A candle burns.

I posted some of the pieces that I have been working on in my CED Blog...but the picture that has meant the most to me is the one that I made yesterday...hoping that the image will pay proper tribute to those innocent lives lost on Friday, December 14th at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.  


Please note: I am posting this version on my various social media pages and my website so that others can share as they wish.

The shooting of twenty-six people...almost all were children...completely, utterly senseless.  Horrific.

When I heard this on Friday...I just wept.  I cannot imagine what the families must be going through. And so close to the holidays.

It made me think back to the years I taught K-2...all those little folks, excited and so full of life.  I just cannot fathom anyone wanting to hurt a child.  I don't want to understand such evil.  I just want to make art, hoping that it will help in the healing process, or at the very least commemorate the lives lost on that terrible day.

Yesterday I spent the day with my husband.  We were at City Place in West Palm Beach.  They were having a 'Snow Day', which attracted a pretty big crowd- mostly children.  Walking around watching the kids so excited about one little patch of 'snow' in sunny South Florida...and just feeling their general holiday excitement... I just kept thinking about the children lost in Newtown.  I enjoyed my afternoon, but I kept finding myself with tears in my eyes, my heart heavy.

So last night I made this piece, CED #350.  My theme has been 'celebrations' and I have been working with a Christmas theme, most recently whimsical girls with candy cane hair.  The piece I made last night uses the same motifs found in the work from the series but has a more somber feel to it.  It represents taking a minute to remember those lost, and to remember to 'celebrate' those that you love.  

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In progress

And I started another piece last night.  

I have been thinking about this piece since Friday night and I finally started it.  I am working with a female image, an angel,  and the idea of releasing butterflies...twenty-six butterflies, souls, that have left us.  


Us.  The collective us who are mourning this loss, a whole nation of people who stood still and wept when we heard the news.


And this is all I know to do, make some art.  Send it off.  Hope that it will provide some comfort to someone, somewhere.

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The piece as it unfolded last night...will see where it takes me today.

And I want to end this blog post on a lighter note.  I just have to.  

Yesterday, we missed the Macy's Santa but there was still paper there for mailing letters to him, so I took my time to send him a special note for all the kids out there...

Seriously, sending love to nephew and little cousins and to my 'kids'...aka my STUDENTS! Current and past, I love ya'll!