60x28 | Oil on Panel

Week 48

As I child I had a rabbit hutch full of lop ear bunnies. It was my job to care for them, and I remember loving their cute nose twitches, big innocent eyes and luxuriously soft fur. 

But my best memory is of my mom.

I was at summer camp when a large black rat snake got into the hutch and started consuming my new litter of baby bunnies. My mom, not naturally an animal lover, ran outside to the hutch with a machete and (I'm not certain how it was done exactly) hacked that snake and saved the rest of my beloved bunnies. I like to imagine her with a delicate splatter on her pretty face, gorgeous long braid whipping around and a wild look of love in her eyes. (My father called her Zena, warrior princess after that.) Love makes you do anything. You don't even think about it- you just do it. 

When our little was first born, my mother and father in law called her "Lepurush I Vogël" (little bunny in Albanian). I thought to myself, yes, she is. And she will becherished and protected in the legacy my mom has begun. 

In this painting, strokes of warm light pour into the deep heart of the hutch, the quiet of amazement is palpable. The smell is of earthy burrows and the hay that crinkles under his feet as he moves closer. The fresh carrot is set down, perhaps forgotten. This child embodies all the beauty of humanity- our innocence, hope, wonder and joy. It is a bunny worth protecting at any cost.