Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 10267
Tallahassee, FL 32302
Email:
Executive Director
Telephone:
(850) 942-2569
|
|
Paintings Brighten Shelter's Walls
Article published Jun 26, 2006
By TaMaryn Waters, DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
There was very little on the walls at Brehon House before June Warmath came along.
In less than two weeks, she turned the beige interior into vibrant scenes from a children's book, the Bible and
her own imagination. The great-grandmother of two painted three murals for the house, which provides shelter for
homeless pregnant women. And she did it for free. Warmath said she spent four to five hours a day painting the
murals. In that time, some women made comments on the progress and Warmath got a chance to learn more about them.
"I tried to get to know them and talk to them," Warmath said. "I just want them to know someone cares."
One mural illustrates the biblical tale of Noah's ark. As the women walk out of their rooms, they see waves crashing
against an ark filled with a menagerie. A rainbow stretches across the 12-foot wall in the hallway as the animals
look out from the safety of the boat.
"It's a story about how his faith got him through his biggest struggle of his life," said Shirley O'Rear, the
assistant executive director of the Brehon Institute for Family Services. She's hoping that image will give
clients the strength to get through their challenges.
"We want them to feel like they have hope," she said. O'Rear thought the house needed some images of inspiration,
and she wanted a cozier feeling for the women, who are often at a low point in their lives. Warmath was the answer
to her prayers.
O'Rear said she walked in the Heavenly Days Child Care at Fellowship Presbyterian Church and instantly knew
she was walking into something special.
"You sent me here, didn't you, God," O'Rear remembers saying to herself that day. "When you walk in the door,
you are (transported) to the inside of a ship."
Warmath is a member of Fellowship Presbyterian and is part of the "Stitchers Group," which visits Brehon House.
They make quilts and "Brehon baskets" for the women.
O'Rear learned it was Warmath who painted the church's child-care center, so she asked her to do something for Brehon.
"I wanted to buy the paint, but June said she didn't need anything," O'Rear said. She said Warmath admitted that
she had been wanting to decorate the walls ever since she walked in.
"This is the first time I've known to be the answer to someone's prayers," said Warmath, who owns Traditions,
an antiques shop in Havana. She's painted more murals than she can count over the years, she said, including
several 90-foot exhibits when she worked for the Orange County School Board years ago.
O'Rear said she already has plans for one of the creations. It shows two children playing in the grass underneath
a large apple tree. The ground is littered with fallen apples, but the ones on the tree will soon have pictures
of babies who have lived at Brehon House. Warmath is just a few days from completing her works at Brehon.
"I've been praying for this for two years, and now it's unfolding," O'Rear said. "I'm just beaming."
|
|