To wrinkle… or not

journal page – 4/26/08
Within Us #6

From the wrinkle between my brows
You watch till day breaks
On my face

The waxen night
Is beginning to singe
The fingers of dawn

Black bricks
Have already tiled
The whole dome of the sky

– Vasko Popa (1922 – 1991)

After a long, delightful, but sometimes stressful week, I am almost finished with a painting I started weeks and weeks ago. I took a break from the big work this afternoon to paint a bit in my journal, hoping I would end up with something I could post for this week’s Illustration Friday topic – wrinkles. I don’t have much to say about wrinkles… I have a few I call dear friends and some I wish would disappear… but like everything else I have collected along the way, they are markers of where and who I’ve been. Even so, all that came to mind was the seemingly constant warning I got from my grandmother when I was a child – don’t frown; you’ll get wrinkles! It must have made quite an (ahem) impression on me, because to this day, I really do avoid frowning as much as possible! Somehow I got it fixed in my head that if I frowned or scowled too often, my face would freeze in that expression. So, I looked for inspiration elsewhere, and went with a wrinkle-free interpretation.

How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew! – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882)

P.S. –  Please accept my invitation to stop by Wings 4 You Coaching and participate in my Weekly Wings challenges.  There’s a new challenge posted each Sunday.  I’d love to have you along on the journey!