shamrock Archives - NIMLAS StudiosNIMLAS Studios

Daily Creativity: Rory has a Shamrock Feast!

I painted this Shamrock feast for Rory in honor of St Patrick’s Day. I didn’t do much this Paddy’s day. I have been growing more and more uneasy with how the holiday has been celebrated. It ends up feeling like green marti gras. where people use it as an excuse to get drunk and do stupid things. It’s not about being Irish, or celebrating the Irish. It’s not about faith. It’s just an excuse to act like frat heads. I like the idea that everyone can be Irish on Paddy’s day. I’m not against going for a pint or more with friends. I am against people doing stupid things and using this holiday (or any other) to excuse their behavior.

From the nonsense of pinching people for not wearing green, to being able to kiss or harass anyone who IS wearing green, to people driving drunk, it grosses me out. If I see one more set of green beads… and I know people reading this are thinking, I like those green beads, they are fun. Fine, I just think it is the tipping point that shows how this holiday has become more of a festival and far from the origins than anything.

Still, as a person who is second generation Irish, Paddy’s day is still special. I toasted, I had a mini celebration with a tall boy of Smithwick’s (which thankfully Tek bought for me and I didn’t have to hear the beer store clerk unable to pronounce it and pushing a hard W, ugh) and baked some soda bread and at the food my grandma loved, steak. She wasn’t a cabbage person, and the only corned beef I really remember eating growing up came with hash.

Watercolor on paper

Daily Creativity: A Shamrock for St Paddy’s Day!

Shamrocks are often associated with the Irish and St Patrick’s day, and there is a good reason for that. St Patrick used the shamrock to explain the trinity, and it was one of the things that helped me understand it as a child too. How do we say we believe in one God but then talk about Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. Much like the shamrock, it has three leaves, three sides, three aspects, but they are all one plant, one thing. So the father, the son, and the holy ghost are all the same thing, but they appear to us as separate because they come to us in different aspects of our lives. I think it’s fitting St Paddy’s day is often in the middle of lent. I know some people think it’s a pain when it lands on Friday, but to me having a lesson on the trinity right in the middle of lent is a great way to prepare. That’s what lent is all about, to me, we are preparing ourselves, we are thinking about God and how we are influenced daily, and how we can bring the teachings of Jesus into our daily life.

This description got a bit on the religious side, but it’s important when I talk about my process. I wanted to reflect the lessons I have learned from the shamrock, the lessons about the trinity. Doing this I incorporated the trinity knot into each of the leaves to put the idea in there a bit more. I made this using ink and colored pencil on natural unbleached paper.