POPPYSTROKES
My PoppyStrokes on my painting journey was a bittersweet experience as it was my pulling force out of bed on Saturday 20 July 2024. It was sort of a form of “Rescue from Without” as described by the author Joseph Campbell in a Hero with a Thousand Faces.
The painting was intended as a tribute to my teddybear (my late nephew) on a cold and cloudy day in Sandton, Johannesburg when I could not get myself out of bed as his 5th (heavenly) birthday was the next day, Sunday 21 July 2024 and so I had to crawl out of bed to give this special tribute to my late nephew, Micah Ighalo (my little genius) who was born on a very special Sunday, July 21 2019 but his sweet dream during his afternoon nap earned his angel wings to Glory on Monday, 22 January 2024 at 4.5 years old.
He is now our Angel of Light and Registered Star and I see him daily looking up (as I always do being the nature lover that I am) into the skies admiring the birds (listening to their calls and songs), the butterflies, oooohhh and of course the sunsets.
This is a very special tribute as my journey to enlightenment as documented from the start of my blog @osaslounge told the story of my special encounter with the sun as narrated in the first Series of Breathe In Breathe Out. Refer to blog article title: “And There Was Blinding Light”.
“Massing Multiple Objects: Poppy Fields” was the 30th painting in the 50 Small Paintings (beginner) book.
On concluding the painting, my curiosity ‘killed the cat’ as I went on a quest to discover the spiritual significance of Poppy Fields where I learned the heart breaking news that Poppies have long been used as a symbol of sleep, peace and death and in Greek and Roman myths, poppies were used as offerings to the dead.
The real shock which led to 2+ weeks of depression and/or mania post this painting adventure (hence the much belated publishing) was the discovery that Poppy Flower is the key ingredient used by big pharmaceuticals in the making of opioids which has led to the current opioid epidemic ;(
