A Single Bloom

a single bloom on a native prairie plant at North Pond Nature Sanctuary

Dear Mayfield,
Our two web notes this week are lodged between last Sunday’s gospel of small things — seeds and yeast and next Sunday’s story of the feeding of the 5000. Both webnotes will move us toward the energy and the enoughness of the great feeding story.

Michael Gittes is a Los Angeles-based artist of some note. His paintings have been shown at The National Portrait Gallery in London, the Park Avenue Armory in New York, and in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Earlier in the pandemic, when New York City was the epicenter of cases in this country, Gittes wanted to come up with a creative response to the helplessness that he and so many of us have felt in these weeks and months. He decided he would find one hospital in New York City and he would make a painting for each member of that hospital’s staff.  The hospital he would choose needed to be a non-profit one in an underserved community with an intensive care unit treating coronavirus patients. It also had to be the right size for Gittes to be able to paint an original painting for everyone in the building — nurses, doctors, certified nurse assistants, respiratory therapists, administrators, janitors, security guards, cafeteria workers, and other staff members. The hospital that fit all his criteria was the Interfaith Medical Center in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. At the height of coronavirus in the city, the hospital was 90% occupied with coronavirus patients.

When Gittes began to paint, he called this project “Strangers to No One.” He hopes the Interfaith Medical Center staff will know that they are surrounded by the love of the world and are strangers to no one. He painted in acrylics with a syringe, drawing a connection between himself as an artist and the hospital workers. In art and at the hospital, the syringe was and is being used to help others heal.  Each of the paintings is a unique, somewhat abstract, single flower offered from the world to the workers, reminding them they are like flowers in a garden, full of life. Last week, a rented truck, paid for by donations, arrived at the hospital with forty boxes containing 1800 paintings.

Some paint, a bunch of syringes, and a whole lot of canvas, feeds a multitude with beauty and with care. An idea and a desire from one artist become an unforgettable expression of appreciation. There is a link below that includes the paintings and a soundtrack if you would like to view it.  The power of gratitude is amazing.
Peace, Martha  LINK