A little while ago I share a mixed media project that I felt would be a good way to introduce others to art. You can see the blog post here. The beginning of the month some ladies from my painting chapter Penn’s Woods Painters and myself did this project at the Ronald McDonald house in our area. The project was open to patients and family members. These are the happy faces of our helpers.
Our members assisted each of the patients and family members to create their own personal masterpiece on a 9″x12″ canvas going through the step x step process. Oh course we followed the rule that there are no rules and everyone could do what made them happy. We did not take any pictures of them to protect their privacy, but I can tell you everyone was happy with their projects. I would like to think the time they spent creating was a little escape from their everyday concerns….and that makes it all worth it.
We were asked to do the project by a group called “Red Shoe Crew”. They are a group of young professionals that support the Ronald MacDonald House Charities. It was a joy to work with this group.
They had brought a large canvas that was about 2’x3’and they wanted the kids to make a work of art to be auctioned off at their gala. The Red Shoe Crew created the background just like we did on the smaller canvas with the assistance of kids. They put on the canvas a vase and works of encouragement and a few red shoes. Each of the kids had their hand painted and pressed into the canvas, we then turned them into flowers.
This is a picture of the amazing Red Shoe Crew, what a blessing they are to the Ronald McDonald house.
And this is a closeup of the art piece that was created for the gala.
Each person we worked with was a delight and they appreciated all that we were doing for them, but truly we were the ones being blessed. I would like to share with you one story with you from the evening:
One mother whose daughter was in the hospital was telling us that her daughter’s room at the hospital was decorated in elephants. Her daughter’s name was Evelyn and when she was born her siblings could not pronounce her name correctly, they would call her “Elephine”. When they were shopping for her baby book and some other things the siblings found things with elephants on them and thought they would be perfect for her since that was her name. Before anyone got there one of the ladies in our group was cutting different shapes out of paper and laying them on the tables in case some one wanted to use them in their projects. One thing she cut out was a yellow elephant….of course it was laying on the table near this mother. She saw it just as she was finishing her project. It was truly a God moment. I love when those things happen.
I encourage you to share the love of art with others, they will be blessed and so will you.
Jane
What a wonderful act of love! I’m sure this was a time for the patients and their families to forget about their illness and just enjoy creating. Thank you for thinking of others and making their lives a little brighter!
Thank you for your kind words Glenda, I do hope it was a blessing to them.