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| 1. Birth A Personal Note from the Artist |
It has been said that all of Life is a play and we are but actors
on a stage. Thus, the name for the series, 12 Stages of LifeTM.
Each of us does not necessarily share all the same Stages;
some of us may improvise a bit.
Not everybody gets married. Not everybody has children.
Some people never retire. But even if we don’t experience
those stages, we know friends or family that do. So
I have tried to prioritize 12 Stages that we as humans
experience collectively, while perhaps not individually. These
are the 12 I have personally interpreted as being experienced
by more of us than less of us. But in the end, we each create
our own.
However, the first one is kind of required to be cast in the
play—Birth.
This drawing is a celebration of the very beginning of the
human experience, our debut stage appearance, if you will.
It represents an explosion of the myriad array of emotions
we will experience over the span of our entire physical journey.
I wanted to show a young father who has experienced a life
changing moment. He’s just helped in the birth of his child and
on a stage. Thus, the name for the series, 12 Stages of LifeTM.
Each of us does not necessarily share all the same Stages;
some of us may improvise a bit.
Not everybody gets married. Not everybody has children.
Some people never retire. But even if we don’t experience
those stages, we know friends or family that do. So
I have tried to prioritize 12 Stages that we as humans
experience collectively, while perhaps not individually. These
are the 12 I have personally interpreted as being experienced
by more of us than less of us. But in the end, we each create
our own.
However, the first one is kind of required to be cast in the
play—Birth.
This drawing is a celebration of the very beginning of the
human experience, our debut stage appearance, if you will.
It represents an explosion of the myriad array of emotions
we will experience over the span of our entire physical journey.
I wanted to show a young father who has experienced a life
changing moment. He’s just helped in the birth of his child and
| Actual Image Size: 16”x 20” |
| Copyright Bruce Carnahan All Rights Reserved |
12 Stages of LifeTM
| 1. BIRTH |
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| * The Circular Copyright Mark you see overlapping each Picture only appears online for protection against electronic internet theft. The prints you purchase do not have any such mark. |
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| About the Artist |
left with a sort of “losin’ it” look on his face.
Outfitted in hospital scrubs, he isn’t in his normal paradigm anyway. After what he’s just been through, he’s lost
his inhibition and showing his jubilance in a crazy sort of way as he holds his child for the first time. Months of
worrying about whether everything is going to be all right are now buried by the sheer ecstasy of relief. As a
result, you can see the playful inner child that was locked away inside is now overshadowing the serious,
methodical grownup.
Imagine however the distress felt by the real newborn child as it is ejected from the peaceful, warm, tranquil
floating existence in the womb and forced through a harrowing tight squeeze down the birth canal into blinding
light and cold like none the child has ever experienced. No wonder newborns scream in defiance upon entry
into our atmosphere! Rudely thrust against their will into this unknown alien environment, they are probably
feeling shock, dismay, fear, panic, confusion, hysteria—even anger.
Joy however, fills the room. The parents, for the most part oblivious to the newborn’s point of view, are
teeming with excitement, satisfaction and hope. Dreams begin to form, priorities begin to shift. Responsibility
and duty replace self-indulgence and wanderlust. A sense of accomplishment and relief overwhelms them.
I tried to hint at many of these emotions on the face of both the father and newborn. Also note the body
language of the newborn, with hands and feet drawn and clinched in expressions of pure emotions, extracting
the ultimate expression this new physical body is capable of.
Feelings experienced in childbirth are indeed a synopsis of the feelings of the whole of Life itself, as
represented in 12 Stages of LifeTM.
Meanwhile, the newborn is experiencing the antithesis of the parents’ emotions. With all familiar boundaries
lost, the child flails its arms wildly, trying to relocate the soft resistance and support of familiar embryonic fluid
and uterine walls. Confusion and panic have now set in. As the moments pass, anger arises, and the infant
discovers how to express these new emotions with screams as it masters the capacity and function of
newfound lungs. For many nights to come. The newborn has made a debut onto the Stage of Life with its own
soliloquy.
So birth, as I tried to depict it, really is a birth of the great variety of human emotions. A fitting opening act for
the many Stages of Life.
Outfitted in hospital scrubs, he isn’t in his normal paradigm anyway. After what he’s just been through, he’s lost
his inhibition and showing his jubilance in a crazy sort of way as he holds his child for the first time. Months of
worrying about whether everything is going to be all right are now buried by the sheer ecstasy of relief. As a
result, you can see the playful inner child that was locked away inside is now overshadowing the serious,
methodical grownup.
Imagine however the distress felt by the real newborn child as it is ejected from the peaceful, warm, tranquil
floating existence in the womb and forced through a harrowing tight squeeze down the birth canal into blinding
light and cold like none the child has ever experienced. No wonder newborns scream in defiance upon entry
into our atmosphere! Rudely thrust against their will into this unknown alien environment, they are probably
feeling shock, dismay, fear, panic, confusion, hysteria—even anger.
Joy however, fills the room. The parents, for the most part oblivious to the newborn’s point of view, are
teeming with excitement, satisfaction and hope. Dreams begin to form, priorities begin to shift. Responsibility
and duty replace self-indulgence and wanderlust. A sense of accomplishment and relief overwhelms them.
I tried to hint at many of these emotions on the face of both the father and newborn. Also note the body
language of the newborn, with hands and feet drawn and clinched in expressions of pure emotions, extracting
the ultimate expression this new physical body is capable of.
Feelings experienced in childbirth are indeed a synopsis of the feelings of the whole of Life itself, as
represented in 12 Stages of LifeTM.
Meanwhile, the newborn is experiencing the antithesis of the parents’ emotions. With all familiar boundaries
lost, the child flails its arms wildly, trying to relocate the soft resistance and support of familiar embryonic fluid
and uterine walls. Confusion and panic have now set in. As the moments pass, anger arises, and the infant
discovers how to express these new emotions with screams as it masters the capacity and function of
newfound lungs. For many nights to come. The newborn has made a debut onto the Stage of Life with its own
soliloquy.
So birth, as I tried to depict it, really is a birth of the great variety of human emotions. A fitting opening act for
the many Stages of Life.