Keep the Dreamer - 20x24

For the one's who let their light dance alongside their shadows. Your strength will lead you to great things. Keep dancing, keep loving the dreamer within.

Details: Acrylic, oil pastel, chalk pastel, graphite on canvas on 1.5" deep canvas. Finished with matte varnish and framed in black float frame.

INSPIRATION

Giraffe girl was often the tallest in the class. A point of pride to claim first place in a competition few other people cared to play. She revelled in the independence that came from being able to reach the top shelf, and looking older than her age. She was proud to get top spot in track and helped her team win the relay race. Tall people could do anything!

But her visions of grandeur shrunk when middle school wasn’t kind to her. When Giraffe Girl’s limbs grew lanky and gangly, they fuelled claims of having “chicken legs” or to “eat a sandwich”. 

So it meant the world to her, after a fellow classmate said “your wrists are so small!” when the grade 7 male social studies teacher stepped in to firmly say “we don’t comment on each other’s bodies in this classroom”.  But even so, as Giraffe Girl got older her shoulders turned inwards, and sometimes she’d try to sneak to the first row of a group photo just to get a sense of what it might feel like to be a little smaller.

When Giraffe Girl got older, she learned to use her height to her advantage. Taking up rock climbing she became the slab queen - delicately balancing on barely there footholds while gracefully moving beyond where most other people would fall. She relished in tossing high heels to the side and took most body comments in stride. 

Giraffe Girl’s insecurities became invitations and now, she dances alongside her demons, careful not to lose the dreamer within.