A Bleeding Heart

Here is my new painting.

You have to imagine that I have a Bleeding heart flower in my hand as I tell you this tale. Fascinated by reading a shortened version of this story I just had to expand on it and capture the emotion of it in a painting. It is painted on nearly a full sheet of Saunders Waterford cold press paper. On a passing glance it looks like the girl is crying a tear of blood but when you look closer you can see what is really in the tear drop. To understand why let me tell you the story of the Bleeding Heart.

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful princess. Young men from far and near came to try to win her heart. But the princess was very vain and ignored them all. A young prince from a neighboring country fell deeply in love with her. She ignored him like the others, though he tried and tried to win her love. One day the prince found a pair of pretty pink rabbits at the market. At this point, I pull off the two outer pink petals and set each on it side to show the animals. He sent them to the princess thinking, "these will surely melt her heart." But the princess continued ignoring him. Then the prince sent her a pair of beautiful earrings. Next I separate the two inner white petals and hold them up next to my ears. Still the princess would have nothing to do with him. The young prince was so heartbroken that he took his dagger and drove it into his heart. The remaining centre of the flower in my hand is shaped like an outline of a heart with a line down the centre. I hold the heart up, remove the dagger-like line, and plunge the "knife" through the heart's centre. The princess, realizing too late that she did love the prince, cried out, "My heart shall bleed for my prince forever more!" and her heart bleeds to this day.


Ona