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PAGE 8 q4qEM8R 2O&NEW$LEYER WHAT'S IN A WORK OF ART? I am a plein air artist and I paint in places that touch me. On the back of my work I now include my bio which has the sentence `Cathy determined to set her own course using a more realistic approach, something to touch people's emotions or memory". This was fulfilled in spades at the AFAS. I saw a young woman carrying one of my paintings through the sales desk, so I went up to her to introduce myself. I was chattering on and she was silent and then put her hand over her eyes. Thinking maybe I was boring her, my conversation slowed to a stop, as I realized she was trying to compose herself. But she whispered that she could no longer hold herself together and started silently sobbing. I opened my arms and she melted into them tears of grief falling freely, but I felt at a loss as to what to say or how to help her. She eventually managed to explain that I had painted this at the place where they had scattered her baby daughter's ashes. There was more, it was a beach scene and I sometimes take sand and incorporate it into the paint for texture which I had in this picture. I gently told her to run her hand over the painting and asked if she could feel the roughness, she nodded and I explained that it was sand from that beach. I told her to rub the sand anytime she needed too. She said it will be a treasured family heirloom that will be passed on to her children. There is more, the next painting of mine to sell I found out later was painted right on the spot where the purchaser's family had placed a memorial bench for her mother in law. The bench had now been moved, she purchased the painting for her husband. Not really so surprising, a beautiful spot may be chosen for a painting or perhaps to scatter loved ones ashes or perhaps place a bench for contemplation I got far more than money for my work and I am fulfilling my personal mission statement. Plein air artists are so lucky. Cathy Roddie P.O. Box 91051 West Vancouve, B. C. V7V 3N3 Serving Visual Artists from Furn 1 Creek o Oeer Cove since 1947