'Gentle giant'
Oil on canvas
2016 24" x 30" x 1.75
About two months before I had visited Chicago for the first time, I had a very vivid dream.... I was on a boat in a very stormy sea. The boat was about to sink and the captain ordered each of the passengers on board to throw something overboard.
He lifted a lid on the deck of the boat. Below, were severed heads of different animals, neatly packed in a circle. Each passenger had to choose one to throw overboard.
When my turn came, I picked up the head of a bear. He opened his eyes and stared at me lovingly with his gentle, pale eyes.
I was not able to do it...he was beautiful and alive!
I did not know it back then and it was only once I arrived in Chicago, that I realized the significance of the bear and how it would change my life.
An ever bigger surprise was when we visited the Adler planetarium, and discovered an public art sculpture installation by Ai Weiwei, similar to my dream of the heads of animals, placed in a circle, that I had months before.
The universe has spoken ....