FAMILY ART SHARES A JOYFUL GRIEF

It all started with a hurricane named Katrina.The children at North Bay Elementary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi no longer had a place to play. A group of fireman who had been first responders at 911 volunteered to build them a new playground.This was the birth of the "Where Angels Play Foundation". (See featured post at right.)

 Since then they have built 47 playgrounds up and down the east coast, Canada, and even one in Rwanda. Most of the playgrounds have been built in memory of children who died much too young. These projects include 26 playgrounds erected in memory of the Sandy Hook victims.

Many of the playgrounds feature art created by the children: 

Playground in Ocean City, N.J. in memory of Sandy Hook victim, Benjamin Wheeler.

Playground number 48 is scheduled to be built in Sarasota, Florida, in April. It is being built in memory of our boys, Chris, who passed at age 14 from cancer, and his younger brother, Jarrod, who died in an accident at age 21. To have our children associated with this tremendous act of love is an indescribable honor. Click here for more info.

So, like the other parents we were invited to contribute art for our playground. But as we dug through our boys' childhood drawings most of what we found were battle scenes with flaming tanks and smoking airplanes plummeting through the sky. Typical boy stuff, but not quite appropriate for a peaceful playground.

Being an artist, I set out to create a fitting memorial for our boys. For Chris, it would be feathers. In my book Christopher's Journey there is a chapter entitled "A Feather Under My Pillow" which tells that magical story. Read more. Chris also had a huge collection of Star Wars Legos. This inspired my first drawing:

Psalm 91:4: He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

Then I had a wonderful idea. Why not invite family members to contribute their art ?! One of my husband, Rob's, favorite memories with Chris was a beautiful day at sea when they caught a hammerhead shark. (Of course they threw it back.) To commemorate that occasion our granddaughter, Saradi, sketched this:

Our Jarrod was a gifted athlete. So our nephew, Sean, drew this image honoring Jarrod's prowess on his bike:

My sister, Maureen, had several unusual butterfly encounters after the boys went to be with the Lord:

Perhaps most touching of all was our eight year old granddaughter, Skyla's, tribute to Uncle Jarrod's love of fishing and all things aquatic:

You gotta love those lips!

It has been my immense pleasure to integrate these drawings, and more, into a completed design. The final image will be a two color etching displayed at our playground that will be unveiled in April. I can't wait to share it with you!

 Perhaps you too are grieving and have family members who are able to express their love in some creative way:

• Woodworking
• Quilting
• Gardening
• Collage
• Poetry
• Mural
• Sculpture
• Scrapbooking
• Music

For more ideas click here.

As for my family and myself we count ourselves grateful that our project is one that will benefit our entire community and connect us with other grieving families around the world. Best of all our artwork will be bathed in the laughter of children.

Exodus 35:35 ESV / 

He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer

Have you designed memorial art? I would love to see it. Did this blog post inspire you to create? Tell us about it. I would enjoy sharing your projects in a future blog.