Healing

This old gummie used to be my sons. When he out grew it I planted it with the Aloe instead of throwing it away to sit in the dirt for a gazillion years. Rubber isn't known for it's eco properties! The red paint that has nearly scratched off is testimony to his playcentre days and he's now nearly 8!
Inspired by Stella Meades 's "Global Shoe Project" I decided to do a tribute of sorts and give myself a visual reminder of the project.
The project in brief...Stella created 1001 ceramic child sized shoes. Based on UNICEF statistics the 1000 shoes represented the 6000 children who had been killed or disabled by war in the past decade. The extra shoe symbolised that the killing and maiming isn't over yet.
Can you imagine the emotional impact it would have on you actually seeing this many shoes and knowing what it symbolised? Wow. The whole story and the photographs are of course much more potent than what I just wrote so PLEASE go and check it out at 'global shoe project' it is definitely worth a look.
About the boot....I painted the medic cross today using gesso and arcylic. I used paper to remove some of the red arcylic and make it imperfect and worn out looking to symbolise in my own way that the healing process for those affected by war is a long way from over. I was going to compost the tatty old aloe vera until I realised that it was a healing plant in the boot struggling to grow and heal and this added another degree of symbolism to the artwork.
Yes, it is a tatty old boot- imperfect and roughly painted with a tatty old plant in it. It's far from being a thing of beauty and it wasn't meant to be. It's purpose is to remind me that for many the war and pain is far from over. It is to remind me that tucked up in my little corner of the globe I am extremely blessed that my children aren't part of those horrifying statistics.