When Failure Facilitates

Maya* has been quite creative during the past few weeks of isolation, painting for both pleasure and her school portfolio, producing pop art to decorate her room with, and cooking delicious meals. She also tried her hand at making bath bombs. Lacking the customary tools for such an endeavour, she used a mini cake mould in the shape of a butterfly to hold the mix, which she had laced with green food colouring .

When the “bomb” had settled for long enough in the fridge, we stood over a large blue bowl, excited to see the butterfly fizzle as it entered the “bath”. Instead it simply sank to the bottom in silence. As the butterfly slowly crumbled at the bottom like a shipwreck, it began to resemble a Rorschach ink blot. We documented the destruction.

Rorschach developed ink blots as tools for psychological tests. What you see in the blot is said to be a reflection of how you feel. We saw beauty, freedom and the sea.

*Maya is my inspired and inspiring daughter. Her name will appear frequently in these pages, as she is not only my greatest love, but also my muse and my teacher.