Art Therapy Symposium Piece

I created this piece at the Art Therapy Symposium at Mt Mary College (to be University) in Milwaukee. 

It was part of a workshop that addressed recycling and rethinking old works of art we had created.  My original (old) piece was encaustic painting created about 10 years ago when thinking of moving back to Wisconsin from Tennessee.  The figure in the image is my "other" self, the one I'd left back in WI, contemplating a frozen Lake Michigan, looking across to the "me" in TN.  I think the underlying tone was a sense of loneliness or otherness in both places,and ultimately, inside of me, wherever I was.

For the new piece I used water soluble oil pastel on paper.  This was my first time using the pastels, and I really loved them.  Being a mommy and working full time makes it hard to carve out time for making art at all.  Finding media that "works" for me but is also easier to store, set-up, clean-up than oil paint is a goal for me right now.  I loved working with these pastels, but would want to use sturdier paper such as watercolor paper.

As I created the new piece, I wanted to include both "self"s and unite them with swirling lines which represented my spirit.  I also surrounded the lone figures with glowing auras representing spirit or passion.  As I worked, the focus of my current life, my spiritual seeking, began to take over the piece.  The flowing lines became the roots of the lotus plant, vital and powerful in the frozen lake, and blooming on the surface, the lotus blossom, or the reward for all of my searching.  I realized that I did not feel alone anymore, and surrounded the present self with numerous other selves.  The blossom became a symbol for my son, my ultimate reward, which in turn became a symbol for Motherhood.  The "self"s blended into the background, and the journey and the status of Mother, loving, nurturing, caring, became the focal point.  I think this piece represents above all, the treasure of my heart that is getting to be a mother to my son, the joy I experience in my current spiritual seeking, and the peace I am beginning to find within a service minded attitude.