It took me four years to get back to doing what I love to do the most, or maybe just what I love to do. Why not the most? Maybe because I have found motherhood to be more fulfilling than anything else I have done in the past. The sight of my li'l one squeezing out the last speck of a sliced mango gives me more satisfaction than completing my hand-painted work. It is more far more exciting to find matching bindi and nail-paint for her than inspiration for my next work.
So to come up with what I did this time around, I had to combine both my passions. I decided to hand-paint a dress for my daughter. I knew it wasn't going to be easy as the lockdown left us both spending 30 hours in a day together. The only time I would find for myself would be when my daughter decided to hit the sack. Those precious hours would be further divided between a returning from work (from the dining table to the bedroom) husband, dinner, turning the makeshift play area into a bedroom. But I decided to take up the self-assigned assignment.
As expected, it was difficult to pick the subject as there were at least 10-15 characters craving for her attention, some cringeworthy, some cute. That's when I asked her, and pat came the answer in Peppa Pig. All I had to do is clean the dust settled on my paint brushes, dig out all the water colours, medium and palette from my treasure trove and voila. But it wasn't as easy as I imagined it to be. The brushes weren't in the best shape, some colours had dried unsurprisingly. While these were essentials for me, in the pandemic induced lockdown, they weren't so finding all this became a task.
I got in touch with some kind souls who sold stationary for a living and they were sweet enough to help me with my requirements. Once the sailing got smooth, the WIP and the eventual result gave me confidence to reignite my passion. So here I am today, back to doing what I love to do, most or not we can leave that conversation for another day.
