Jenna’s Pet Monkey

Bathroom Art!

Today is the second annual Diabetes Art Day. Lee Ann Thill of The Butter Compartment came up with this fantastic idea to give people a creative outlet, bringing together the Diabetes community in a way like no other.

And bring us together, it has. The creative capacity of our community is astounding. The unique way each of us interprets our own journey with diabetes is impressive and thought provoking.

This year, I saved some diabetes trash instead of recycling it. I had been collecting stuff since the start of the summer in anticipation of creating something for this day. I wasn’t sure what we would do but I had no doubt that between myself and the incredible, creative capabilities of my two little girls, we could come up with something exciting.

So, on a rather tight budget, we visited the craft store for more inspiration. I wanted something to ‘hot glue’ some of our D-junk to — a form of some sort. Jazmine pointed to a twig wreath and since the price was right (under 4 dollars!) I jumped on her suggestion. We also found a string of white lights, some blue pom-poms and blue glittery spiders, and so the “Glittery, Spidery Circle of D” was born:

"Glittery, Spidery Circle of D"

Only blue insertion devices were attached, in keeping with the whole World Diabetes Day blue circle theme. Jenna envisioned using the pump tubing to create the spider’s web in the centre of the wreath and so that’s what we did. Jazmine – my deep, thoughtful, almost-eight-year-old, explained that the spider’s meaning was in reference to the constant, ongoing hard work D management is — much like the hard work a spider must engage in to construct its web to survive. A meal certainly doesn’t come easy to the spider. And the same could be said about a person with diabetes, in a sense. I was so proud of Jazmine for her depth and insight and her incredible grasp of artistic symbolism at such a young age.

As pleased as I was with the results, it wasn’t the easiest piece to photograph. Hanging it up somewhere where I could plug in the lights and where the backdrop wouldn’t detract from the piece was incredibly challenging. I ended up taking a suction cup hook thingy and hanging it on the mirror of my bathroom where a plug was available. I played with the exposure and colour saturation to make the wreath pop and hopefully to make it less obvious that we were in a bathroom, of all places, even though I’ve heard that Jim Morrison recorded the vocals for “Hyacinth House” in a bathroom for the unique acoustic properties. So this isn’t the first time art has been enhanced by the distinct ambience of the loo. If it was good enough for The Doors, it’s good enough for me.

So there you have it. Our contribution to Diabetes Art Day 2011. If you would like to check out what we created last year click here.  Now I’m going to go check out more art on the Diabetes Art Day site.

Hey! You should too! Come on!