I painted this Unicorn Fawn for my friend named Fawn, because I was painting a Unicorn inspired by each friend of mine for my second solo art show titled SLAW.
I named it Ip, because Audrey Hepburn had a pet fawn, named Ip, who used to follow her around in Hollywood.
I painted this Unicorn Fawn in February of 2008, and featured it with my series of Unicorn animals in my Solo Art exhibit, at Charlie's Gallery, on February 25th.
Months after the show, on a beautiful summer day, Friday June 6th 2008, I went for a walk with Charlie and my roommates, and decided to bring my little 5 by 5 inch painting of the Unicorn Fawn with us.
On our way Charlie found a basket in an alleyway, so we put the Uni-Fawn painting in it. As the day past, as we visited shops and galleries I introduced my pet Uni-Fawn to people I met, and explained that I was on my way to the art store to buy sculpting supplies so I could sculpt it.
We all had lunch on a sunny patio on Queen street, then parted ways. I decided to walk through Trinity Bellwoods park, feeling happy that I brought the painting out that day, ... I then saw a bunch of kids hovered around a bush laughing at something... I asked what they were looking at and they said it was a baby bird with only one wing...
I squatted down to take a look, and saw a little bird hopping around with a pink, featherless wing folded neatly on her chest, while the other wing was flapping franticly sending her off the ground but only for a moment in a desperate hop.
I squealed, put my stuff down, and attempted to capture the frightened little bird. After a couple tries I got her in my grasp. Huddled in my breast, she breathed heavily and looked up at me.... with a better look , I realized , the little bird was actually... a baby Robin!
I gasped, and a tear came to my eye, I always thought I could talk to Robin's when I was a little girl, and couldn't believe I had found one so helpless, but alive, in downtown Toronto.
I rushed to my friend John's house, who lived near by, a place i had lived in for three years... I was having a hard time carrying all my stuff while carefully cradling the little robin.
I yelled up at John's window, hoping he would be home, surprisingly he was, even though it was a perfect day and he usually dwelled in Kensington during such days.
He poked his head out his window, 'Hi Love! What's up?' ,
'I found a one-winged baby Robin!' I exclaimed through tears.
He gasped, 'what? really?' and rushed down to me.
Once in the yard, laughing with a smile, he witnessed the little creature held to my breast while I awkwardly balanced art supplies, my purse, and a basket with the Uni-Fawn in it.
'O wow, ' he said. 'This is amazing'.
John took my things from me, and walked with me to my new house. We got a laundry hamper and he helped me make a little nest for the quivering bird.
I inspected the little bird and realized she had tiny feathers attempting to grow on her left side, but they weren't growing any more than a couple millimetres. She wasn't injured or anything, and didn't look sick, as she healthily hopped around chirping and flapping.
So I called a Vet and asked them about it. They informed me that she probably wasn't sick at all, just had a bird defect which happens to birds sometimes, when their feathers simply wont grow on one side of their body.
The veterinarian went on to say that it happens a lot in nature, you just never see it, because by the time the baby bird has been pushed out of the nest, only to find it cant fly, a cat or racoon gets to it right away and kills it. He said that I must have found her right after she had been pushed out of the nest, and that she may grow up with the defect, but never being able to fly, she would probably go insane in captivity.
I was dumbfounded by this news. Couldn't believe this magical find of mine. I decided to keep her and take care of her, advised to feed her cherries and bits of dog food.
The next few days were amazing. She was up at 6am chirp chirping to be fed. I would drop tiny bits cherries in her wide open yellow mouth, smiling at how much she ate, and how healthy she seemed. She was beautiful.
A couple days went by and I would rush home a few times a day to feed her. Everything was well with the Robin, she was eating and hopping around my room when I let her. Until that Wednesday morning, ....
Wednesday, June 11th 2008, I woke up at 9am, surprised that the Robin hadn't chirped at me earlier... I sensed something was wrong. I peeked into the laundry bag and gasped when I saw she had tipped over in her sleep, and died. She would sleep standing with her head nestled in her back, and was still in her sleep position , quiet and asleep for good.
I couldn't believe it. I decided she must have died because of her sadness. Her spirit needing to fly, so she was taken by Mother Nature, out of mercy.
I , crying, gathered her together , went out into my lush backyard in 9am sunshine, and made a little leaf coffin for her. I buried her, praying to Nature and thanking it for taking her.
After I buried her, I was so moved by it all, inspired and sad, so I wrote a poem, and drew this picture...
I believed it was because I took the Uni-Fawn out that Friday, that I had found her. So I decided to make hundreds of tiny prints of my Uni-Fawn, to give to people, writing 'Believe in Magic' on the back of them.
Over the next couple days I proceeded to give them to everyone I saw when I was out at parties, art shows etc. I would exclaim as I gave out the prints to people, that all I wanted was for the Unicorn Fawn to be real, laughing about how cool it would be to have a Unicorn Fawn at our party.
While riding down Dundas, I stopped and went into a little vintage store I had never been in before. I greeted a man in the store, and he complimented my outfit. As I went to leave I offered him one of my prints and said, 'Would you like a Unicorn'?
He took it from me, unrolled it, and gasped.
'Is this that Deer they found in Italy!?' he asked.
'What Deer?' I replied.
'O, well, two days ago, on Wednesday morning, they found a Deer in Italy growing a Unicorn horn, and it's all over the news, because people believe it to be a real Unicorn!'
I was stunned. Wednesday morning was when the baby Robin died, I thought. The man quietly took me to his computer and googled UNICORN DEER ITALY. In only a second images of the Deer they had found flooded the computer screen. Images that looked exactly like the Uni-Fawn I had painted 6 months earlier, and had been parading around town for exactly one week.
A tear came to my eye. I told him the story about the baby Robin and about the painting and how I had taken it out one week ago, wishing for the Uni-Fawn to be real to every person I met.
He heard my story , quietly nodding with excitement. Then when I finished, there was a pause as we gazed at the images on the screen , holding the print up next to them.
And then he spoke,
'That's the most amazing story I've ever heard, and it's extra weird because my middle name is actually Robin!'
The messenger of this news, was named Robin!
I couln't believe it.
I left his store and rushed home, running into friends on the way, told them and then kept going. When I got home I instantly called my Mom, crying and so excited, I told her everything.
Now to finish this tale, it's truly remarkable what my Mother said when I had finished telling her about that truly magical week.
She told me that her and my Father had booked their anniversary trip earlier that week, and had decided to go to Italy. Only a couple weeks later my parents went to Italy with my Unicorn Fawn prints in hand, and gave one to everyone they met, attempting to tell the story in Italian. And they even visited the reservation where the real one-year-old Unicorn Deer lives, met the man who discovered the Uni-Deer, gave him a print, and told him the unbelievable story.
Now my Uni-Fawn prints circulate in Italy, Toronto, and Vancouver... some of them read 'Believe in Magic' others say 'What you will, will be'... and I still get random emails from people I've never met telling me how they heard this story from my parents while they were travelling in Italy.
And that's my story about a little Robin and a little Unicorn Fawn, a beautiful true story I will cherish always :)
GOOGLE; UNICORN DEER ITALY ; and you'll find all the information about the Real Unicorn, I like to believe my painting, my wishing, and my little one winged Robin manifested... .
See how much they look alike!
My Unicorn Fawn, painted in February 2008| The Real Unicorn Deer, found in June 2008
My Unicorn Fawn, painted in February 2008| The Real Unicorn Deer, found in June 2008
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