Pamela's Story
“Your art speaks of healing,” said New York artist Makoto Fujimura. A few years ago in his book signing line, I showed him my homemade portfolio.
Years earlier, my dad taught me how to draw by sketching on napkins after dinner. When I reached the fifth grade, my mom enrolled me in art lessons. Soon my first oil painting sold for thirty-five dollars. From then on, my fingernails wore oil paint.
For ArtPrize 2011, I portrayed a young cancer survivor in honor of The Cancer Center at Metro Health; the previous year I painted the Woman in Red series to help raise awareness for the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women initiative. Currently, eight children's hospitals from Philadelphia to San Diego showcase my artwork.
By identifying my calling as healing, Fujimura empowered my creativity. Each stroke within my paintings carries the potential to awaken the human heart. And the subtle expression of the brush possesses the power to heal.
