Valhalla Over Connacht

Sandra Shea

About the artist: 

Sandra Shea is an associate professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.  “As a colon and skin cancer survivor, I know WAY too much about how health care works from the inside!  Ireland holds a special place in my heart, as my father’s family ‘s homeland, as a place where I spent my junior year of college, and a place to which I have returned whenever possible.  My most recent trip, in 2013, was the first trip with a digital camera and an iPad, as evidenced by an average of 200 photos per day!”

About the artwork:

“Twelve months of chemotherapy will get to you physically, mentally, financially, and spiritually.  As it plodded along I dreamed of places I would rather be.  Almost any place would do, but mostly I wanted to go back to Ireland, home of my father’s family.  This image from County Connacht was taken by iPad (too rainy for my camera) along Ireland’s only fjord and, to me, shows the light of the heavens, of the promise of tomorrows, of a reason to go on.”

Visual Editor:

Justin Sanders