Healing Hands
78" x 30"
Acrylic Paint on Wood Canvas
(This is a bathroom door)
January 2008
London, Ontario
Community effort
Healing Hands
Nearing the end of 2007, I had received a small bit of funding from the London Arts Council, to bring this painting to life! The funding covered less than half of all the costs for this project... the rest of the funding came out of my own pocket!
Since this was to be created by people in the community, I needed a venue where I could invite the public to come and participate. I found a space in London's downtown Covent Garden Market, in what was then called the John Labatt Lounge. It was located on the second floor of the market, right beside a sitting and eating area... so there was a lot of opportunity to find volunteers to participate. My stay at this venue was only five days long... so I had to work very fast to get this project done! I was at this location from January 14 through to the 19th.
Because this image is so large, I needed to find a canvas that would not bend or warp over time. I decided to use a hollow-core bathroom door, that I bought from a nearby building supply business. Special fasteners were attached to the back of the door so that it would be easy to install on a wall, wherever it was to end up!
The imagery of this painting is very easy to see... We can see the Earth in space and the aurora borealis adds a splash of pink in this painting full of greens and blues. There is a silhouette of three children reaching up towards the Earth... with their 'healing hands'! The idea I am trying to showcase revolves around how our Earth is suffering because of humanity's need for greed and how this has affected global ecosystems and how this may lead to humanity's extinction as ecosystems around the world collapse during the processes of climate change!! I've always felt that the Earth's children will be the ones that need to be educated and empowered to realize that dramatic change needs to begin, if humanity is to survive... so I've used the silhouette of the Earth's saviors... our children... to represent this 'change'!
The interesting thing about this project is that I wanted all participants to add their handprint to the canvas to create a very unique texture! Participants would trace their hand with a pencil and then use the pre-mixed paints to paint in their handprint!
Before I set up my workshop at the John Labatt Lounge, I traced my own hand a few times and painted them in, so that people would understand the concept that I was bringing to life.
A lot of work went into the promotion of this community event! If I wanted people to participate, I needed to spread the word! Directly below the room I was using in the market, was the past home of the CTV London News Morning Show! It was an easy sell for me to get the hosts of the Morning Show to join me and kick off this event by painting their handprints onto the canvas.
This broadcast went out on my first morning and I'm so glad that it did! Many people made special trips to the market for the sole purpose of participating!!!!
In this photo, you can see a few of my other artworks on display, in the background and on the left side of the photo, you can see my guitar case where I had used white paint to paint the black case with the words "Peace and love... or else"!!! This was inspired by U2's latest hit off their 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb' album - Love and Peace... Or Else!!!!
I love this video as it shows Bono (shown here) pounding
on some bongo drums with drum sticks!!!
One of these ladies was celebrating her 84th birthday, on this day! Her girlfriend saw the promotion on the Morning Show and decided that she would bring her friend down to paint their handprints onto the canvas as one part of the surprises she had planned for her, on that day!
Many other people had also seen the Morning Show and there was a fairly steady of participants coming by to join in this project, for most of the day!!!
During the afternoon, The London Free Press sent a reporter and a photographer to the studio to interview me as well as several painters, to share this story in the next day's local newspaper! I was so happy to get this kind of support from the area media... it proved to be one of the factors that made this effort a huge success!!!
The final painting was donated to the London Health Sciences Centre to help them raise money for the hospital when they had their fundraiser event that happened later that year. This aspect of the project attracted even more people to come out and lend their 'healing hand'!!!! Some of these participants had either needed the services of the hospital for their own traumas while other participants had family in the hospital, at that time, and it allowed them to show their appreciation for the hospital staff, in a unique way!
The painter shown in the newspaper story (above) is actually the reporter who came down to do the interviews!!!! Not only did she want to share the story... she wanted to participate, as well!
The next morning, I arrived at the studio space and there were people lined up waiting for me to begin!!! I was shocked and amazed! Quickly, I unlocked the doors and got the paints ready and people got busy adding their 'healing hands' to the canvas!!!
I was also thrilled when parents showed up with their children!
The youngest painter was a six month old baby named Destiny! Her mom traced Destiny's hand and painted the handprint for her daughter!!! This made me smile from the tips of my toes to the end of my hair!!!!
The story in the London Free Press spread far and wide! The next day, an entire class of students from a nearby elementary school came to participate! The teacher said that she had read the story in the newspaper and she thought her class would love to get involved!!! That was probably the busiest 75 minutes of the entire event... there were a lot of students there and I had to keep them all very busy!!
Many people who do not live in London, participated, as well! I can remember three people with large back-packs coming to the studio to see what was going on. They were from Germany and they were on a trip across Canada. They were in London for just that one day. When I explained what the project was about, they eagerly got involved!!!!
While I continued with the work, I was approached by two ladies who asked if I could share my space with them as they were also involved in community outreach efforts that were designed to inspire Londoners to care for our local environment! I had a rather lengthy phone conversation with Maryanne MacDonald, the night before, and I was more than happy to share my space with her group!
Maryanne and I are still connected (2021) through Facebook and over the years we have supported each other on many community projects! I would guess that it was in 2012 or 2013 when Maryanne had created a TV series for Rogers London called 'Ecovox'. In each program, she would put together a series of interviews with Londoners who were doing things to heal our Earth's environment! At that time, I was employed as a school bus driver and my bus had become know throughout the city as The Peacebus!!! I was one of the features in her show!!! A year or so later, I made a video to demonstrate how our thoughts can also heal the Earth and The Peacebus segment of her show was a part of my video!
London has several other media publications to share stories and news with residents who speak Italian, Chinese or French. On the second last day of this event, I was visited by a reporter from L'Action... the French newspaper! It was a monthly publication, so even though the story of this project did not come out until after the painting was done, I was very impressed to see that my photo had made the front page!!!
The project was finished on time and it looked so wonderful! I am so grateful for the many people who got involved and made this effort a huge success!!!! After the painting was completed, I took it home and gave it a finishing coat of varnish before taking it to the London hospital, where it stayed on display all summer long before it became a part of that autumn's fundraiser event!!!!
I was not allowed to know who ended up giving the highest bid on this art (this project became a part of the silent auction portion of the fundraiser event) and I'll often wonder where it is, these days!?? I hope that it is continuing to bring smiles to people's faces!!!!
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