A few weeks ago I lost a very dear family member, my dad’s partner Sherrie Arsenault.
She was a bright, positive and loving spirit with a fierce devotion to her family. She lived so much of her life for her two daughters, all her grandchildren, and also my Dad. She overcame a difficult upbringing to do all that she could to create health and happiness within herself and all her relationships and in my mind she more than succeeded.
We watched her long battle with ovarian cancer unfold for the last 3 years, until medicine finally ran out of good options for her and cancer won. It was awful, but she woke up with a smile on her face, and full of gratitude for every day right up till the end. She was an inspiration in that way and others for me too.
Sherrie was an avid birder and inspired me to take my casual enjoyment of backyard birds a bit further. I will forever be grateful to her for that, as birding has already brought me more joy than I could have imagined and will likely be a lifelong hobby. Sherrie was also an artist and we shared that creative energy. She was always a creator but going to art school later in life led her down a path that she had always dreamed of but had not yet been able to fulfill. She practiced many mediums but particularly loved pastels. Her pastels are my favorite of the pieces in her collection, and I am lucky to have some in my life to regularly enjoy. A couple of her boat pieces are pictured below. After her diagnosis she was not able to make art any longer, changing her focus to managing her care and giving the rest of her energy to her loved ones. I always thought if it was me in her position that I would be in the studio creating all the time, but I guess I am not so sure now. I can only imagine what was in her mind behind the love and the smile and I know we are all grateful that she chose to send her love and energy outward.
Since her passing I have inherited her collection of art supplies, including a professional collection of pastel sets. I feel an inspiration and a duty to make good use of them. I have not worked with pastels since college so it will be a steep learning curve as I experiment with them. I will try to find the courage to post some of my amateur pastel experiments, but there may also be a lot that just go in the garbage can. Its a challenging medium! I hope with Sherrie’s tools and inspiration, that this is the beginning of more experimental work for me. I have been craving that recently anyway. We will see what happens, but I hope at least Sherrie would be happy knowing they are going to be enjoyed no matter what the artistic outcomes are.
