All Finished!

That's my final Challenge Card illustration, for this essay. This was a particularly difficult one, but everyone seems to like it. It's very simple, and I like that. The essay is about existing in those liminal spaces that we occasionally find ourselves in -- We've let go of one thing, but have not yet embraced a new thing. It is in those oddly uncomfortable spaces that true change can take place.

Digh, in her essay, uses the visual of the trapeze artist and of the childhood gym toy, the monkey bars (hence, the title) to talk about that place between letting go of one thing and grabbing hold of something else. I looked for images of both/either to use in my Challenge Card, and didn't see anything that really moved me that I could get permission to use (back to that nasty permissions issue). And even with an image, I couldn't think of a concept. My husband, John, mentioned that the visual he got after reading the essay was of a person standing alone (thank you, John). That really worked for me, as a concept, because we usually travel through those liminal spaces by ourselves. And what better way to represent a threshold than with a doorway? A doorway is, after all, a threshold into a new place.

It drives me crazy that the doorway is somewhat askew. I swear on the original, it's not that noticeable. Well, it is now, but it wasn't before! LOL!

This is not the image that I originally had in mind for the focal point of the illustration but iStock didn't come through for me. In fact, I didn't hear anything from them after our email exchange in which they asked about contest rules. I just decided that it wasn't worth it to keep hounding them. Instead, I went looking for a suitable replacement image. This one works for me.

Many, many thanks to Jon Johnson for the use of his image. It was used under a Creative Commons License, so my final work is also licensed under the same license. I'd also like to thank meatcats22, Miss Twiga, and Felix63 for giving me permission to use their photos. I ultimately decided not to use them, but I appreciate their kindness and consideration. Many thanks go to Jer from Flickr who taught me an easy way to search for images that can be used commercially. Her techniques helped me find the photo that I did use as my focal point.

By the way, there is a Flickr group set up for sharing scans/pictures of the Challenge Cards as they are created. Considering how many entries there probably are, there aren't very many being shared, but there is some really great work. There are a couple of other Challenge Cards on various artists' blogs. Be sure to check out the featured artwork on Patti's site, done by 11-year old Callie. It's great!