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Description
A few months back, I asked my husband to help me come up with something to draw and he suggested that I draw time. I thought about it for a little bit and started drawing a picture of what I thought time would look like. In particular, I drew time from my perspective, and how it corresponds with my life. After the drawing was finished I started to color it in with color pencils, but I didn’t like how it was turning out. So I scanned it and tried to work on a digital version but soon gave up due to my carpal tunnel flaring up. Finally, I tried it again, only this time, with acrylic paints on canvas.

While working on this, it became very personal to me, and I wondered if I should even post it here. I tossed it around for a while, and finally made the decision to share it publicly. This could have been left to the audience to interpret, but I want to share some of my perspectives and point out a few areas of symbolism so that this is, in essence, a true self-portrait, not just a painting of what could be my mirrored reflection (though I plan on doing one of those one day). If you would prefer to interpret this for yourself, you don't need to bother reading the rest, as it's admittedly long and might be boring to you...

In the painting, I am both young and old. I am as I see myself now on the left, and as I see myself in the future, old and wrinkled, thin and frail on the right. The right arm is branching out toward the tree causing me to be part of it, something that is both myself, and greater things. The tree represents time as an entity. The entity is life. The tree immediately begins to branch off, but a branch has been cut. This cut stump represents a life that I could have lived, if things in my childhood had been different. Not better. Just different. I will never be able to see the progression of that portion of life because it is not longer available to me. It might have been considered a loss except for the fact that this helps the trunk of the tree to grow thick and stable. Each knobby stump represents a time in my life when I could have chosen one path, but followed another instead. Each limb represents my growth in a certain direction that is nourished and allowed to grow.

I found it fitting to have the right side of the tree grow old also, as a reflection of myself and of time. There are branches jutting off the canvas and they hold a destiny I do not know or dare to dream. The lowest branch arching over my head symbolizes my children and their children and so on. The one above it goes on and on and holds significance only to me.

The roots run deep into the soil, representing the generations that have gone before me. I am wrapped up in my own generation. It is alive and growing around me, sometimes curling up my arm in whimsical patterns, and in other places, it grips me for I am a part of it as much as it is a part of me. The whimsical patterns in the roots are repeated in the hair. The hair strands also have significance, being a rudimentary form of the spiral, which to me symbolizes the infinity of time.

The sky overhead is bright on the left but dims later in my life. The reason is because I’ve taken into account the statistics that show most women outlive their husbands, and I predict I will be very sad and lonely to have to live even a day without him in my life. And so, we also see that the elements that give nourishment to life are present - rain, sun, and soil. That could be left for further interpretation, I suppose, but I’ll stop here.

The spookiest part of this was in painting my face, guessing how I might look, and attempting to paint myself as I am now without looking in the mirror. I like to hold my hand over each half, first the left, and then the right… it always gives me the chills. I hope you like it; this is my first serious attempt at painting with acrylics.

White, burnt umber, cerulean blue, and black acrylic on 16x20 canvas

Description
A few months back, I asked my husband to help me come up with something to draw and he suggested that I draw time. I thought about it for a little bit and started drawing a picture of what I thought time would look like. In particular, I drew time from my perspective, and how it corresponds with my life. After the drawing was finished I started to color it in with color pencils, but I didn’t like how it was turning out. So I scanned it and tried to work on a digital version but soon gave up due to my carpal tunnel flaring up. Finally, I tried it again, only this time, with acrylic paints on canvas.

While working on this, it became very personal to me, and I wondered if I should even post it here. I tossed it around for a while, and finally made the decision to share it publicly. This could have been left to the audience to interpret, but I want to share some of my perspectives and point out a few areas of symbolism so that this is, in essence, a true self-portrait, not just a painting of what could be my mirrored reflection (though I plan on doing one of those one day). If you would prefer to interpret this for yourself, you don't need to bother reading the rest, as it's admittedly long and might be boring to you...

In the painting, I am both young and old. I am as I see myself now on the left, and as I see myself in the future, old and wrinkled, thin and frail on the right. The right arm is branching out toward the tree causing me to be part of it, something that is both myself, and greater things. The tree represents time as an entity. The entity is life. The tree immediately begins to branch off, but a branch has been cut. This cut stump represents a life that I could have lived, if things in my childhood had been different. Not better. Just different. I will never be able to see the progression of that portion of life because it is not longer available to me. It might have been considered a loss except for the fact that this helps the trunk of the tree to grow thick and stable. Each knobby stump represents a time in my life when I could have chosen one path, but followed another instead. Each limb represents my growth in a certain direction that is nourished and allowed to grow.

I found it fitting to have the right side of the tree grow old also, as a reflection of myself and of time. There are branches jutting off the canvas and they hold a destiny I do not know or dare to dream. The lowest branch arching over my head symbolizes my children and their children and so on. The one above it goes on and on and holds significance only to me.

The roots run deep into the soil, representing the generations that have gone before me. I am wrapped up in my own generation. It is alive and growing around me, sometimes curling up my arm in whimsical patterns, and in other places, it grips me for I am a part of it as much as it is a part of me. The whimsical patterns in the roots are repeated in the hair. The hair strands also have significance, being a rudimentary form of the spiral, which to me symbolizes the infinity of time.

The sky overhead is bright on the left but dims later in my life. The reason is because I’ve taken into account the statistics that show most women outlive their husbands, and I predict I will be very sad and lonely to have to live even a day without him in my life. And so, we also see that the elements that give nourishment to life are present - rain, sun, and soil. That could be left for further interpretation, I suppose, but I’ll stop here.

The spookiest part of this was in painting my face, guessing how I might look, and attempting to paint myself as I am now without looking in the mirror. I like to hold my hand over each half, first the left, and then the right… it always gives me the chills. I hope you like it; this is my first serious attempt at painting with acrylics.

White, burnt umber, cerulean blue, and black acrylic on 16x20 canvas