Paul's Artwork

Sacred Hoop

Today I'd love to share my talented husband's artwork with you.  Paul paints on canvases and uses materials such as plaster, resin, paint, burlap, wood and other found objects.  His paintings are highly textured and feel almost sculptural.  We have several hanging in our house and I love how each one looks different depending on the light of the day.

Ballad of Saint Rose

Prey

On Returning to Worship the Ruins

Progress

Saint Quebrantahuesos

Pathetique

This Thursday, an art benefit is being held in Paul's honor.  This is the first showing Paul has had in his hometown, and we are both nervous and excited.  We are also blown away by the support we have received since Paul's accident, and overwhelmed that so many people came together to organize this event.

You can view more of Paul's artwork here.  I'll be sure to post details on the benefit!

xo,

steph

p.s. Thanks for all of your sweet and thoughtful comments.  I was thinking late last night that I had failed to mention the outpour of love and support so many of you were a part of when Paul was in the hospital and during the hardest parts of his recovery. As difficult as this time has been for us, the love we've felt has turned a traumatic event into a profound experience.  From the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you.

A new start

Dear friends.  It's been a long time and I'm so happy to return to my little blog.  My last post was on March 11, nearly three months ago.  Two days later, on March 13, my husband Paul was painting when the scaffolding that his ladder was on collapsed.  He was alone, but based on the area he was painting, he is thought to have been between 25-28 feet high when he fell.  His accident was life threatening.  A blood clot in his brain nearly took his life.  But, today, he is alive, he is well, and he will heal.

There is so much I want to write about our experience.  During it all, I found myself retreating to the smallest circle of family and friends and focusing on taking each moment at a time.  And it seems I've remained within the confines of this little refuge for quite some time.  For better or worse, this tragedy changed the course of our life.  It redefined us as a family and as individuals. Over the past months, I've thought a lot about my little blog.  I've considered posting several times, but always found myself unable.  It was as if I didn't recognize myself anymore.  The person I was, was no more.  Everything seems different now and I've had a hard time seeing anything other than what our life used to be like; what our family looked like or how we interacted before Paul's accident.  It's strange, but our life after the accident has seemed almost foreign, like I'm peering in from some place else.

But then today, I got an email with these...

And I realized: We made it.  We are a family and we made it.

And, the part of me that was still standing in that trauma room, feeling small and helpless, considering the fragility of my sweet husband's mortality, pondering what life would look like from that point forward: just let go.

We have been given a new start.  And we are so grateful.

xo,

steph

p.s. These photos were taken Mother's Day weekend by the amazing and adorable Wendy of Blue Lily Photography.  Wendy is one half this talented photography couple, her husband Tyler completes the team.  We love the photos and loved our photo shoot with Blue Lily!