Art Therapy for a Re-Discovered Artist: 08/24/08

Artist/Teacher Institute
Playwrighting Workshop

Assignment II: After closing your eyes and scribbling for 7 seconds, circle an object in your scribble and write a script about it within a couple of minutes.

I AM a WAVEBIRD

I am a wavebird
Yes, that’s what I said thank you!
I am a bird that floats on the waves
…AND soars through the skies.
I have no limitations!
I am free and you cannot catch me.

Come from below, I’ll rise to the clouds.
Come from above, I can dive beneath the surface of the sea.
I repeat; YOU CANNOT CATCH ME! I AM FREE!

I bask in the sun.
I paddle with my partner for fun.
I don’t need a lighthouse.
I stay in the sunshine & let my own light shine.

THE END

Note: O.k. so I’ve written poetry in my past; never before tried to be a playwright – but I loved this activity & the resultant poem! :)

This painting was made in about 5 hours during my 1st 2 days at aTi. The teacher told us not to do anything else with our 1st painting after the 1st 2 days, much to my dismay. It was based on 3 photos: the beach, the trees, and a rainbow-filled sky.

Everyone in the class was really experienced except 2 of the 15 or so of us. They were all quite impressed that I used more than 1 photo as my painting inspiration.

I've always loved rainbows and beautiful blue skies, most of which I've only seen in my hometown in North Carolina. My mother named our family home down there "Rainbow's End" when she retired and moved into it and I wrote a piece called "Rainbow's End & Lynn" after my sister Lynn went on to her next life. Most of this painting subject was selected in memory of her, the only person I know who loved the beach and water as much as I always have and who also gained a special love of the Caribbean Sea as I had.

A week after her cancer diagnosis, the doctor gave her 5 months to live. She told him she wasn't going that soon, she had too many things to do, and began making plans for all the great vacations she'd always wanted to take. Now the only thing good about a physician giving you a deadline for the rest of your life is one's ability to get an advance on much of their life insurance if s/he says your time is up within 1 year. She used hers to fulfill some of my mother's lifelong dreams for a remodeled house and the rest went towards these trips and enough to bury her and my father--who she was running to see and bring to doctor's appointments after his own cancer diagnosis-- 3 months before hers...

On the 1st trip, she treated her 2 best friends, favorite cousin, and I to Jamaica with her. I left at about 4 a.m. to meet them there & nevermind the fact that I was running so late I was already afraid of missing my plane (as usual during these last several years), I actually had to return home once arriving at the airport & realizing I'd forgotten my i.d.!!! Lynn called me en route in the speeding cab & sheer terror from hearing her mouth prevented me from answering the phone. After finally getting the nerve to ditch the very long ticket line & running to the booth only to be told I was too late, I began tearing up as I told them I just had to get on that plane b/c I was going to Jamaica!!! One of the reservationists finally told me I'd better run & run I did--all the way to the gates! I was so out of shape & breath I almost collapsed as I arrived at the plane only to hear the intercom saying "Last call for passenger DeAnna Whitley..." It took off the moment I sat down! (The silver lining was that one of her best friends & I got a $400 travel voucher for giving up our seats on the connecting flight and arriving in Jamaica just a few hrs. later than planned).

Anyway, Lynn planned it so that we all arrived there on the exact date the doctor had "forecast" as her last. It was my 1st time seeing her since that July of 2005, a month and a half after her chemo treatments had begun and I wanted to cry at 1st glance when I saw how she had lost an even more tremendous amount of weight since July and the cancer was affecting her looks even more but that thought was quickly brushed aside once she saw me and flashed that big, bright, bubbly smile that she had and I saw the twinkle in her eyes from the sheer excitement of being there. I realized more than ever that we were there to celebrate her life and she wanted no signs of sadness. So instead, we all had a ball in Jamaica, the one foreign country she had ever visited and fallen in love with (This was her 4th and last trip there in a 2 year period)! You can see the fabulous time we had when clicking on the photos above to enlarge them.

I included 1 photo of Lynn & I in Ft. Lauderdale on a business trip through the only network marketing company I'd convinced her to join along with me. It was a total coincidence that we dressed alike on that day for the business conference! Later that night, we met another guest who had come to the hotel with friends on this yacht that was docked there and he invited us to join them on it for drinks and so we could share our business opportunity with them. I used to go to Battery Park City in NYC every summer after my sister Janet had introduced me to it--partially because of how much I enjoyed viewing the beautiful yachts docked there and dreaming about one day having my own through some business and financial planning...until the World Trade Center attacks. Needless to say, Lynn & I loved being on this yacht in Florida and we made a pledge to each other while on board that we would be there the next year on our own yacht through the building of our business together. That was in March 04'...

When this painting is done, it will be a collage of sorts, and a gift for all of us who went on this momentous vacation. I named it "The Deeper Blue Sea" because Lynn became hilariously obsessed with shark movies during her last few years (Jaws became her bedtime ritual movie--and she kept it on replay all night) and the last movie we watched completely together was "The Deep Blue Sea" before she passed on.

(By the way, had Lynn lived 1 more month, it would have been exactly one and a half years after her diagnosis. 20 more days and it would have been the one year anniversary of our trip to Jamaica. The morning before she died on Oct. 15th, she told our mother that if it weren't for the cancer, her last year would have been her best. She faced her death like the bravest hero in a lion's pit ever could and put her life in God's hands. If you'd like to know how, I'll be adding posts on that too for those of you who may want to pass on some of her moving philosophy to others in the same boat. Below is just a sample note found recently that she'd emailed us long with a great photo from our trip to Jamaice (that I've so far been unsucessful at copying and pasting or uploading here from shutterfly, the company she sent it through).

Pictures from Chante Whitley

It's amazing even though the doctors said I'd be gone by now...God
had/has other plans for me. Thank you all for all your prayers for I
truly believe that God has heard them and is working a wonderful
healing on me because of them!

So here I am in Jamaica celebrating life, with the four "baby-sitters"
who were determined that I was not going to travel anywhere without
them watching over me.

I love you all! God Bless You!
Love, Hugs & Kisses
Lynn "Chante"

Art Therapy for a Re-Discovered Artist

7/10/07 poem: I am a Wavebird

7/9/07 poem: Just What the Dr. Called For

1st painting -- July 2007: The Deeper Blue Sea

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