Saturday, November 23, 2024

All the Moments: Emily the ER Nurse at MCAD Sale


Sometime in 2017
HONORING Emma who brought you two hot sandwiches after you
had not eaten for twelve hours in the ER 

Honoring the Old Memories
Emily who remembers me from ER so long Ago

Last night I was at the MCAD sale with my work surrounding me like a peacocks tail open around me. The moments and the decades revealed...that's when I painted waterlilies by the Mississippi with Pat..that's the Romanina flower market I found beauty and inspiration in Cluj after my group saw the sign on the synagogue saying the Jews were rounded up fro Aushwitz there, here is my backyard, and the cardinal amid the flowering crab tree in the front yard...here it is all of it! The winter water lilies at Walker Art Center Conservatory long ago

And then Emily stops. I smile as she has my mother's name and then she remembers..
"I know You" I remember you!" You sat and painted everyone in the ER when
you were there with your late husband. And then I remember too.
I am no longer at this nice bustling art sale with a glass of white wine in my hand,
booming music and my memories and art arrayed around me.
I remember those nights.
When I called 911 so desperately 
when the minutes ticked by like hours 
and the siren's shrill call was comforting
because I knew help was close and on the way

after the men in heavy clothes evaluated you
after you were helped out to the ambulance
I ran out the back door with my
sketch book, paints and snacks.
I knew what to pack for these moments.

after the relief of finding you in 9B
or 8C or 7A settled in 
I created a small studio that was the extra chair in the ER room

the ghosts of those there just before us had not left
and we were there to endure the hours.

that's when I drew Emily
She said:
"You just painted and painted"
and I did
It was how I navigated the hours and uncetainties
as the Divine Hand held us.

The years have rolled by
but when an ambulance shrieks by ...
I remember all of it again

Emily and I hug.
I weep for what was

as I sit there in the splendor 
remembering the past
and enjoying those I draw in the moment




How it was
ER that Time.  ER this time.  ER that time


                                                        

          

  











 

Drawing My Way Through:Musings and Moments Week of November 15 to November 23rd

 Drawing My Way Through:Musings and Moments November 2024

  • By returning to this Blog I hope to communicate my inner life of drawing in the moment and 
  • paying attention to how my life flows by in an often lyrical way.

Ongoing Meaningful Relationships at MCAD

PAINTING WITH BELLA

Over the last year and a half I have been able to renew my relationship to MCAD and the students there. I leap effortlessly through the 50 years since I graduated from there in 1974 and continue to have meaningful experiences there including being a part of Art Sale, and Auction.

Once upon a time I set up art projects for dear Bella at the private Jewish Day School I taught at. She is a student at MCAD and invited me to paint with her and others last friday. So it was poignant to have her set up a project for me as I had once done for her. The small paintings we did are being given to residents at Ebenezer Nursing Home. A very weary place I once worked.

But I know these paintings will bring Joy!!

As always I feel like a water lily that has spiraled up through the complex waters of the years to Bloom on the Surface in Splendor once again!

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Balance and Beauty
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