Healing Hands and the Marianist Environment Education Center

I've been in a mad dash....not surprising, aren't I always?  But this time, I really thought I had it under control...ooopsie!  Every year, I try to participate in a local art show held by the Marianist Environmental Education Center at Gallery St. John, (Bergamo) in Dayton.  They hold a mixed media show which is themed every spring.  They have reclaimed land and are restoring it to its natural state after being used as a gravel quarry  and farmland and being sort of a holding area while I-675 was being made.

The education center works hard to teach people how to be kind to the land.

This year's theme is "Touching Earth".  The show will  run from June 5 through June 30, 2013.  You can read more about it here.  

I had intended to make two submittals, but was only able to get one done in time.  This is "Healing Hand Touches the Earth".  I blew up a tracing of my hand, and took a copyright free photo (provided by the U.S. Government. :)  ) and placed it in the palm of the hand.  I then did a foiled healing spiral over the earth.

The concept of the "healing hand" is one which is derived from a Native American design found in pictographs and other artifacts from the southeastern United States.   We don't really know what the hand symbolizes, but Reiki practitioners have taken it for their own and named it the healing hand.  

It is similar to the Hamsa, or the Hand of Fatima, but it is different because this middle eastern hand never carries the spiral.

I took down a boatload of other nature related pieces when I found they were light on entries.  Wouldn't you know, just as I pulled into the parking lot, the clutch pedal refused to come back up......so, that meant a tow to Troy.  I was grateful I was in a safe place and that nothing untoward happened  and that no one was inconvenienced...in fact, I was able to do some paperwork for the show for Sister Leanne while waiting for the tow truck.

But...I discovered I had accidentally left my bag of sketches for Elizabeth Barton's class over in New Lebanon when I went for stitching day on Thursday....and when I got home from MEEC (after an interesting ride in the tow truck), the chemotherapy hit me hard....and I was in bed for three days sleeping.   I am only now sort of among the living.  And I am woefully behind in Elizabeth's class...in fact, I haven't even posted anything...I hope that I'm not kicked out!

The best laid plans of mice and men.......