Linda is one of our featured artists for our Don’t Send Me A Card e-cards. She shares her love for art, especially through the pandemic.
I have no formal art education except at school when I was young. I always loved to draw and paint or create things and I never stopped.
I created the bouquet for my homepage initially, as I chose the name “Linda Bouquet“ for my work as an artist some years ago. I was thinking of the Bob Goddard quote, “happiness is the art of making a bouquet of those flowers within reach.” I try to keep that in mind whenever I wish for even more new things in my life.
I love the bouquet as it shows the harmony of something made of very different things. Like a life with many different feelings, people, and experiences in it or a group of people (like friends, or my retreat group) who form a wonderful entity even though they are so very different. At their core we are all flowers, and all perfect. I am getting philosophic here.
The fruit and vegetable pictures relate to the diet pilar of OMS. I’ve followed the OMS lifestyle for more than 5 years now and I like fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as dancing and parties. So, during the Covid pandemic, I tried to invent funny scenes with all these colourful things in my kitchen to cheer me up.
These colourful natural things are not so much in a “still life” but rather living their “full life.” In the end I made 12 pictures, so I was able to print a calendar. I painted a lot in the garden during summer, which inspired some of these designs.
Of course, the last two years have been really challenging for everyone.
I was diagnosed in 2014 and found the Overcoming MS program shortly thereafter. I’m the Ambassador for the Hamburg Circle in Germany.
In 2020, the results of my MRI were no evidence of disease activity (NEDA), the best possible MRI result for a person with MS. But since then, I had some small new symptoms – I hope without damage in my brain.
I guess these have surfaced because of pandemic-related stress. I am still very thankful I have found Overcoming MS and I cling to it thoroughly because I think it gives me hope and an evidence-based compass of how to deal with any crisis, not only MS.
My newly found balance since my kids have grown up including my new artist’s work (stage, songs, and painting) has been challenged like so many others because I was very restricted in my possibilities during lockdown with many gigs cancelled. With the OMS routines I feel rooted, but it is hard on me, nonetheless.
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You can purchase e-cards through Don’t Send Me a Card featuring designs by Linda and other OMSers. All donations benefit the Overcoming MS mission of informing, supporting and empowering people affected by MS worldwide.
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