Valley News Dispatch
reptrinted with permission - august 1st 2001
Near-Death experience
translates to angel art.
written by Rex Rutkoski
The morning of Feb. 8, 1996, could have been Kati Russell's last day on earth. An acute asthmatic, she was in her hot tub, alone on her 9-acre farm, when her lungs began to fill. She took what she thought might be her last breath.
The next thing she remembers was being above that scene, looking down on her slumped body in the water.
She had the sensation of being wrapped in the thickest, warmest, most secure blanket of love and peace anyone could imagine. "There was no way to describe it. I was in God's hands." she recalls.
She thought about her four children. She remembevrs a touch on her shoulder by what she now believes was her guardian angel, that seemed to pull her back into her body.
The Ohio resident did not tell anyone about what she considers a near-death experience until two years later.
Now, she expresses it through her art, painting abstract angels, sans faces.
She was a sculptor 15 years ago, but started to paint only after that morning in the hot tub. "I painted almost a year before i showed my work. I was painting because i was remembering what i felt that day i looked down on my body." Russell says.
It was that feeling she was trying to recapture, initally not even considering someone else would want to see her work.
Russell says she seemed to tap into her spiritual side once she began painting. "I could kind of hear what my guardian angel was trying to tell me all along. It's like a pull to God's power, that comes from the top of our head into our heart."
She has painted more than 100 images. "It works like your favorite song. It hits your heart just right and provides a healing in just that tone that you can listen to all day." she says.
Russell says she never wanted to hear about angels before 1996. "I thought if I wasn't happy, it was my fault. I didn't think they had time for me. Having an image of an angel would ahve helped me too."
"What angels bring is peace and protection to constantly put around us so we can stay sensitive in a world that isn't so sensitive." she says.
Russell believes we all have guardian angels. "Whether we choose to acknowledge that is up to us. We have access to that, first by seeing the little blessings we get everyday. The way God speaks to us is through people."
She says she hopes people can continue to take a sense of peace from her art, "And to know they are not alone even though it sure feels that way a lot of times."
(her work can be viewed online at www.katirussell.com)
Send suggestions of comments to Rex Rutoski, Religion Spotlight, Valley News Dispatch, 210 Fourth Ave., Tarentum, PA 15084; FAX (724) 226-4677; email rrutkoski@tribweb,com
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