When a traumatic experience takes place in our lives, it can feel like we have been reduced to a pile of fractured, shattered, and broken pieces.
This was true for the parents of Jonathan Sellers and Charlie Keever, who were abducted and murdered many years ago in San Diego, CA. How do you put yourself back together after your children are taken from you?
The answer: piece by piece.
This is why the mosaic artwork that was created in the memorial park dedicated to these boys, which is called the Jonathan Sellers & Charlie Keever Outdoor Educational Activity Center in Imperial Beach, is so appropriate.
The beautiful blue tiles shaped in a nautilus shell includes small pictures of the boys, sea glass, glow-in-the-dark glass, and a quote lines the edges.
“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” – Rachel Carlson, “Silent Spring”
By collecting the pieces of a fragmented heart and shaping them together to make something new and beautiful (similar to the process of fabricating a mosaic) that is how healing can happen.
I was so honored to be included in this memorial, and the best praise for the park and my artwork came from Milena Phillips, Jonathan’s mother. “We come here and sense the boys dancing in the breeze… I know they are happy.”
Recent Comments