jan Stovall:

"I was randomly assigned your Red Convertible essay, and I figured it was a sign. My husband, who died at age 42 from colon cancer, was an illustrator by profession and a professed car fanatic. He loved admiring cars, driving them, and he also loved drawing them. So I dug up some of his old illustrations and found an image of a red car, then cut off the hard top to convert it into–you guessed it–a convertible. I know he would approve."

"Better yet, he’d be proud of me for actually following through with the collage. He used to encourage me to follow my passion for art, but it wasn’t until this past year that I actually started calling myself an artist."

"Working on this particular collage for this particular essay was incredibly cathartic for me. It was in some ways a tribute to Peter, and of course a reminder for me to live in the present and enjoy every single day. Life is short! And by the way, I’m originally from Sylva, NC – a small town west of Asheville, so I had to include the NC map as the substrate for my art. It just felt right. Those mountains are a part of who I am, and although I left them years ago, I still yearn for the peace they provide my soul."

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

2 comments to " Art Stories "


Rick

December 8, 2007 AT 7:25PM

Thanks for sharing the stories, Patti–that “drawing assignments out of a hat” idea sure worked well.

Marilyn

December 10, 2007 AT 8:12AM

WOW. I think you’d better stick another hat atop that big pile already on your head. Something tells me that this process you’ve gone through with this book…the process of involving others and seeing it ripple outwards…is somehow going to seep into your ‘real’ work. It’s all REAL work, of course…I just mean that it seems to me that we could be watching a transformation process that could transform the transformation work you already do. :)