Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Illustration Friday: Swarm

People say, you should not have expectations..
I say, you have to have expectations, just expect the unexpected!

When I was about 6 yrs old, I spent a few weeks of summer vacation with my family in a rented cottage. It was a small colony of about ten cottages, ten families, no electricity, just kerosene lamps.
My mother used portable gas stove to cook her delicious melas on, and we took "showers" outdoors, under an iron water well pump.
Me and my sister ran around, smelling of summer sun. Trees and grass and buzzy bees and birds everywhere. Endless outdoors adventures. Exciting summer storms, that kept us indoors playing cards and board games, mushroom hunting..I could go on and on..wooonderfull summer!

One morning I woke up to find our grassy cottage front swarming with hundreds of orange butterflies.

They were all gone by mid day, besides one.
For some reason, one butterfly stayed, and followed me the whole day.. I think I gave him a name.
He flew away into the sunset right before my bedtime. I couldn't fall asleep. I got so attached to him.

The following day,  he was nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, while I was playing in the grass, he came out of nowhere and sat on my shoulder!
I froze and called out for mom to come and look. I got up slowly and he stayed on me while I walked around. I felt so special!
Two more weeks till the end of the summer vacation in the cottage; he came back every day!

I was heart broken when we had to leave.
The following summer, I couldn't wait to see if he was back...  :)

This drawing is based on my memory of this one magical summer encounter.


17 comments:

  1. I love your style.
    (and I have similar "bio".)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful! Both the illustration, and the story

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a beautiful story and I love the innocence of your drawing! So very, very sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What an amazing experience for a little girl! The illustration is beautiful, too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love the sweet and simple style of this. Sometimes line drawings are the perfect form of expression.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely illustration, the innocence is captured very well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I like your story. I don't know where you were vacationing, but maybe I can help explain the butterflies. Monarch butterflies migrate between Mexico and Canada. Oddly, each generation only goes one way, and their children make the return trip. I live by the Great Lakes, and flying over them is a hard job for butterflies. They have to rest once they reach land again. It can be very magical to see them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I loved reading your story and I absolutely love this drawing. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a cute story. I love the little swarm of flutterby's.

    When I was a little kid the only thing that followed me was trouble.

    And cats.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Magical story and magical illustration...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Really lovely story and illustration

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a charming and delightful drawing! I missed this on the "swarm" week. Thanks for your comment on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Beautiful drawing! So sweet and pure, it captures the essence of childhood.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...