"Portrait of Audrey Hepburn"

(collage and oil painting on cardboard, 8X10, 2009)

"Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you're exactly the same."
Audrey Hepburn

"Your heart just breaks, that's all. But you can't judge, or point fingers. You just have to be lucky enough to find someone who appreciates you."
Audrey Hepburn

Certain people just exude kindness. One look at such a person is all that is needed to see his/her kind heart. One of the greatest actresses of the last century Audrey Hepburn was one of those people. I’ve always admired her inner as well as outer beauty, so one day I decided to paint a portrait that would depict both. When I finished and sat down in my old olive chair to look at the portrait I was thinking about Hepburn’s tough childhood and the wonderful person that she became as an adult. Then I said to myself that if one were to be surrounded by people with faces like Ms. Hepburn one could never fear anything bad from anyone.

Fast forwarding to 10 minutes later. I went to the basement to find a right frame for the portrait. Came back with a perfect white frame that was just a bit too small for the painting. I laid the painting down on a glass table to cut it down in size with a razor blade. I was still looking in Ms. Hepburn’s kind eyes as I saw a piece of something next to where I just made a cut, which turned out to be a part of my finger. Although I was in pain and bleeding all over what shocked me the most was that it happened while I was working on Audrey Hepburn’s portrait. I’m used to all kinds of synchronicities and strange coincidences in my life, which I derive certain messages from once I analyze them, but THIS just didn’t make sense to me at all. Since I don’t believe in accidents the next day when the pain subsided I decided to figure out why I had my little ‘accident’.

I tried remembering what I was thinking about the day it happened. What I remembered the most was that while I was working on Hepburn’s portrait I’ve noted to myself that there are two people in my life who have a great affect on my moods. When they are in a bad mood or saying something negative out loud I have a tendency to ‘catch’ their negativity like somebody would catch a cold. The second thing that stuck out in my mind from that day was the research I did on the powers of Fluorites that morning. One of the ‘magical’ powers attributed to Fluorites was their ability to protect their owners from the negative energies coming from others.

My conclusion might sound a bit insane for some of you, but after I sorted my thoughts out I figured out that what God was trying to tell me was that I should protect myself from the negative vibes from the people around me even when I think of them as very kind and I know that they would never try to hurt me on purpose. Sounds nutty? Oh, well… I’m an American artist and a woman; therefore I have every right to be as eccentric as I choose to be…