mary pow
  • Products
    • All Products
    • Handbags
    • Fine Art Prints
    • Note Cards
    • Custom Portraits
    • Stickers
    • Clearance
    • Shop on Etsy
  • About
    • The Artist
    • Contact
    • Commissions
    • Original Art
  • Portfolio
    • Textile Art
    • Pastel Paintings >
      • New Work
      • Nature
      • People
      • Animals
      • 'Portrait of a Quarantine'
    • MinneBites (retired)
  • Events
  • Blog

I Could Have Done More

8/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
I keep them in my bathroom.

​For most of the summer there it is: a mason jar filled milkweed. Caterpillars in various stages of their life-cycle, munching away. I have them in my bathroom so I can shut the door - to keep them in - and the cats out. But the door usually gets left open.

I tend to count them whenever I go in the room. Has a new one hatched? Are they all here?

I discover one is missing, and a heaviness settles in my heart. I count and re-count. It's not there.

Several days later, I find a caterpillar on the stairs. Quite a long journey from the bathroom for such a small creature. I gently scoop it up and bring it back to the milkweed. When I set it on a leaf, it curls up. It doesn't move.

Starved to death.
​ 
My heart aches.

I could have done more to prevent this from happening.

The pandemic has put my emotions in stark relief. I feel like I'm not doing enough, not doing the right thing, not trying hard enough...

I don't know what the truth is, but the majority of my caterpillars have become butterflies. 
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Mary Pow

    I am an artist and designer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My specialties are textiles and pastels.

    I also enjoy reflecting on the human condition.

    In my blog, I write about my musings and my art.

    Find my bio 
    here.


      Receive my email newsletter

    Subscribe

    Categories

    All
    American Craft Show
    Art & Craft Shows
    Creativity
    In The Shop
    Jerome Project Grant
    Mary Pow Handbags
    MinneBites
    Motherhood
    Musings
    Pastel Painting
    Poetry & Writing
    Portrait Project
    Process
    Quarantine Project
    Textile Art

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    April 2017
    March 2017
    October 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    RSS Feed

News
LATEST BLOG POST
Picture
New Series Sept. 1, 2020
8x8x8 FACES
Social Media

​
INSTAGRAM
​
FACEBOOK
​
​Visit the Studio
Picture
Website designed by Mary Pow.
©2020 Mary Pow Designs. 
All rights reserved.
  • Products
    • All Products
    • Handbags
    • Fine Art Prints
    • Note Cards
    • Custom Portraits
    • Stickers
    • Clearance
    • Shop on Etsy
  • About
    • The Artist
    • Contact
    • Commissions
    • Original Art
  • Portfolio
    • Textile Art
    • Pastel Paintings >
      • New Work
      • Nature
      • People
      • Animals
      • 'Portrait of a Quarantine'
    • MinneBites (retired)
  • Events
  • Blog