Cosmic Flamingo

The Inspiration Behind the Painting..

Growing up my brother had a huge beanie baby collection. Eventually he lost interest, but he still had them around when my daughter Coral was a toddler. Coral would play with them and leave them in different locations around my mother's house. After we left Pennsylvania for our journey out west which eventually led us to California, the collection of beanie babies was sold and they were all given away (or so we thought!).

When we finally went back to visit Pennsylvania 8 years later. My mom had a surprise for Coral during our visit. When she was a toddler, Coral had shoved the Flamingo beanie baby from my brother's collection into a little drawer of some random unused furniture. My mom had moved several times since we left Pennsylvania, and had downsized her things considerably, but when she saw this flamingo in the drawer she refused to touch it and left it there for Coral’s return. So now 12 year old Coral opens the drawer and takes out the Flamingo she had put inside of it when she was only 3! So the Flamingo was the last beanie baby of a huge collection, but was unknowingly hidden away for several years, and now came back as a delightful surprise! It was funny and sweet to witness. And partly inspiration for this painting.

The second part to this story is that the Cosmic Flamingo of this painting found its home in a nebula that is a stellar nursery, it births new stars. But here is it's surprise… this nebula was created from a supernova, the explosion of a star! While scientists are still unsure if stars and new solar systems can be born out of a dying star, I can already tell them the answer is yes! And the place where stars are born from the embers of a left over star explosion, also happens to be this flamingo’s paradise! It goes to show that even where devastation has occurred, and all seems hopeless and lost, from the fading embers a spark can ignite, and with this spark new hope and inspiration arises and reveals the potential for new stars to be born...

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