“Patience,” a painting dedicated to OMNI by Jane Vance
A Story of Connections
The work of Jane Lillian Vance speaks to the connections we feel in our day-to-day lives but also to the metaphoric “bridges” we build across cultures and people. These bridges have taken Vance from her home in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains to the Himalayas of Nepal, as featured in the documentary film “A Gift for the Village,” and now to the savannas of Zambia, Africa.
Vance came to know the work of OMNI through Gil Harrington, who is a vital part of the OMNI medical team. Gil’s daughter Morgan was a bright, shining student in Vance’s class at Virginia Tech. The connection between student and teacher was very strong — so strong, in fact, that Vance planned to bring Morgan with her when she delivered the documentary to the people of Nepal in 2010.
Tragically, Morgan Dana Harrington was murdered in 2009 and so that dream was never able to be fulfilled. In the months following Morgan’s death, Jane and Gil have found many bridges of friendship as mothers, caregivers and storytellers as they seek to transform tragedy into a meaningful future.
In her most recent work – Patience — Vance has created a magnificent oil painting featuring portraits of individuals the OMNI team has served at their clinics in Africa. The details of their stories and faces are known to the artist through Gil’s vivid accounts and photographs — including the centrally placed “Tree of Life” that speaks both to the Buddhist traditions which inform Vance’s work and that also literally resembles the fig tree which serves as refuge for the OMNI clinic in Chisapa, Africa.
The circularity at work here is breathtaking — where the bond between an American teacher and a student will ensure the education and success of teachers and students in Africa. Dedicated to OMNI, the painting will travel the world in a journey to share the story as they seek to raise the necessary funds to complete the Morgan Harrington Educational Wing at OMNI village in Zambia. While death has ravaged individuals and families on both sides of the equation, Vance, Harrington and OMNI remain steadfast in their belief that the strength of compassion, charity, and community will always prevail — saving one child at a time.
Patience
View More Pictures and a read a description on Jane’s Facebook page.