My Healing View, Nollaig

I took this picture on the 6th Oct 2011. My daughter Isabelle was born still on 13th July 2010 after 40 weeks of a dream pregnancy. My whole world fell apart.

The view in the picture is a view I spent many hours looking at after Isabelle died, I remember feeling very broken but alive. At the time I read a line in John O'Donohue's Anam Cara where he said: "In landscape, nothing is ever lost or forgotten." and to me this meant that all the emotions that poured out of me found a place in the landscape around me. Isabelle is in that landscape. I refer to that view as my "healing view". Nature's patience and presence helped to soothe my soul. The Irish weather means I can't always fully appreciate the view but I know it is there.

I am sitting on the ground in the picture but barely visible, a bit like how I feel as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

I am surrounded by Isabelle's presence and absence.

Poem for Sky and Mizuko Jizo Magnets, Skytimes.

Poem for Sky.
Skytimes.
Poetry and photography.

Mizuko Jizo Magnets.
Skytimes.
Craft.




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about these pieces.

A poem for Sky... wherever dead-baby-heaven is, this is how I'd like it to be.

Mizuko jizo magnets...four years along the dead baby road I dreaded the built-up for Sky‘s fourth birthday. Hence I lined up tons of crafting projects to keep me busy. What seemed to work best for my grief-stricken mind was to play around with bottlecap sized canvas and create little Mizuko Jizo fridge magnets. A babyloss mom can never have enough jizos around and it's nice to spread love in his name.

I stayed true to my turning-rubbish-into-beauty credo and everything I used was basically rubbish and too small of an amount/length to be used otherwise.

Materials: soda bottlecap, scraps of coloured cartons or pieces of dark wooden veneer, leftover cords and strings. Pencils and love. --Skytimes.

about the artist.
Skytimes is a graphic artist and designer. Her son Sky died on August, 14th, 2007 and was born sleeping 5 days later on August, 19th 2007, at 33 weeks. She maintains a blog at Skytimes.

Today the still life 365 community remembers Sky on his fourth birthday and abides with his mama in love and thought. Skytimes asked me to share this additional picture, so you can head over to her blog to win one of these mizuko jizo magnets in Sky's name.

Little Stars, Kara L.C. Jones, aka Mother Henna.

Little Stars.
Kara L.C. Jones, aka Mother Henna.
Photography.


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about this piece.
Just a still life of the plushie a friend gave to me right after our son died last summer.  She hadn't yet heard what name we'd chosen for him: Mizuko Star.  And then I saw the little plushie has a star stitched to his hand!  It's Zuzu's star!  As we approach the first year anniversary of his birth and death, I just miss him. I was trying to capture how much I miss and love him in this one. - Kara

about the artist.
Kara is the Radical Creative behind all things MotherHenna.com. In 1999, after the death of their son Dakota, Kara and her partner Hawk co-founded Kota Press (KOTA: Knowing Ourselves Thru Art), an expressive arts outreach. Through their KOTA work and in partnership with the MISS Foundation, they have been mentoring other bereaved parents and caregivers around the world, offering creative perspectives on learning to life again after loss. As a coach to private clients, Kara facilitates the exploration of grief and creativity using many tools for alternative mind, body, spiritual health. Some of her specialties include henna art, heART-making, co-active coaching, Reiki, Tapping, asking the answerable questions and more. Kara keeps a radical creativity blog at Mother HennaKota Loss & Compassion Blog. Kara has been featured on still life 365 with her scrapbook page for her son Dakota, her poem Take-out Order, and her poem the After Life. The still life 365 community is mourning with Kara and her husband for the recent loss of her second son, Mizuko Star.  

Today the still life 365 community remembers Kara's son Mizuko Star on the one year anniversary of his birth and death. Abiding with our dear mentor, fellow artist and friend. 

Beauty, Kristin Binder.

Beauty.
Kristin Binder.
Photography and digital art.

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about the contributor.

Kristin blogs about mothering and grieving Peyton, as well as her struggles with secondary infertility, IVF, and the emotional ups and downs of pregnancy after loss on her blog Once A Mother. She recently completed her first novel, and is working on a memoir. She makes her home with a husband she adores, a black lab she can't seem to train, and “The Snowflakes” twins conceived via IVF.

Bullet Jizo, Kara L.C. Jones

Bullet Jizo.
Kara L.C. Jones, Mother Henna.
Photography.

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about the piece.
One of my favorite discoveries here in Sedona has been the Stupa Park. On the red dirt paths on the way up to the main Stupa, people build little impromptu shrines, leaving a ray of items that intrigue me as memorial art.  I often walk here to try and get a handle on some aspect of my own grief, but I find myself doing tonglen for the others who are suffering grief and leaving items on this path. This photo in particular was of an impromptu shrine that captured my heart. Right there with the peaceful Buddha is a bullet. I wonder if someone's child died at the hands of a bullet? Was it the bullet someone was going to use to commit suicide but changed their mind? What wrestle of grief did that person have with this bullet?  It was a moment of tonglen, breathing in whatever suffering they might have, and breathing out compassion and witnessing of their heart. - Kara

about the artist.
Kara is the Radical Creative behind all things MotherHenna.com. In 1999, after the death of their son Dakota, Kara and her partner Hawk co-founded Kota Press (KOTA: Knowing Ourselves Thru Art), an expressive arts outreach. Through their KOTA work and in partnership with the MISS Foundation, they have been mentoring other bereaved parents and caregivers around the world, offering creative perspectives on learning to life again after loss. As a coach to private clients, Kara facilitates the exploration of grief and creativity using many tools for alternative mind, body, spiritual health. Some of her specialties include henna art, heART-making, co-active coaching, Reiki, Tapping, asking the answerable questions and more. Kara keeps a radical creativity blog at Mother HennaKota Loss & Compassion Blog. Kara has been featured on still life 365 with her scrapbook page for her son Dakota, her poem Take-out Order, and her poem the After Life. The still life 365 community is mourning with Kara and her husband for the recent loss of her second son, Mizuko Star.  

Hope Colored Pink, Holly .

Hope Colored Pink.
Holly.
Photography.

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about the piece
Spring is a time of renewal. Life springs forth from that which looked dead for so long. We have a weeping cherry tree that has been at our house since we moved here. I never cared much for the tree until my daughter died and then the tree became dear to my heart. The weeping branches reminding me of my own weeping. Every spring I look forward to the beautiful pink flowers that grow from the branches and every year it gives me joy and a hope colored pink. - Holly

about the artist.

Holly describes her daughter and her journey, "My husband and I found out on December 15, 2008 when I was around 22 weeks pregnant that our daughter, Carleigh McKenna, wasn't going to live. She was diagnosed with a fatal neural tube defect called anencephaly. It was devastating. I carried our daughter to term and we made the most of the time we had left with our daughter. Carleigh was born still on March 28, 2009." Holly blogs at Caring for Carleigh.

Journey of Grief, Ines

Journey of Grief.
Ines.
Photography.


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about this piece.

I lined the pebbles I made for the participants of the travel journal up in a row, like a path.

When you're making your way through this bogland called grief, it's good to have some solid ground under your feet. it's such a tough journey and at no point do you really know when you sink back into the pain and sadness, find yourself up to your neck in it... This photo or more about the journey of grief, something that often features in my art, and how I hope there is always a bit of solid ground ahead. I also let the gnome travel towards the light, the better time... -Ines

about the artist.
Ines, aka forward tumble, is a 42 year old mother of Fionn who died before he was born in June 2008. After a year of serious illness, she is learning to live her life without her child.

In Ines’ words, “While art and creativity has always somewhat been part of my life, I used to take a lot of pictures (still do) to capture the beauty of life. I have recently discovered art as a new way of expressing and releasing parts of me from within. I now pursue art in a more deliberate way because it seems to cleanse/liberate me which helps both in my grieving and life in general.”

Ines lives in rural Ireland in a house in a big field two miles from the sea. She maintains a number of blogs: forward tumble; daily forward tumble, chronicling her Creative Everyday Challenge; Fionn, a blog about her son; and tunnel time, a blog about growing vegetables in a poly tunnel in Ireland.

Cautiously Optimistic, Ceil Drucker.

Cautiously Optimistic.
Ceil Drucker.
Photograph.

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about this piece.

I was cleaning the slip-cover on the sofa the other day and found a blue snappie, one of those diaper holder things- it made me think about all those beautiful diapers I so excitedly purchased last spring awaiting Kai's arrival, and how they were stored in a cardboard box in a dark room now. I thought "I should do a pregnancy test" and so I did- getting a positive result. I still don't really believe it, but 7 tests later, I guess its real for now. I keep the tests on my altar right now and feel cautiously optimistic. - Ceil

about the artist.
Ceil is among other things, a writer who seldom writes and now a mother who doesn't get to mother. She is riding the waves after the loss of her son Kai on his due date, in mid June.

Ceil's last submission to still life 365 was Trying Again, so sl365 wishes her a cautiously optimistic congratulations.