Using Your Wings: Mrs. C

The Mission of Using Your Wings:

My newest body of work is one that interprets and reflect the repetition of patterns found in nature, with an emphasis on winged creatures, flight, and the element of uplift. By studying these patterns, my goal is to create artwork that require the viewer to take on another perspective. Is it a tulip, or a bird in its nest feeding her young? A point of light in a shadowy cleft, or the stamen of an iris? And how does this relate to the human notion of resilience? What if “okay” is not at all what one imagined it to be? One is never the same person once returned from a difficult journey. What tools are needed, and how does one find them? How do you learn about Using Your Wings?

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Mrs. C

This female cardinal is often found visiting our feeders in the front yard. She is rather shy and timid, but one Winter's day, in the middle of a snowstorm, she sat peacefully on the tree branch. She was at rest while the storm swirled around her. Her feathers were fluffed up to protect her from the cold. I wanted to capture that stillness on canvas. Oh that my soul would practice peace in the midst of storminess. It takes just that...practice...through experiencing and engaging with life as it comes. One day at a time, and sometimes simply one moment at a time.
~~Using Your Wings 2016

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The Mission of Using Your Wings

Who will benefit from this project? Anyone who engages in viewing the paintings! My plan is to donate several paintings to Maine agencies in locations where the painting can be viewed publically, and perhaps, for a few moments, the beholder can consider a different perspective in the midst of troubles. Included, but not limited to, are treatment rooms in cancer wings of hospitals, Hospice houses, community centers involved in healing, and similar locales. Others will be purchased by individuals and corporations who are moved to do so by the concept or the painting itself.

How did Using Your Wings get its start?

Six months prior to being diagnosed with cancer for the 4^th time, I noticed repeating patterns and shapes in the environment before me. Rivulets of water on the beach left imprints in the sand that reminded me of chickadee wings I had just captured with my camera. Clouds behind a sunset, and their reflections on the water, were shaped like a dragonfly. The more I opened my mind to this phenomenon of looking at things from another perspective, the more I saw, and the more inspired I became to build a body of work.

When faced with cancer yet again, I applied this notion to my situation: I had to adopt a different, new perspective or else find myself mired in self-pity and despair. I had to dig deep to see the gift of each day. I had to develop a habit of resilience. Spending time in the outdoors of our most beautiful state of Maine, watching and recording her flora, seasons, and beings, helped to foster fortitude in my heart and soul. From new patterns emerged new truths and choices. And if this pattern of human nature repeats, what does it accomplish? Is it not our duty to help others who are traveling just a few steps behind us on the same path?

Using Your Wings