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One-of-A-kind Handmade Original Painting on 12x16 inch Canvas
Only $1.99 USA shipping for each additional painting.
THE KEEPER OF LOST KEYS
There is an old story that ravens collect more than shining things.
They collect keys.
Not ordinary keys, although they have been known to steal those too.
They gather the invisible ones.
The key to a dream someone abandoned because it seemed impossible.
The key to a door closed after a broken heart.
The key to an old curiosity.
The key to a voice someone stopped using.
Whenever a person says, That part of my life is over, a raven somewhere tilts its head and listens.
Sometimes, if the person truly means it, nothing happens.
But sometimes a tiny golden key appears.
And the ravens carry it away.
High in the mountains, according to the story, there is an ancient raven called the Archivist.
No one knows how long he has lived.
His nest is filled with thousands upon thousands of keys.
He never labels them.
He doesn\'t need to.
He remembers exactly what each one opens.
People occasionally climb the mountain looking for him.
“I\'ve lost something,” they tell the Archivist.
“What?” he asks.
“I don\'t know.”
This is apparently a perfectly acceptable answer.
The raven searches his collection.
Sometimes he returns with nothing.
But sometimes he flies down carrying a single key in his beak.
“Where is the door?” the traveler asks.
The Archivist never tells them.
That is the rule.
A key may be returned.
A door must be found.
So the traveler goes home carrying a key to something they once believed was finished.
And then they begin looking.
In old notebooks.
In forgotten rooms.
In the things they loved before they learned to be practical.
In ideas that still make something stir inside them.
Eventually, if they are patient, they find the door.
And strangely enough, it is almost never where they left it.
The Keeper of Lost Keys is about parts of ourselves we mistake for things we have outgrown.
Not every abandoned dream needs to be recovered. Not every closed door should be reopened.
But occasionally something from your past returns—not because you are supposed to go backward, but because it contains a key you need for wherever you\'re going next.
Pay attention to what keeps calling you back.
The door may have moved. The key still knows you.
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I\'m contemporary artist Sharon Julien, and I create colorful, expressive original paintings filled with story, symbolism, personality and a little bit of the unexpected.
I believe art doesn\'t have to match the sofa or explain itself. Sometimes you simply see a painting and know it belongs to you.
Every original is painted by hand in my studio, signed by me, and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. There is only one.
Everything has a story. Thanks for becoming part of this one.
