Angel of Hope - Roaring Fork Valley

"By turning brokenness into beauty, we use mosaic art to honor the heavenly, human and animal angels who bless our lives with hope."

Hello, my name is Diane Orlov.  As many of you know, I have been working on the second installation of the Angel of Hope Mosaic Project in the Roaring Fork Valley.  The first Angel (pictured above) was made in 2012 at the Children's Cancer Center in Tampa, Fl. with children fighting life-threatening diseases such as cancer, hemophilia and sickle-cell anemia. The concept is about using mosaic art to create HOPE, helping us be grateful for the joy in our lives, bringing comfort in hard times and honoring the "guardians" who show up and never let us walk alone. Symbolically, it's about picking up the broken pieces of our lives- mind, body and soul- and putting them back together with love, wholeness and beauty.

For the past 2 years, I've been conducting small workshops with organizations such as: Pathfinders, Wind Walkers, Challenge Aspen, Shining Stars, Calaway/Young Cancer Center, the Aspen Jewish Congregation, St. Stephen's Church, Two Rivers Unitarian Universalist, the Way of Compassion Foundation and others. They've made over 400 individual pieces to be placed in the larger Angel of Hope as a 
a tribute to the good and caring work non-profit and inter-faith groups do every day to make the world a better and more loving place. 

With your generous support, we can reach our goal of completing the new Angel of Hope by Summer 2021.  This free-standing 9' x 13' outdoor community artwork will be located between St. Stephen's Church and the school next door, across the street from Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs.  A solitude and prayer garden will be created around it, with benches, landscaping and lighting inviting the public to reflect and find comfort-day or night.  Funding for this project is being raised independently by a small group of volunteers. It has not been commissioned by a larger organization. The Angel of Hope is under the fiscal sponsorship of Compassion Aspen, a 501c3 organization. 


Please help me honor my beautiful Anna and the many angels who watch over us and bless our lives with magic...

My Story:

On Nov 9th, 2014, my daughter, Anna, suffered an accident that took her life one week after her 24th birthday and just a few months before she was to marry her soul-mate and finish her degree in Special Education. I don’t know why the brightest stars always seem to leave us first, but my Anna was the most joyful person anyone could know. There are no words to describe the numbness and grief in a mother’s heart, but somehow my Anna manages to surround me with laughter all the way from heaven. Of course, she would be a happy angel. She always was.

Several years before Anna passed, I had a dream of a Guardian Angel painting that hung above her bed as a child. It was a mosaic and, through a series of events I can only consider destiny, I was led to pursue this vision and organize a large-scale mosaic project called the Angel of Hope at the Children’s Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. Back then, I never could’ve imagined how the “brokenness” represented by mosaic art would come to foreshadow the shattering of my own soul. But the art that once brought Color and Hope to the lives of sick children has now come back to save me.


As a volunteer artist, I donated over 14 months (from 2011-12) to the creation of a lasting symbol of compassion and hope for children facing life-threatening diseases and, sadly, bereavement. The idea was to symbolize the story of each unique life within the greater context of a unified “masterpiece” which symbolized our common humanity. With rotating groups of oncology, sickle-cell anemia and hemophilia patients, together we co-created a 12 ft. tall and 8 ft .wide mosaic Angel comprised of hundreds of flowers, stars, butterflies and crazy-quilt designs made by the kids and their families. She was my gift to the Children’s Cancer Center and was placed in the lobby to offer comfort and reassurance to everyone-parents and children alike- so they would never feel alone in their suffering.


Representing the guardianship role we all play in each other’s lives, she was also meant to honor the human angels- staff, volunteers and sponsors- who sheltered these children under their wings. And she stood as a reminder of how service and faith-all faiths- are the only way we can truly create hope in a world filled with so much pain. Figuratively, Hope and Healing were symbolized by picking up the broken pieces and rearranging them into something beautiful and whole.


Anna used to admire the stories I shared about the courage and resilience of those kids and the dedicated volunteers I worked with. And she loved seeing me find joy and fulfillment in helping others. It brought out a Light in me and inspired her and my son to use their own gifts to leave the world a more caring and beautiful place.


When my son and I moved from Florida to Colorado 3 years ago, my plan was to make another Angel of Hope mosaic in Aspen. But with the loss of Anna, everything in my life was reduced to survival. I tried to be a rock of strength and stability for my son, but I was no more than a shell of someone pretending to be alive. And though Anna, my happy angel, was always near, with family and friends so far away, truthfully, I felt like I was fighting all my battles alone.

Thankfully, that’s when the human angels in Aspen showed up for Brandon and me. Pathfinders, a grief and loss support group, offered counseling, music therapy (with Mack Bailey) and other life-enhancing activities that brought new friends and a network of support to us. Over time, I came out of the darkness enough to volunteer for their organization doing art therapy and, once again, I realized how healing it was to help others. Suddenly, more and more angels came into my life. They called me back to my dream of making the Aspen Angel of Hope to aid in my own healing and provide creative coping skills for others in need of encouragement.

I began talking to my favorite charities and enlisted Pathfinders, Wind Walkers, Challenge Aspen, Valley View Hospital, Calaway/Young Cancer Center and the Shining Stars to participate in making different sections of the mosaic. Since then, many others have joined
this unique mission to pick up the pieces of their lives and put them back together with love, honor and beauty.


Our goal is to create an outdoor Angel of Hope- Roaring Fork Valley measuring approximately 8 ft. tall by 12 ft. wide made from crystals, rocks and polished gemstones, as a way of highlighting the precious landscape that makes this area so special. The background will be adorned with snow-capped mountains and a soft blue sky full of stars (made by the Shining Stars Pediatric Cancer Foundation). She’ll arise from a field of wildflowers symbolizing new beginnings and new life. Our Angel will sparkle in the sun with wings of iridescent glass. Bursting with color and joy, she will awaken people to the magic of faith and to believe in things that can’t always be seen.

As you can imagine, organizing a work of this size with thousands of tiny pieces of glass and stone measuring less than 1” in diameter will take an abundance of effort and resources. Thankfully,  a small army of volunteers have already signed up for the pain-staking labor of assembling the Angel. What we need is financial support to make this dream a reality. With your help, we can make it happen…piece by piece.

Thank you and God Bless,

Diane

Here’s an article about the Tampa mosaic from Destination Tampa Bay magazine

http://destinationtampabay.com/a-story-of-hope-and-healing-in-the-face-of-adversity/

Here’s a video journey of hope and healing at Children’s Cancer Center in Tampa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcMri5l8cks&feature=youtu.be 

The final slide will lead you to a website that’s still under construction. Please try to pardon the dust. Like the mosaic ( and life itself), it's a work in progress.