Worlds within worlds

Today, I felt inspired to put oil pastels to paper.  I rarely play with this particular medium, but today, this was the medium of choice and the above drawing is what came about as I chose colour to work with.  I did not care for the specific image as much as for the act of putting oil pastel to paper and experiencing the medium as it squished into the course paper to create the image you see now.

The flowers manifested first, then the tree, then the roots.  I may have been trying to ground myself emotionally as I was drawing on the paper.

Unexpectedly, a door to another world, a world within a world appeared within the tree.  I was reminded of a game I used to play under a big tree in the school playground, where I pretended that the door would open up and fairies would take me away into their exciting place of joy and wonder.  I remember the big old tree had a cut off root that looked like a doorway, similar to my drawing and I wanted, more than anything to play with the fairies that I imagined lived in the dark depths of the tree.

I played marbles under that tree and imagined myself with invisible friends who could move between my world and the realm of the fae.  I loved my fairy friends and there is a small child within me still that craves to write a story about them, to live an adventure with them as I once did as a child.

Playing with the nature spirits was a form of wonderful adventure and escapism for me as a child.  My parents and grandparents had to drag me away from my invisible friends on many occasions as time meant nothing to me when we played together, just as it means nothing to me when I draw and paint.

In essence, I merge into a world within a world for the time that I am creating.  I love that very much.

I am so grateful for those times of play and for nature saving my sanity as I grew up in a world of uncertainty…