Twenty-five years ago, I sat outside Starbucks, sipping coffee and sketching on a napkin. Preparing for the first of countless future trips to Malawi, Africa, I pondered teaching on the human heart – how it gets wounded and how we can find healing. A talented artist-friend, Robb Durr, turned my chicken-scratch sketches into a flip chart that beautifully demonstrated how repeatedly injured hearts become calloused and hardened – how that affects us and what the path to healing looks like. Over the decades, the original chart traveled to several countries, gracing churches and slums, mansions and hovels, schools and refugee camps. No matter the nationality, gender, economic situation, or life circumstances, we all share one thing in common. We are human beings living in a beautiful but broken world where suffering is a given – but healing is possible.
Last month, Julia Ellifritt of Cornerstone of Hope contacted us to discuss creating a new heart chart that counselors could use as a visual aid for people struggling through grief and trauma. Enter Danielle Larson, a 21-year-old student at the Cleveland Institute of Art and my friend and co-worker at Joann Fabrics for the past two years. I love her art, but Danielle’s edgy drawings on the various pains and injuries regularly endured by retail workers really caught my attention. Convinced she was the right artist for the job, I briefly outlined the project over a hasty lunch in Joann’s break room and made the ask. Danielle enthusiastically agreed to the collaboration.
Soon after, we sat talking on my back porch – Danielle with her sketchbook and me with my notebook. Over the next three weeks, Danielle would paint ten canvases, one for each stage of the heart’s journey, and I would write the narrative. We bounced images and ideas back and forth as the work developed, and when we met two days before our deadline to photograph the canvases for print, we knew we had what we wanted.
The flip charts are back from the printer and ready for sale at Cornerstone of Hope’s Symposium on September 6th. Six days later, I fly to Malawi, and you can be sure there will be a chart or two in my luggage. A big thank you to Julia for suggesting this project and to her co-workers at COH, who so beautifully formatted the art and language into a finished product. Thank you to Danielle for going above and beyond to create powerful art that evokes emotion, and makes the unseen visible. Thanks to Robb for creating the original concept that opened countless eyes and hearts through the years. And to the Creator of our human hearts, thank you for the love, compassion, mercy, and hope that is new every morning.
by Patt Wadenpfuhl