This is the canvas that I painted to be auctioned at the Heart Ball in February. The money will go to fund heart research here in the state of Arkansas. I hope it brings a lot of money to help a lot of people.
Arvest Bank hosted the Unveiling Party this past Monday night where the fifteen artists chosen to participate each unveiled his/her painting and gave the inspiration that led to the painting of each piece. A great big thank you to Larry Choate and Arvest Bank and his wife, Mitzi, who is the Heart Ball chairwoman this year.
My inspiration for this piece:
When I started thinking about trying to paint a picture that would reflect the heart and what it does, my mind went past just the pumping of blood and the distribution of nutrient-laden oxygen throughout the body. My thoughts went to a recent interview I heard with the pilot of the airliner that went down over the Hudson River a few months ago. He said, "After I walked the aisle of the plane and saw that everyone had gotten off safely, I felt the weight of the world lift from my heart." He didn't say "lift from my chest," he said, "lift from my heart." I thought that was interesting--a "cut to the chase, straight shooting, matter of fact talking" pilot had referred to "his heart."
I had been thinking about what all the heart does besides pump blood and I chose seven words that symbolize the most important things (to me) that our hearts do. I chose seven because that is the number in scripture that symbolizes perfection. The words are love, laugh, remember, wonder, embrace, play, and believe.
No other organ of the body embodies these personal characteristics such as the heart. That God could and did create it to be a physical and emotional entity is reflective of the ingenuity, creativeness, power and love that it possesses.
Some of the vertical and horizontal lines of calligraphy are very precise but the large letters are painted very expressively--once again symbolizing the purposes of the heart but also trying to capture the emotions and rhythms of the heart, thus the title of my piece, Captured Rhythms.
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23
