Raven Skull & Sunflowers

This is my own digital art piece I began while pregnant with my youngest daughter in 2023. It was late summer, and the transition from summer to fall was in the air. In many traditions, this season is a season of death and rebirth. This felt rather significant at the time because I was heading into a season of transformation in my life. I entered the birth of my youngest hoping for a different sort of experience than I had had with my first two. Looking back, my experience was very different! I think this primarily had to do with my attitude and expectations going in. While it was a literal birth of a beautiful human, it did feel a lot like a rebirth of me in a way. I had struggled with my first two birth experiences because I wanted things to be perfect. When I had my third, I learned to let go of a lot of those expectations, and my experience was a lot smoother. I found that my desire for perfection actually caused me a lot of turmoil. When I learned to trust the process and let go, things actually went better overall. I think this mindset is apparent in this piece, and crucial in my own art process. I was cognizant of the fact that I struggle to finish art pieces because of this desire for perfection. I hope this piece can be a reminder for others that evolution is messy, authenticity is not perfect. These are the very attributes that create beauty in this life.