" What is the message I need to paint?"
This was an odd one because the words
"Moon Man & Nightingale"
came through loud & clear.
The nightingale has a long history with symbolic associations ranging from "creativity, the muse, nature's purity, and, in Western spiritual tradition, virtue and goodness. The nightingale became a voice of nature.
I looked online for images of this bird and suddenly it hit me. This was not just about a bird ...it was about Florence Nightingale.
I was raised by a father, who in our small community in Timmins, Ontario, was a beloved family Physician and an Artist in his spare time. My direction originally was medicine, yet from the age of 4, I knew Art was my Saving Grace.
Florence Nightingale devoted her life to her passion-helping the sick.
This Image is dedicated to all those Powerful Brave Souls who spend each day caring for others and putting their own lives at risk for all of us.
A Personal Story...
My middle name is Mary. It was only in my 40's after my father passed that I found out I was named after my father's favorite patient.
My father never showed emotions, yet when Mary died and my father could not save her, my Dad's nurse, Isobel Finnerty (who later in life became the right hand Senator in the Canadian Government to Trudeau) told me that she walked into Dad's office and found him weeping at his desk. Just the thought of my brave, larger than life father weeping still brings me to tears.
SO TO YOU ..Doctors, Nurses, Scientists, First Responders:
THANK YOU AND BLESS YOU AND MAY THE SPIRITS WHO GUIDE MY PAINT BRUSH EVERY DAY KEEP YOU SAFE.
I begin each painting by putting strokes of paint on canvas or paper and then wait for the direction I hear from the voices in my head.