Canary Art Print | Encouragement Gift | Mindfulness Gift | Enneagram 4 | Pencil Drawing

| 8x10 inch art print |
*frame not included

A reproduction of my original pencil drawing entitled "Canary."

The term “canary in a coal mine" has been a strangely recurring phrase in my life. Its general meaning is that it’s a metaphor for an advanced warning of some kind of danger. Coal miners would carry canaries into the mines with them. Because canaries need “immense quantities of oxygen to be able to fly at altitudes that would make humans sick,” it means that they’re super sensitive to dangerous gasses. If they died when they were brought into a mine, the coal miners knew it was unsafe for humans.

I’m more familiar with this term in terms of describing highly sensitive people. I had a (-nother sensitive, artistic) friend tell my husband once that the friend and I “were canaries.” We’re sensitive. Author Glennon Doyle also writes and speaks about canaries, “Some of us are like those canaries. We sense toxins that others can’t and the poisons affect us.” My sensitivity has often felt like a liability. But I can’t help but love the idea of sensing things that others can’t. And then at the same time “being able to fly at altitudes that would make humans sick.” We feel the low lows. But we also get these HIGH highs. We get it all.

I saw this little yellow canary in my mind; flying into the darkness from the light and being hit with immense waves of feelings and emotions. They’re not all BAD or SCARY. But they’re intense. And there’s a lot of them, always. We little canaries are drawn into those mines of feelings and emotions like a magnet; we can’t help it. But unlike the actual canaries in the coal mines, we thrive in there.

All of my pieces contain my own hand lettering, illustrations, and/or paintings. They are scanned, digitized, and professionally printed on 100 lb. card stock.
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all artwork Copyright (c) Jenny Mecher. all rights reserved.