We now have 3 wildcards in the Gratitude Blooming products – the sweetpea and the lilac branch in our card deck and a new tiger lily introduced in our notecard collection. By wildcards, we mean there is a drawing of a plant but unlike the rest of the drawings, it does not have a word or theme associated to it.  

Card 35: The Lilac

Like the sweetpea, this lilac branch was drawn after the 100 day project was over so I didn’t pair it with a word. We thought it would be fun and perhaps a bit challenging :)  to have a couple cards in the deck where you could imagine your own messages of gratitude coming through the drawing.

This particular lilac branch caught my eye in the garden at a time when I was feeling exhausted in my art practice. The branch was actually dead, but when drawing it, it seemed to come back to life looking as though it might bud and bloom again. 

Art amazes me in that it can really change our perception of the world. When drawing this branch, I felt the thin line between death and life, absence and abundance - sort of like what happens when you speed up  time and watch autumn lead to winter and then winter to spring and so on. The branch seemed to want me to know that even in the bareness and silence of its season, there is an incredible amount of possibility, life and beauty still present.

Looking at the drawing now, I feel it captures the stark beauty of the natural season of this plant’s life and provides a reminder of the bold spirit present within each of us even in what can feel like our darkest, coldest hours.

Card 36: The Sweet Pea

When I tried to remember why these wildcard images didn’t have a word in them, I realized that these two drawings were ones that I made after finishing the 100 day project. So when I drew these two plants, I didn’t think of pairing the drawing with a word.

That said, almost every drawing I make, whether it turns out well or not, or if I draw a word with it or not, is usually driven by a feeling. And what I do remember about drawing this sweetpea is that I felt a sense of weightlessness, a defiance of gravity because the stalk I chose to draw grew horizontal instead of vertical to the ground. When sweetpeas grow, its stalk has tendrils that latch onto anything it can in its surroundings to support it which allows growth in all sorts of unpredictable directions. So this single delicate flower almost felt like it was floating and held by the leaves around it – the bloom was suspended in air and reaching out like it was trying to get my attention.

When we decided to include these wildcard drawings in the gratitude card deck, we thought it could be fun to give others a chance to have the same experience I did when drawing these plants… to really look at it and see if it had some words or wisdom to share. So with this sweet sweetpea, we invite you to really look at the drawing (or if possible, try to experience this plant in person yourself!) and see if it has something to say to you.

To me, the single flower does seem to be reaching out to ask you to notice it. Is there a message of gratitude or wisdom that comes up? We hope the wildcards in the deck will inspire you to notice, and perhaps even draw, other “wild” plants out there that may have something to teach us when you take some time to really notice it.

Card 40: Tiger Lilies

We added this tiger lily as our 40th drawing in the new notecard collection as part of our garden of joy. We’ve always viewed the wildcards as cards that could inspire your imagination and the messages it has for you and for our community.

If it helps to have some context, I drew these tiger lilies after reading the first chapter of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. I was moved by the lines:

“Go visit the Prairies in June, when for scores on scores of miles you wade knee-deep among tiger-lilies…“

And at the end of the first chapter, I’ve always loved these lines. They feel like an invitation to enter into a dream world of your wildest imagination.

“...the great flood-gates of the wonder-world swung open, and in the wild conceits that swayed me to my purpose, two and two there floated into my inmost soul, endless processions of the whale, and, midmost of them all, one grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air.”

What comes up when you visit the Prairies in June in your own opening wonder-world? We’d love to hear what gratitude arises when you pause and take a closer look at this drawing.