Shalebug

Things have been  hectic in my life lately becuase I've been getting quite a few portrait orders.

Those of you who follow this blog may have read about my mid-year freak-out when I put myself 'out there' on Etsy and started getting orders for children's portraits. (I guess that's what happens when you start a business - folks actually buy things from you. I never was much good at economics.)

What most of these folks don't know is that I do their portraits sitting up in bed in my PJ's with ice-packs balanced on my head. I get out of bed  few times a day to have a shower, get my food and have a chat to my dog, but for most of the time I'm in bed.

I love the anonymity the on-line world gives me. No-one knows that I'm sick, and if I'm too tired to work on a portrait I tell a little white lie - 'I've got other orders I'm working on at the moment, I'll slot you in next week' - and no-one is any the wiser.

It's so refreshing to be treated as just any other person, and not some sicko that people can give advice to, feel sorry for, or have misconceptions about (for example, that because I'm unwell I am a very kind and gentle person. I don't know where people get that idea. For the most part, I am a cranky pissed-off person!)

I feel as though I'm coping with the Christmas influx quite well. I keep reminding myself that this is the first paid work I've done in 10 years and just to be scraping through is a kind of Yuletide miracle. (A yuletide miracle sponsored by alcohol, sleeping tablets and chocolate). Nuff said.

I got a portrait order this week that was quite unlike any other I've done and made me feel lucky to have stumbled across this portrait making gig.

Tanis, a mom from Canada, e-mailed to ask me if I'd do a portrait to commemorate her son Shale, who had passed away. She wanted it as a Christmas present for her husband. Shale was a cutie-pie blondy, born with disabilities, who died when he was almost 5.

Tanis, it turns out, is pretty much famous in Canada for her blog Attack of the Redneck Mommy, where she writes posts that are crazy funny (Television and Tampons - a Bad Mix) or heartbreakingly sad (Life and Death). She is a gifted writer, and as I worked on the portrait I went back and forth reading different posts about her life since Shale passed away.

After Shale died, Tanis and her family decided to adopt a child with special needs. After several years they became the 'forever family' to a little boy named Jumby. During the adoption process they discovered that Jumby was born on October 21st, the same date that Shale died.

It is a good thing I design my portrait on the computer because if I'd have been doing it on paper Tanis would have received it with little teary splotches on it.

What I love about Tanis' blog  is that she is unflinchingly frank and honest. She doesn't adopt some kind of saintly image (see: Burning for You). She doesn't see herself as heroic for having given birth to a child who had disabilities, watched him die suddenly, and then adopt another special needs child with an uncertain future (although I happen to think she is very heroic). The way Tanis writes, this is just her life and she's living it day to day, her way, the best that she can.

I suppose we are all doing that; just putting our best foot forwards and trying to live a life that is true and real.

Thanks Tanis. It was an honor to do a portrait of your beautiful Shalebug.