Snapshots

Happy new year, everyone!

Here are a couple of pages that I've done in the last week or so, both speaking to the same subject but from slightly different angles.

The first one seemed to be calling out for an eye. I had no idea why, but put it there anyway. It seemed to be looking through a peephole. This made me think about how we see only snapshots of the lives of others, so I drew in the lines from the edge of the circle. What is seen in that small field of view is what others choose to show us. 'Everything in the garden is lovely' is a mask that many of us wear, but out of view things may be a lot messier and darker.

We do not see the whole picture, so extend grace and mercy when dealing with others.

Then this page because I was still thinking along the same lines. This started out with the laying down of a layer of gelli-prints on greaseproof paper. A little thinned acrylic was put on in some areas, and then the collaged diamonds.

I thought about how, sometimes, a person can seem to over-react to a situation, or something you say to them. The strong reaction can come completely out of the blue, taking us aback a little. You wonder what you said or did. (And sometimes find yourself over-reacting too. It's worth looking at the underpinning reason for that.)

Perhaps it's not you. Perhaps it is something in the other person's past that causes them pain and they are reacting to that past hurt, not what you said or did, necessarily. Again, you are seeing a snapshot that is out of context unless you know their journey up to this point. 

Things can't always be taken at face value.