she is us

Displacement

I’ve spent the better part of the day engaging in weaving together stories and inspirations in my Friday Bricolage newsletter. I save what has come across my path and weave it together, looking for a theme.

This week’s theme ended up being displacement which is unsurprising. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, I decided to watch one of Lionel Rogosin‘s films on The Criterion Channel last night and chose “Out”. Made in 1957, this film is a “docuficiton” made for the United Nations and chronicles the plight of Hungarian refugees fleeing to Austria in the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. I did a sketch while watching the film and did this one today.

Practice Makes Interesting

As I’ve been working on creating something every day in October, I’m tasking myself to be fast and not perfectionistic. I’m finding it to be very freeing and the results more interesting.

I did this sketch quickly from a still from the movie using beach charcoal from Lake Michigan in Chicago. It’s lovely how smudgy and wispy it gets. That said, it did make the subject look older. I realize in viewing it that she’s less the woman in the film specifically, and more a composite of many women I’ve met in homeless and domestic violence shelters, on the streets, in my bloodline, and sometimes in the mirror.

She is the woman without a plan who fled or was forced to.

She is the displaced woman.

She is the grieving woman.

She is the waiting woman.

She is us.

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A Blessing

May you find your chosen home and know the grace of belonging, dear reader.