Anastacia’s Quest: Bring comfort to someone feeling down.
Suggestion: Make or buy a child’s blanket that seems especially comforting to you. Go to a local hospital and ask a nurse if there’s a sick child you can donate your gift to. The nurse will know which child might need it most.
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." –Mahatma Gandhi
Quite honestly, carrying out this quest is going to be a stretch for me. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been freaked out by medical institutions and nursing homes. My knees start to tremble just thinking about walking into a hospital and talking to some administrator to find out how to give a hospitalized child a blanket.
I mean, what if they have these sort of sanitary rules about donations? For all they know, I might have coughed tuberculosis germs all over it. I’ve always preferred to be a kind of quiet-behind-the-scenes sort of person. I’m going to pull up my boot straps and do it, though. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I painted four angel cards for Angel Quest, and this one happens to be my favorite (along with my other favorite, Angel of Thankfulness). In my normal illustration career, I rarely have the opportunity to paint mothers and children together. It just seemed like I was successful in capturing the feeling of comfort in this piece, which is what I was going after, of course.
This kind of work really has personal meaning for me. I love promoting images that help evoke the higher emotions of love, compassion, peace, gratitude and thankfulness. When I was painting this, I was "forced" to stay in a space of compassion and tenderness. What an amazing way to spend time in the studio. It’s my hope that these beautiful feelings are equally triggered within everyone who looks at it.