Valentine's Day weekend begins

Reading with Heart
Acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2010

Sitting on a shelf in my kitchen I have the original painting of this subject.
I am so busy most of the time, that I just glance at it.  What I didn't remember 
until tonight when I picked it up to check the date, was that I painted
2 versions of this painting.  The first (the one I still own) Reading
in the kitchen, I painted in 2009 of my wonderful model, Shakoya. 
She is dressed in a formal, supposedly getting ready to go out to a
dance, and reading a magazine.  I asked myself tonight, "where's the heart ?"

-- because there isn't one.  Plus the flowers and the chair, and even the cup

are different.

The version I'm showing you tonight Reading with Heart is the second one,
created to be donated to a fund raising event, the Heartbeats of Africa show in
2010, an auction held for the Stephen Lewis Foundation to help buy antiretroviral
drugs for people suffering from AIDS in Africa.

I'd forgotten about this.  After I saw Stephen Lewis speak about this work
on AIDS in Africa at the University of Toronto, years ago, I knew
his work was important.  

Happy Valentine's Day weekend. 

Have a loving each other day.