Buried Treasure

Seth Apter , who recently participated with this gorgeous piece in the dots and dashes Stencil Test Drive,

by Seth Apter: http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/2013/06/mixed-media-morse-code.html

has created a wonderful blog hop happening, called "Buried Treasure."  He has invited bloggers to reach back into their archives and re-post a post that is "buried." 

I reached back to last summer for a post about discovering a Holocaust survivor in my community. 

The post is called Heroes and Heroines Among Us, originally posted on August 6, 2012:  

On Friday, I played in a round robin tennis game with my dad.  Midway through, I had to use a restroom, and one of the men watching offered his nearby bungalow.  His mom was inside.  She's a sweet, tiny woman -- probably barely 5 feet tall, who visits every summer.  As we exchanged pleasantries about how lovely it is here at Pine Lake Park, I noticed the numbers tattooed on the inside of her forearm.   I had had no idea.

It turns out that Regina and Victor Lewis, my neighbor's parents, survived the Holocaust in an amazing story that intersects with Schindler's list.  You can read about it here.  I have known her for many years, and had no idea of the horrors she endured and the miracle that she survived!  It made me think about the people we encounter every day -- we have no idea of their back stories.  We think they are ordinary when they are probably extraordinary.

Reading the Lewis's story, I wondered whether Regina looked at the starry skies over Auschwitz and wondered if she would see Victor again.  The unlikelihood of ever seeing him again must have been overwhelming.  Even if she had known of his daring escape from the cattle car bringing his family to death, to believe that she would survive and that they would reunite would have surely been too much to bear.

Immediately after reading their story, I created this collage on a 12" x 12" canvas with a rough sketch of an angel in the stars:

I painted in the background using paint chips (more fexible than a plastic card) to drag various colors across the textured background:

And then more collage, more paint, some stamping and stencilling, and the words "I think of you in starry skies" from the song "Sound of Winter."  The next part of that lyric is "I keep you so alive."  Regina and her beloved Victor found each other after the war.  Perhaps it was their love that kept them alive.  I hope you'll read their story.

http://jessicasporn.blogspot.com/2013/06/buried-treasure.html

You can find this canvas in my canvas in my Etsy shop.  

I hope you will go to Seth's blog and visit the other artists revealing their buried treasures.  I've already discovered so many cool techniques and have been so inspired from visiting artists I know and love, and those I'm just discovering!

Linking to Paint Party Friday.  Thank you so much Kristin and Eva for hosting such a wonderful blog hop each week!

Thank you for visiting! I hope you will leave me a comment to let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will answer any questions as quickly as I can.