I sold my first commissioned painting yesterday in my new vocation of artist! So excited! This past summer, in the midst of my mother's slow dying, I had attended a workshop called "Called & Gifted" at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. Not only did they discuss one of my favorite topics, the apostolate of the laity, but they helped participants to identify their charisms, gifts from God to use in the building of a better world. Following the workshop, we met with a one-on-one advisor and then met in small group sharing three times over the summer. The purpose of these gatherings was to evaluate whether the gift was a true charism or a natural talent. True charisms bring great joy and are given freely to the community of the faithful. My two identified charisms are pastoring and knowledge (they are a whole topic for another blog). BUT, I also prayed that if I had an unknown charism it would also be revealed. Also occurring this past summer, I led my book club in a discussion of the book, Women Who Run with the Wolves. One of the images so captured my imagination that finally I had to run out and get some acrylic paints to attempt to paint what was spilling out of my head. Using one of my daughter's unfinished canvasses (apologies to her but I wasn't quite sure if I could even do what I was attempting and I didn't want to spend money on an expensive canvas), I began painting. Meanwhile, my grandson lay sprawled underneath me, playing with his DS as we discussed color in the different aspects of the painting. By the time of the 101st anniversary of my dad's birth (9/19/1909), I had painted six canvases with variations on theme around the same subject. So much fun!
Not only did God give me a gift of being able to paint on canvas but it seemed God was saying it was okay to be joyful in the midst of Mom's dying. When I fed her on September 17th, I shared all this and the slavic folk tale that had inspired me. Despite her dementia, she was engaged in my tale, perhaps because the story is also one of Polish heritage and she might have heard it from her storytelling father when she was a child. It was to be the last time that she ate her entire meal--her last supper, as she died ten days later.
I brought the paintings to a course I created and was leading at my parish called "Interior Life and Interior Design." One of my lady friends commissioned me to do a painting for her based on my 6th painting and one of the themes she loved. Its theme is grandparent love. Here is the painting I did for her---"The Sweet Spot #2"---
As Nicholas Sparks writes in The Notebook, a novel dealing with Alzheimer's, "Love, in these last and tender hours is sensitive and very pure" (212).
How perfect is God's timing!--Nonna's knowings
