Painting with Heart
About 6 months ago, that opportunity came in the form of a request from a woman named Rebekah who wanted to paint her sweet pup Violet, only she couldn't. Rebekah's hands were severely crippled, and she had been through a myriad of surgeries to try correcting the issues to no avail. Through all of the appointments, procedures and surgeries, sweet Violet was her constant companion. "When you have chronic health issues it's very hard to put into words the comfort felt from a friendly head in your lap, a tail wag, and eyes full of empathy." As you can imagine, when Violet passed Rebekah had an extremely difficult time without her.
So we decided to paint sweet Violet for her in last November's Project Pet class, with our artist mentor Mattie leading the class using the image of Violet as an example. Mattie did an amazing job of commemorating her beloved pup. After receiving the painting, Rebekah wrote to us the sweetest card. I can only imagine how long it actually took her to write those kind words to us. The part that stood out the most for us: "This painting gave me the closure I was hoping for and now I can treasure all the good memories without them being overwhelmed by sadness of the loss. You have my very sincere gratitude, forever."
So many tears followed.
Just last month, a woman reached out to us with a somewhat similar situation. Her sister with special needs had a cat, Cali, for sixteen years! This cat meant the world to her sister, and when it passed away this December it was absolutely devastating for the owner. So they called us to see if someone could paint her sister's favorite photo of Cali, and when I told them our artist teaching the next Project Pet class would do it, they were elated with joy (she had no faith in her own ability to paint it, so she was both excited and relieved to hear it!) This time it was Alyssa who had the pleasure of painting the pet, and the folks who called me about this came to pick it up today.
Needless to say, there were more tears.
Project Pet classes always come loaded with emotion, as we love our furbabes like we love our children - but these particular situations leave us with hearts so very full. We look forward to opportunities to bless those around us who need it most in their time of need, and if painting their sweet pets is how we do it, then all the more reason to love what we do here. Every drop of paint is a memory!
#PinotsPalette #ProjectPet #PaintandSip #Tulsa #DoItWithHeart