Paintings 2008/2009

PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU ORDER AN 8X10 OR NOTECARDS, I WILL ADJUST YOUR SHIPPING CHARGES.

ABOUT THE PAINTING: "Born in His Heart & Wrapped in His Arms" As I was praying and asking God to give me a painting that would portray His heart about adoption and orphans, I started to see this painting come together in my mind. The more I pondered upon it the more I couldn't wait to get it sketched out and my brush into paint. The painting is full of symbolism. The colors in the painting's background are bright and cheerful and cover the spectrum of the rainbow therefore illustrating the promises of God to the "least of these". If you look closely enough, you can see a map of the world in the background. I added the adoptive parents in here because they are being the physical hands of God in this world by offering God's love to the child. The children represent various ethnic groups as well as babies, toddlers, older children and sibling groups. There are 14 children in here for a purpose. Fourteen in biblical interpretations symbolizes recreation, and spiritual perfection. Adoption recreates a family by other means than through birth. Spiritual perfection is demonstrated on earth through adoption and gives us a picture of God's adoption of all of us. Everyone, including the adoptive parents, is engulfed in the heart of God. The dove implies that God is well pleased with those who look after His little children. You could interpret that the arms wrapped around everyone are representative of the adoptive parents but they are not in my mind. They are in fact, the arms of God. The character traits of God as Father, Protector, Defender and Provider are represented by the masculine arm of God and the character traits of God as Mother, Caregiver, Nurturer and Healer are represented by the Feminine arm of God. They are intertwined, representing His complete perfection to be all these things. -Melissa Carter Sizes 16x20 $250.00 11x15 $175.00 notecards 10pk $15.00

ABOUT THE PAINTING: This painting reflects two Ugandan orphan girls who have nothing left, not even a strand of hope. They represent the girls who are child heads of households with no parents alive to care for them. The ones who fear being raped and violated by those who don't care and see them only as a means of being healed of AIDS in their ghastly belief that virgins will heal their AIDS. The ones who watch their families die off because of malaria, starvation and AIDS. The ones who feel the pain of hunger in their stomachs and see their siblings wasting away. But somewhere deep inside, there is an inner strength, an inner beauty. There is the Dignity of a Lion, the Strength of an Elephant and the Steadfastness of a Rhinoceros that perseveres and plunges through it all to Live. TO HOLD ON until help comes. Somewhere deep inside they DO HOPE that life will change and that help will come. That the Lion of Judah will roar and awake his people to come to their aid. Do you hear the roar? Duane wrote this poem about the painting: The Strength Within All of the world sees us as weak, sick and poor In fact, we are not even within their view We cannot even enter into the door Of happiness and dreams, of goodness and new Everything rages against us: our age, our gender, our color, our tribe No one can see what is truly inside A place where the Spirit of God Himself resides His colors so rich and majestic they glide Their mists go forth with a wind and a pride That draws us up close to the Great Lion’s side He dreams for us. He shows us the way. He puts us forth as beauty in His great work’s display And no one cares to see it ORIGINAL is 24x30 and is watercolor. The painting is painted on 300# paper. Sizes Original $800.00 16x20 $200.00 11x15 $175.00 8x10 $100.00 notecards 10pk $15.00

African Child

The ORIGINAL "DO YOU SEE ME?" is a 15x12 watercolor. This ORIGINAL painting is SOLD. Prints are available. This Painitng was sold in HOLT International's Yearly Auction. There are many orphans in Africa because of poverty and HIV/AIDS. The profits from the sale of this painting went to help in the effort of caring for orphans through HOLT in Ethiopia. Please visit their website at http://holtinternational.org ORIGINAL: SOLD Sizes 11x15 $75.00 8x10 $50.00 notecards 10pk $15.00 Christmas ornaments of this painting available at cafepress.com/melissaart.

The ORIGINAL is a 24x30 watercolor. This ORIGINAL painting is FOR SALE. Prints are available. There are many orphans in Africa because of poverty and HIV. The profits from the sale of this painting will go to help in the effort of caring for orphans in Africa. ABOUT THE PAINTING: Mangoes are a very common and staple fruit in Africa, so this painting is representative of Africa. I also wanted to bring about awareness of the orphan situation and awareness of HIV/AIDS, so I have done that by adding an element of texture to the leaves. There are approximately 48 million orphans in Africa alone. 12 million of those orphaned are orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Every circle on the leaves represents an African orphan and every red circle further represents an orphan left alone by HIV/AIDS. There are approximately 2000 circles on this painting. That is less than 1/2 of the children that became orphans in Africa today. My hope is that every time an individual looks at this painting that they don't just see mangoes but that they see orphans affected by HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and poverty. My hope is that they will not only see the need but will be motivated to do something about it to change it for the better. To change the life of a child. Sizes Original $700.00 16x20 $200.00 11x15 $125.00 8x10 $80.00 notecards 10pk $15.00

GUATEMALA "GUATEMALA" ORIGINAL- 11x15 - SOLD I painted a similar one to this earlier in my beginnings but the original was sold and the file for reprints was lost. I had a client who wanted one and so I offered to paint another one similar to it. In this one I used brighter colors and some texture techniques. In the end I was very pleased with how it turned out. Sizes 11x15 $75.00 8x10 $50.00 notecards 10pk $15.00

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE #1
	"BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE SERIES -#1" -- ORIGINAL- 8x10 I started out wanting to paint a series and still will of people who in our normal world don't seem beautiful on the surface. They are people, though, if we look further, in whom we will find beauty along with their scars. They have stories to tell. Sizes 11x15 $50.00 8x10 $35.00 notecards 10pk $15.00 ORIGINAL $100.00

RESCUER OF THE WEAK

"RESCUER OF THE WEAK" ORIGINAL - 8x10 This painting depicts the Hand of the Rescuer(God) taking the hand of the orphan. The skin tones in the painting are are a reflection of all ethnic groups. Also resembling different countries are the bracelets on the child's wrist. One of the bracelets has charms that read Hope , Love, and Joy. Sizes 11x15 $75.00 8x10 $50.00 notecards 10pk $15.00 ORIGINAL $100.00

PAELYN
	"PAELYN" 16x20 ORIGINAL - SOLD I painted this of a little girl for a gift. PRINTS AND NOTECARDS NOT AVAILABLE

PARADISE IN AFRICA
	"PARADISE IN AFRICA" --ORIGINAL - 5X7 A Painting of A Bird of Paradise Flower. These are found in Much of the East African jungle. Sizes notecards 10pk $15.00 ORIGINAL $30.00

RED PEARS
	"RED PEARS" ORIGINAL - 6x12 Sizes ORIGINAL $30.00

PURPLE ONIONS
	"PURPLE ONIONS" ORIGINAL -- 8x10 Sizes notecards 10pk $15.00 ORIGINAL $30.00