Six months. Six months since a Cat-hell hurricane devastated our little island of Abaco, and Grand Bahama. Some days it feels like an eternity ago and some days it still feels like yesterday.
My art and creativity have kept me partially sane. I have been painting more than anything. A few weeks back I was faced this large white canvas. Ever since the storm I have had this driving desire to paint BIG. I was not sure how to tackle it, so I decided not to think about what move I made next, but to just cover the canvas with color. If it looked horrible when I was done, I could always paint over it.
It was very therapeutic to just add color, shapes, designs, walk away, come back and do it again. No judgement, no expectations about what it was supposed to be. Layer after layer. About four hours later I could not believe my eyes. I even said to my husband (who usually has a hard time understanding what I do in my artwork sometimes), “what does that painting look like to you?”. Immediately he said, “the storm”. Usually he has a long pause when I ask such questions, but he answered right away.
The monster Dorian itself is on the bottom right, there are houses underwater, houses without roofs, mini tornadoes, crosses in the air.
Our subconscious is very real and very scary at times.
Abaco will come back, and is coming back everyday because of the people who have a made a commitment to make that happen. It took this monster for me to realize how much I love this place. Prior to the storm I could find so much wrong with this town, now amongst all the devastation, there is so much that is right.
The little things mean so much more, people I hardly knew mean so much more.
Yes, everything happens for a reason. We will come back stronger than ever. Abaco Strong.
