Anticipation #1 and #2

20” x 24”; Acrylic on canvas; 2015

(Available in print only; price includes both prints.)

For most of my life, I did not want children. I had big plans to travel the world and be an artist and have grand adventures and I didn’t think that being a mother was conducive to the lifestyle I envisioned. After we got married, my husband and I lived abroad and travelled extensively, and I continued to paint and study the art in the countries we travelled to/lived in, and had many grand adventures. My life should have felt complete…but something was missing. I realized one day that the niggling sense of something missing wasn’t so much “something” as “someone”. Suddenly, my heart wanted a child more than anything in the world. Years passed, and my longing grew for this little person I didn’t know but already loved so dearly. In 2015, after years of waiting and waiting, I found out I was pregnant. The second I saw the second line on that pregnancy test, I fell head over heels in love. I spent the next nine months anticipating the arrival of this child I’d so longed for; wondering who she would be, how our lives would change, who I would be once she was here. It is a time in my life defined by hope, elation, and anticipation. I painted this set for my daughter’s nursery when I was in my third trimester. Her due date came and went, and I channeled my energy into completing these paintings, wondering when in the world this baby was going to decide to grace us with her presence. One hot summer afternoon, I sat down and finished the last touches and hung the paintings in her nursery, and lo and behold, a few hours later my sweet girl came storming into the world. My center of gravity shifted the moment I saw her, and she has filled my life with sunshine ever since.