Return Flight

When I paint about members of the Walking Gallery, I learn such amazing things.  I see blog posts written before twitter was even born.  I read books that describe tragedy and learn about rare and often fatal medical conditions.  I delve into Facebook pictures and twitter comments of yesteryear.  All this I do, in an attempt to walk within the story so I can depict the soul.

My challenge in creation is the quiet ones, the modest ones.  The one that only exist as a mention in a pdf or a chair in a committee, their deeper story is as hard to find as Hansel’s fateful crumbs.

This is the jacket painting of Karin Jay.  It is entitled “Return Flight.” 

In this painting, Karin stands as a girl throwing paper airplanes in the air.   These airplanes are the colors and shapes of The Joint Commission logo where Karin worked for 23 years.   They circle around a Planetree.  This is the tree under which Hippocrates would lecture and is the symbol of the organization for which she currently works.   

Upon the paper airplanes ride patients.  The patient in her hand is a new mother and receives help from the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago.  The patients to her right are her parents who have survived cancer and heart disease and her best friend who survived cancer as well.

Karin knows each day the work she does helps patients just like her friends and family.  Karin taught me quite a bit in researching her life.  Although she is not yet using Facebook and twitter, Karen does have a profile on LinkedIn.  So to reach out to folks like Karin who are rather quiet in the world of social media, I built a LinkedIn group entitled The Walking Gallery of Healthcare.

I hope to see you there to welcome Karin into the family.