I broke my leg a week ago. Played ball with Lindiwe, our young German Shepherd girl and slipped when running down a hill and I just heard that bone break when I hit the ground. Now my leg is up to the knee in a cast and I am on crutches.

..selfportrait of poor me ..

dip pen and black ink in Daler rowney sketchbook, 21X29.7cm

selfportrait broken legThat is the worst…these crutches. They frustrate me beyond belief. The first few days it felt like someone on either side of my arms were pulling me apart across my chest and my leg carrying the weight felt like it was carrying a freight ship. I moved like a hiccup…in short jumps, trying my best to take a painless step forward. Each time someone tried to encourage me or applaud my effort, I felt like whacking them with the crutches. If I didn’t desperately need both crutches, I probably would have done so. I have never broken anything. Sure, many stretched or torn muscles because of sport, but never a broken something. So using these crutches was for me, the ever impatient one, a miserable punishment. But I just had to picture people less fortunate who live like this every day of their lives, and I would get up, let go of the feeling-sorry-for-myself-upper-lip and get moving.

My daughter told me to do a selfportrait of miserable-me during this time. And so I did. And it was the perfect way of taking a step back and end up laughing at myself and be grateful that it is only a broken leg.

..my children decided the white plaster is far too boring, so we decorated it a bit with a black marker..

broken leg

My next post will be on splashes, splotches and splatters. Keep an eye out if you are interested in seeing how I splash and splatter paint on paper.

à bientôt

Ronelle

24 thoughts on “A selfportrait.”

  3. Do heal quickly..pauvre petite chouette..I know you and how active you are.
    I had crutches once for a few days a few years ago..had hurt the sole of a foot gardening..digging..w/ the wrong boots..
    awkward for certain.And I do like you do..always think of people worse off..
    I have always loved your self portraits..but I have seen real photos of you…..not the same:) Tu es si belle.
    Take care take care take carexxx
    LOve the cast work..

    Reply

  5. You poor thing. And it’s summer in Dordogne! Darn it! Sketch is great and so is the comment. Looking forward to more sketches since I imagine your not to mobile at the moment. 😉 Prennez soin de vous.

    Reply

  6. Fabulous self-portrait! So sorry for this mishap and broken bone. You will be an expert with crutches before you know it. My personal experience with them taught me many things about my own body and (later) made me truly appreciate how wonderful it is to be able to get around without them. Looking forward to splashes and spatters! Get well soon.

    Reply

  8. Too sad, Ronellle. Frustrating to get use to–when it happened to me, I needed the crutches but they got in my way.

    But glorious portrait– I agree with the others that it says it all. Thankful you didn’t hurt your hands..

    Reply

  9. I feel so sorry for you ! I broke my wrist a while ago my right wrist, so there was not much I could do with my hand, now we are 4 months later and it still isn’t back to normal again but I’m getting there, slowly but surely…I wish you all the best and a speedy recovery !

    Reply

Leave a Reply to bilomathews2013 Cancel reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s