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“Open Arms” 8×8, oil on canvas, $100 Buy Now SOLD

My eighth grade teacher made us memorize poems– everything from Tennyson to Shel Silverstein. I know all the words to the one that’s been on repeat in my mind for about a day now. This painting isn’t exactly about the poem. I drove the causeway yesterday, saw my pelicans flying towards me and wanted to return once more to the subject that I used to paint so often– pelicans, which somehow came to symbolize hope. And in a world that feels less and less hopeful, I can’t help but return to the words my teacher made me recite before the class. I don’t quite have the words at this particular moment, so this will have to suffice.  For now.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.    

–John Donne