Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Serenity Trilogy

This is a series of postcards that I did a few years ago on the long version of the Serenity Prayer.

At that time in my life I had pared my prayers down to simply saying one word at a time. This was especially nice walking to work, since it was simple and I could pace the word with my steps. I would take action words from prayers that I said often and say these words as my prayer.

Now, I love drawing birds and thought I might illustrate this prayer, or the primary words that I would pray, and find a bird to represent each word. Since I live in Illinois I used birds that are native to my home state. Then I wanted to find birds that would show humility and strength; not the birds that one would usually think of, like and eagle for courage. The first card, representing Serenity, is a Tufted Titmouse; small with muted colors I thought it looked very humble and at the same time has a strong presence. The second bird, Courage, is a Red Tailed Hawk; not as impressive as other raptures and very common, like all of us. The third, Wisdom, is a Barn Owl; again, very unassuming and delicate.

Each print was first made from a block print that was then scanned into a digital format and colorized on Photoshop. On the back of each card is a part of the Serenity Prayer, so they make a trilogy.

You can find them in my little Etsy shop.

6 comments:

Jennifer said...

I love these. They look like a bit of Art Deco mixed with some Victorian style.
The idea of taking specific words from prayers and repeating them is a good one. Especially powerful with the Serenity Prayer. Works like an mantra or meditation.
I'm taking your idea.
:-)

Franny said...

Hey hun! Thought I would let you know I received my gift from you today! Thank you so much!

Andrew Thornton said...

I love the Wisdom card! Owls are awesome!

The Kooky Queen--Rachel said...

Those are gorgeous! You're very talented! WOW!

Kelly Deneen Raymond said...

Those are beautiful! You are very, very talented.

Thanks for visiting my blog earlier today!

Ronnica said...

Those are really good...beautiful! And I love your explanations of them, too.