I need to back up just a little to give you the context of “the push”.
In November of 1984 our daughter was taken off the street on her way home from school. Now this is a huge story and I will just touch the tips of the waves. Six and a half weeks later she was found frozen to death, bound in a brickyard shed a few blocks from our home. Twenty-seven years later, when we had given up and were resigned to the fact that we would never know what happened, to our shock and amazement, a man was arrested in May of 2007 and charged with first degree murder for what he had done all those years ago.
In June of 2010, I was able to rent a space for my own personal art studio. And I began to create.
In August of that year the preliminary hearing began. Two things happened. First, to attend the hearing I had to place my business into what I refer to as “holiday” mode. This meant, I hired a staff person to carry my phone and take care of my staff and their cleaning needs, resupplying supplies, fixing vacuums etc. He also took care of all extra work such as stripping and waxing floors or after construction cleaning, on a contractual basis. I took care of hiring and firing of staff and the financial end of things.
Secondly, I took my sketchbook with me to the courtroom and tentatively began to do a little sketching. I drew the judge. I did one of the defense lawyers. I could not believe myself…I was doing it. I met a sketch artist hired by the media to do some drawings for the news…we connected. Something had moved.
On January 17, 2011 the trail began. Again, I placed my business on holiday mode and took my sketchbook to the courtroom. Now the emotions just could not be ignored. I was no longer sketching only the guards, the jury or lawyers. Suddenly I was drawing a lawyer decked out with military armor firing at the witness stand. DNA, wolf like characters appeared. Then I drew my guardian angel….
In June of the same year the curator of the Mennonite Heritage Gallery and Wilma met. She’d resigned from her job having earlier scheduled an art show for victims. She was going to let him know there would now be no show. He suggested that they keep the dates open for a showing by her husband (me!) and our daughter Odia. Wilma came to me and asked if I’d be willing/able to do an art show of my work beginning January 27 the following year, 2012. This was seven months away. I had three pieces at that time. “Well,” I said, “I’ve checked my calendar and I just happen to be clear for showing on those dates, I do have three pieces now, so with seven months to go….well really that should be no problem. of course, I will do it!”
Was I learning to fly? Oh yes. That there was “the push” I had needed, and I was truly flying. It was erratic, it was scary and wild, but I was in flight! I put my business on permanent “holiday mode” and began to flap and flutter my wings creating art for that show. I changed how I lived. I cut out a lot of things and began to create work reflecting what I and my family had gone through during the past year. Remember, I’d said I would do the art thing when I retired. It is interesting how this all came together with the trials which were very emotional experiences. I just could not help but express my feelings through my art during such impacting experiences. I was unsure and unsteady but I was in flight and that was the miracle of it all.
“Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows?”
Isaiah 60:8
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