About the Artist:
Abegail Gabat is a new Kinesiology graduate from the University of Regina. She was born and raised in Vancouver, BC and moved to Regina in 2013. Abegail’s love for art stemmed from when she was young, creating all sorts of crafts with her mom.
Paper Crane History:
Old legends from Japan dictates that one who folds a thousand cranes would have a wish granted by the gods. After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, Sadako Sasaki. 12. was exposed to radiation and developed leukemia. She folded cranes during her stay at the hospital to wish for recovery. Soon. her wish turned into something bigger, a wish for world peace. hope, and healing. Many others around the world have been inspired by Sadako to make a thousand paper cranes. A thousand paper cranes has symbolically become an image of hope and healing during challenging times, and embodies the wishes of good luck, health and recovery.
Why at Creative Options Regina:
Abegail was completing her fieldwork practicum at Creative Options Regina (COR) for the duration of this project. Through each crane folded, Abegail met many people and their hearts became connected. Creating the cranes was a collective effort to be part of something good, better and valuable. The cranes created connectedness, companionship and community for Abegail and the people at Creative Options Regina. During this uncertain time of COVID-19, she wanted to bring the COR community together by putting energy towards something positive and wish for good health, inspire hope and healing amongst the community and our frontline workers. The cranes also provided a creative outlet during this time as we all go through life little by little, the cranes were also folded bit by bit. The paper cranes are set up ascending and descending, depicting the paper as a metaphor for life: it has its ups and downs. But with each piece of paper you make use of what lines and points there are, and you can create something out of what you’ve got.
