The Gossiping Milkman. Hand Embroidery on cotton canvas. 19 x 18 cm
You will be pleased to know I have a whole sketch book full of drawings of these painful memories and I intend to get them out of my system just like The Secret Handshake. This one is based again around a visiting preacher from the local area that should have known better. I found out from a friend who had decided to drop an unkind bomb on me, that my dad had been married before and that I had an older sister (no biggie in its own right this happens to a lot of people) but when you believe your parents would tell you the truth first and they do not it hurts. This milkman had been gossiping to the friends mum (and most of the village it turned out) telling them all before I knew. I remember watching him give his sermon in a pure and holier than though fashion. Afterwards my mum shook his hand obviously oblivious to his unkind two faced, intolerant, judgmental supremacy. I could not believe she would be so kind and supportive to such a weazle. When it came to my turn I was going to make a stand. He offered me his hand and I stood and glared at him with all the hate an unpopular teenage girl could muster. He looked shocked. What did he expect? I would love him like an idiot? Because that is what he made me feel along with my friend, like there was something dirty and wrong with me and my family and that they were better than us because they were 'pure'. My mum hurried me out of the door and as we were going down the lane said "OOOh Erica I was so embarassed why ever did you not shake his hand?" She still believes to this day I am the problem.
I have been watching and listening to Eckhart Tolle and his lectures about and dealing with ' The pain body' It is a fascinating way of dealing with old and new memories alike.
Colour has always been import to me and my work seems to be lacking in that area so I have started sampling for what i hope will be a larger piece but it is early days yet so who knows what it could turn into. Sometimes I get scared when I think of all the possibilities a single drawing possesses. You could spend your whole life working from one image!