It is a series of illustrations I drew at the end of 2012 for a publishing company. It totally has 16 illustrations, inspired and drew for a set of children books adapted from worldwide literature masters. The story I got was a tail about pregnancy wrote by a Nobel winner, a Chile authoress named Mistral.
It tells the feelings of a mother during her whole pregnancy process, from the beginning joy phase, the middle uncomfortable and sensitive phase, to the ending generational phase. It combined the most beautiful feelings of human beings and deeply reflected the love of the mother to her child to be born.
I drew and painted most of works by hand, and scanned them into a computer for further processing. You may see the published work at the end of this year.
1. My dearest child, did you know? Ever since I got pregnant of you, I became a completely different person.
I felt like I was just like a branch of a fruit tree, witnessing a fruit drooping down under my thin branch growing up every day.
2. My belly began to bulge, and I started to behave clumsily. My physical became weaker and weaker, and I also started to have no appetite over food. I even began to feel disgusted with sound. For all the troubles I had made, you should forgive me.
I couldn’t go out whenever I had the mood, and I also felt embarrassed about my fat waist and my deep-set eye sockets. However, whenever I thought of you, I would be immersed in a wonderful mood.
3. I would spend a lot of time staying in the hallway to enjoy the sunshine. I would read those classical poetries to you, the treasure I bore in my body. I would also listen to those beautiful and sound musicals with you.
I tried hard to be less irritable and complaining, so that you could be immersed in only love. With this love, your body started to form, and you would have a delicate face, bright eyes and a pure heart.
4. You were just inside my body. Your heart beat with mine, and your breath also consorted with mine.
Over the breath I respired out, I even smelt a hint of flowers’ fragrance. I believed that was all because there was a being as small as a dewdrop hiding inside me, and that small being was you, my dearest.
5. My dear child, did you know? I always wondered how you would look like. I once stared at petals of roses, and hoped your little face would be just as tender and beautiful as those petals. I also wondered across the blackberry trees with branches and leaves all over the place, and wished you would have that kind of long and curly hair.
However, my dearest child, even if your skin turned out to be black and red like the clay and your hair appeared to be straight, I would not care, because I would still give you all my love.
6. No matter you were a cute little girl or boy, my happiness would not change a bit.
However, the most important was I hoped you would have the soft eye’s expressions just like your father when you looked at others, and you would have the trembling tones just like your father when you spoke to me.
7. I made a few of small shoes for you to wear. I also cut some soft diapers. I wished everything you would use in the future would be made by me. As you were growing inside me, you started to recognize my breath.
I attentively cut a piece of cashmere in summer, and made the small white clothes for you. Oh my child, you were just lying in my body. I guessed this piece of cashmere was just as soft as my uterus.
8. As you were sleeping deeply inside my body, so I also walked quietly. My heart was full of devoutness, and my voice was that light as if there was a mute under the name of love placing on my cord, because I was afraid I would wake you up.
I walked slowly across the field and leaned quietly against the tree. I saw small quails in brushwood, small birds in trees and little squirrels in tree holes which were all under eyes of their mothers
9. I suddenly understood what I was waiting for over these more than twenty years. In those days, I often asked myself why the nature sent these wonderful bounties, like warm sunshine and green grasses.
Ever since I had you, I began to understand that the nature sent all these bounties so that you could be raised up in a better world. So my darling child, I had been waiting for you for a long time.
10. My dearest child, did you know? You were about to get out. I could sense the flushing of streams inside my body, so I knew you would be out very soon.
Your dad always hugged me gently. I was just like a veil, a veil with a child sleeping inside it.
11. My mother, your grandmother, came to see me. I flew at her chest like a little girl. I blushed and felt panic about my behavior. And then, I told her my excitement and worries.
Then your grandmother stroked my belly with her trembling hands, and I immediately felt released. I even started to lactate.
12. Your grandmother told me what to do when I was about to give birth to you. She told me how to feed you and how to stroke you gently.
She also told me that how to wash your little head days after you were born, and how to pack you up so that you would not get hurt. She even taught me the lullaby she used to sing to coax me to sleep so that you could sleep quickly and quietly.
13. I stayed awake all night to welcome the gift God gave me. My forehead was full of sweats, and my body continued to twitch.
Oh, when the sky turned bright, you finally came out. My dearest child, you finally came down to this world.
14. My dearest child, did you know? Others said after I gave birth to you, I was very weak because my blood was pumping out of my body just like grape juices flowing out of the juice extractor.
However, although I cried a lot, I still felt very happy. I held my child with my two arms. The earth gave me its blesses, because I appeared to be as healthy as a thick palm tree.
15. Ever since you were born, you would be bathed under the sunlight of my love, no matter how far you would be away from me and how old you would be.
My deepest pain is that you are hurt. My biggest happiness is that you are joy. My dear children, did you know?
End
