Not going to lie, when my cat Rain Rain suddenly ran across the art desk and got paint water all over my multimedia sketchbook my immediate reaction was to cry and curse god. So after saying a few regrettable things and getting snapped at by my partner for doing so, I went to take a shower to get away from everything.

While drowning my sorrows in soothing hot water, I remembered the story I heard about a woman who let her daughter draw in her sketchbook and called it a collaboration rather than a mess.
I also remembered how Rain Rain’s birth mother, Sula, used to bring me moss from the roof. It irritated me to no end! It was so gross!
But eventually I realized that one day Sula would leave me too soon as they all do, and that I should cherish these gifts she is bringing me out of love.
Now because of that realization I still have a ziplock bag of the roof moss in my closet, despite my practicing minimalism it’s something I chose to hold on to for now. _{(Sula ran away when the kittens were 3 months old. It’s been 2 years now and I still think about her every day…)}

Remembering my vow to tolerate mistakes, and out of love for my cat-daughter, I decided I would take Rain Rain’s idea and run with it. I would turn something painful into a sentimental memory… once I dried off the sketchbook of course 😉

Miraculously this was the only painting that was damaged in the whole sketchbook, the one I had just finished that day. I thought to myself “maybe this doesn’t look so bad after all” and I added more water to it for a “rainy” effect. The irony of her name and the resulting mandala does not escape me.

I now have plans to frame this piece and hang it on our bedroom wall 🙂