Faith through Art

I am once again joining with www. maternalspark.com to talk about what is inspiring me this week. Well my son, M is. This is a collage I did two years ago in a moment of fear, doubt, and uncertainty, concerning his future. My oldest son, M, was diagnosed with autism when he was two. When I made this collage, M was about to enter Kindergarten and I was fighting with the Board of Education for an appropropriate setting for him as he is high functioning and had a lot of potential. They either wanted to put him in regular ed or in a low functioning program. Neither was acceptable to me. As I made countless calls, visited programs, prayed and cried out to God continuously, I decided to create art. I was lead to this verse in the Good Book, Jermiah 29:11, which says "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. " The text is over M's face as I am pictured praying. Somehow, creating and believing this simple image and text concoction symbolizing my giving M to God and letting Him handle the situation, let me rest.

M is now in an amazing inclusion program, talks a mile a minute, is a legos master, loves music and drama, and is quite assertive. He is an inspiration. Recently, my younger son also was diagnosed with mild autism. I immediately took this collage out in a moment of sadness. It made me feel hopeful. If God can work miracles with M, he will do it with D too. God's power and reassurance through art, never ceases to amaze me.

Finding my Inner Revolutionary

It has been a while since I have written which means I have reneged on my promise to be more faithful at updating my blog this year. But here I am. I am not giving up yet. That's what revolutionaries do.

Revolutionary, me? Lately, I have not felt much like a revolutionary. The message of my clothing line is that you can strive for change just like the people on my designs did. However, recently, I have felt stuck. I remember the days when I used to march for the release of Irish and Puerto Rican political prisoners when I was in college, when my husband and I would buy canned food for the church pantry, when I used to hand out food to the homeless and pray for them. I miss my public life. I am now home with two kids with special needs and although I try really hard to perceive that as a revolutionary act, as an act that involves changing my kids' lives, I still want more. I often feel tired, burned out, and lonely. I guess revolutionaries get lonely too. Why do we make them to be out like gods? They were real people.

As I try to find my way in this motherhood thing what helps me is to read honest writing from other mothers. I have been following Dawn's blog about motherhood. She is so honest and quite irreverent. Here's a link to one of my favorite posts from her, http://balefulregards.blogspot.com/2006/03/cult-of-motherhood-redux.html.

I also just finished watching the In the Time of the Butterflies DVD. It is a movie adapted from a book by Julia Alvarez which I read years ago about three sisters who confront the injustices of the Trujillo regime, a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, in the 60s and 70s. A client recently requested I make her a cuff of the Mirabal sisters which was fate (I like to call it God) because I had been thinking about designing one before she made the request. Anyway, I wanted to reacquaint myself with these sisters before I made it. Reading powerful stories about women makes me feel better. It calls to my inner revolutionary. It helps me summon that spirit of hope and potential that can keep me from drowning in my feelings of quiet desperation.