Found

Acrylic on canvas, Age 9 (2005)
 48" x 60"
SOLD (Private Collection)
 Prints Available

…I was inspired to paint all the races, but to find people of color where I lived was very hard. After a lot of prayer I met two black children whose story was so amazing that I wanted to paint it right away. There was a taboo in their small Madagascar tribe against saving the orphans. So after their parents died, the two-year-old brother was taking care of his three-month-old sister for over two months. When they were found, they were barely alive. I painted them older and healthier to create what their vision might have been during the three-month survival. The baby girl has noticed the help approaching and is gently caressing her exhausted brother to lift his head up.
After I invited the adoptive parents to look at the finished portrait, they were crying. Although I had painted five different backgrounds complete with deserts, animals, birds and prairies I decided to paint the waterfalls at the very end. Everybody including me was surprised at the painted waterfalls in the background, because I had not known that the orphans had been found in the only waterfall jungle in the Madagascar …

-Akiane

 

 

Trading sap for water we belong here. Above the waterfall locks-our eyes. below them-our white diamond tear.

 

Around the cerulean blue nectar our breath absorbs all the air. We view what we ignore-with mortal bows the stream appears so clear.

 

We bind the x-rayed light, ignoring the escape of nothingness to clear the path. For us, the barefoot orphans, granite sandals are so hard to match.

 

The braided wax of hearing crowns the lost smile to forgive, and the shade of incense stops at the edge of the cliff.

 

Losing the warbling life in a jungle, our reflection drowns our washed emotion, And, as the breeze paints the ripe births, we receive the sense trained by its own motion.

 

Then suddenly without the mask or shield, While our minds are conquered by the strange command, we meet a friend we yield, and leave in faith our jungle land.