Six Prayers for Lucy, Angie

Six Prayers for Lucy, 2009
Angie.
9" x 12", Watercolor


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about the piece.
In Angie's words, "After Lucy died, I began painting again as a way to clear my mind everyday. Gradually, I moved from painting still life to painting images important to me in my grief and mourning. At some point, I remembered reading about mizuko jizo in Peggy Orenstein's memoir, and reacquainted myself with the mizuko kuyo, or mizuko rituals. Mizuko literally means 'water child' and is used in Japanese to describe stillborn, miscarried and aborted babies. When I began reading about mizuko jizo, I was fascinated with the image. They are usually portrayed as happy little monks with a red bib. A pillar of rocks standing next to the statues, as well as offerings of toys. I so craved a kind of ritual with which I connected Lucy's death and short, beautiful life. This Six Prayers painting was the first jizo painting I worked on. I meditated then painted it in one sitting. I found a kind of temporary grounding as well as found a type of calm when I looked at it. I hung the piece over the altar where I have Lucy's candle, a pillar of rocks, a bowl of water, Buddha and a little jizo figure. A few months later, I began painting jizos for other grieving parents as a form of meditation and my own mizuko kuyo."

about the contributor.
Angie became a stay-at-home mother in 2007 after many years of working in a corporate marketing department as a writer, editor and creative coordinator. Her poetry has been published in several on-line and print publications. Since the death of her second daughter in December 2008, she has maintained a blog called Still Life with Circles, dealing primarily with mothering and grief. When she is not writing, Angie paints and illustrates mizuko jizo and other subjects dealing with babyloss, pregnancy and parenting at her Etsy shop. Angie also is the editor of still life 365 and has undertaken the Creative Every Day challenge this year, which she chronicles at still life every day.