"Because I am artistic"

Without being here day in and day out, this may not have as much meaning to many of you as it does to me, but Bobbi came out of her room the other day talking about how she's looking forward to her birthday (which isn't until November!!!) and hoping she gets more art supplies (colored pencils, nice coloring books, etc) because she is artistic.

Hearing her describe herself in that way - an honest way and more importantly, a positive way is pretty thrilling. She's struggling lately to fight against her tendency to spend all of her empty hours in front of a screen, and pouring herself into her artistic efforts is a great way for her to do that.

Did I even have a chance to post about how we re-did her room in early March? On our weekend away, we discovered something at IKEA that we thought could revolutionize the way Bobbi uses her room. We've wanted to get her some sort of a work surface for reading or drawing, but weren't sure how to fit it into her room because space was already tight as it was. Well, IKEA had it. Within a week of our days away, thanks to Craigslist and a trip to IKEA, she was all set. I just looked back and found some photos:

There used to be a dresser in the corner where the desk is now. It was a nice dresser, but it wasn't something that Bobbi could use on her own. Pre-surgery, when she was kneeling on the floor, she could get down there in front of it and pull open the two lowest drawers, but the uppers were too high for her, and she can't get into it with her wheelchair. It also took up a lot of room both itself and with the clear space needed to get the drawers open. The new system is amazing on many counts - she's got a desk with great clear space for her wheelchair to get under, and the little bins and open shelves are accessible to Bobbi on her own. And there's *just* enough room to open her door and get her wheelchair in and out of the room.

But that's a digression. The point is, Bobbi's got a great space in her room to hunker down and get to work.

Her favorite media these days is colored pencil, but she's got a great collection of markers and crayons as well, and often will use a combination of all of them depending on what she is doing.

Please note that these do not photograph well, but that said, here's some examples from a coloring book of faces that she's been working in a lot lately.

This one is not yet completed (the flowers in her hair aren't done yet as well as some other details), but she's got a great sense of color and blending, and her shading abilities keep improving. Look at the careful attention she paid to the fine grain of the hair!

And here's a closeup so you can see a bit more of what she's doing with the face - the range of colors that she uses in each drawing, layer upon layer, is fascinating to me.

And here's another example (also still unfinished). Look at the fun variation of colors in those tiny little birds!

The tiny leaves get me - each leaf is gradated from orange to yellow to green in different proportions. It's striking in real life, and the photo only hints at it.

Both details above were taken from this picture, showing the degree of fine attention that she's paying to each tiny bit of the drawing.

Not only have her artistic abilities consistently grown since we met her and especially since she started putting in regular time on it, but other character qualities as well. Her ability to deal with disappointment is one - just last night she started one that she'd had me print off the internet, and she was dissatisfied with how it was coming, so rather than blow up, throw everything onto the floor and declare that she's never going to color again, she asked me (yes, with some frustration in her voice - I get that!) if I could print her a new one, and today she did it again, and was pleased with the results. Because she is artistic and she is not a failure. And artists just keep on being artistic even when something doesn't turn out the way they'd hoped.

(Two more just for fun...and to show the range of what she's interested in.)