This set of 3 sunflowers have been donated to the 28th annual Banff Midsummer Ball silent auction, taking place at the Banff Centre from July 20th to 22nd, 2007.
Sunflowers – 28th Banff Midsummer Ball donation
Romanian Flowers – Last wishes
I help out as a Palliative Care Crisis Volunteer at the Sarcee Hospice. Officially my job is to sit with patients and families and help them deal with this very difficult transition in their lives, or in the case of people without family, to make sure no one dies alone.
Unfortunately, life’s been a bit crazy lately (good crazy, but crazy all the same) and I haven’t had much time to be there the past few months. I was feeling guilty about not having the time to be there – I usually volunteer once a week – and thought I’d donate 2 hangings to act as me by proxy (if I can’t be there in person, I can be there in acrylic). I came into the hospice to drop off the 2 hangings and Sandy (the social worker) was telling me this amazing story of one of their newer patients. Sophia (not patient’s real name) was originally from Romania and immigrated to Canada 20 years ago. She had not seen her son since she left Romania (he remained there) and it was her wish to be reunited with him again before she died. The hospice worked feverishly with the local MLA to cut through all the red tape and arrange a visa to fly her son in from Romania for a visit. He had arrived just the day before and they were reunited at long last. Sandy started to tell me the incredible life story of this patient, and right away I wanted to meet her.
Wall Flowers
Name could be construed as a double entendre. Yes, they are flowers and yep, they are upon my wall. Also not-so-coincidentally the name of one of my favourite Peter Gabriel songs (“though you may disappear, you’re not forgotten here…†Chills anyone?).
Again, these painting arose simply out of the need to fill a space on a wall in my new house. I can’t say I am a fan of sunflowers in particular (or flowers in general – sunflower, dandelion… they all look the same to me ), but do like the way they turned out.
The other nice thing about these is that, unlike a wall hanging, I can paint these in one or two sittings. So there is a bit of instant gratification, which is a nice change from staring at the same canvas for weeks on end.