►ONE AVAILABLE◄ Strength & Mending - Original 10x20 Mom & Baby Painting, Strong Woman, Self Protection

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Do you need the eye color(s) changed on this original painting? Just let me know after you order, there will be no additional charge for this :)

•The ORIGINAL painting is a 10x20 inch ORIGINAL painting on deep canvas
•The ORIGINAL painting is signed, dated and named on the back
•The ORIGINAL painting is signed on the front in paint
•The ORIGINAL painting is varnished for UV Protection
•The ORIGINAL painting is wired and ready to hang

•Interest-free Payment Plan available above

Message from the Artist: We touch most often the parts that are wounded, to see if they have healed. To examine and check again, hoping for scars, for the itching to end, on those places in our hearts.

Your stable foundation need not be obvious, distinct, flaunted. It can be a gauzy layer of defense, resilient in its reinforcement, its presence obscured by soft curves and your gentle handling of the world. 

We have the courage to restore our balance with our own hands. Stone by stone, cell by cell, belief by belief, release by release. A great rebuilding. It is a task we are capable of.

It matters… what our hands do, where they point, the gifts they give, and what they take. Choose what is not to be taken. You’ve earned the wall of might that houses your healing parts.

June 2025:

Earlier this month, we helped my 20-year-old son move out of our nest - into his first real home, 2000 miles away from us. It broke my heart with sadness but also with pure sweet hope. He has his bachelor’s degree now and has landed an incredible job. He was ready. He’s doing great. And I’m so proud.

But my eyes tear up whenever they choose to, and my heart aches when I think of not touching his bristly face or his thick spiky hair, not embracing his tall strong body.

And also when I think of the moments of helping him sort, packing his car, setting up his furniture… our last moments in the same room for quite some time. Stepping back as he stepped forward…

I didn’t know how much this whole experience would stretch me, how much it would mend me, too. Our challenges grow our hearts and already mine feels stronger.

That’s not to say that I don’t cry when I wish I could make him a meal or give him the ‘first taste’ of the cookie dough (that was always his job). 

That doesn’t mean that I don’t test my heart every day to see if it is still tender. It surely is.

This painting, Strength & Mending, is about that. The quiet strength we find in letting go and moving forward.

We have the courage to restore our balance with our own hands, recognizing the ache, and the hope, and the love that holds us all together. It is a job we can do.

And we can be reinforced by the love that remains and builds, even when we are apart. We can grow from these times.

As a 47-year-old woman, I know that I have a lot of grief in my future – a lot of loss ahead of me – and I feel grateful for this bit of practice, and the chance to focus on the HOPE and the love left behind.

If you’ve been through a moment of loving and letting go, whether as a parent, a child, or a partner, then you know it’s both beautiful AND hard.

Strength & Mending is for that space in our hearts.