An American Red Cross shelter volunteer’s encounter with anevacuee was the creative spark for a drawing that has touched othervolunteers helping in Brookhaven.

Deborah Valentine, a 50-year-old tattoo artist from Chico,Calif., said she was inspired to draw “Katrina, Rita and the CedarTree” after visiting with a shelter resident named Laura, whomvolunteers referred to as “Mom.”

The drawing, which was given to the evacuee as a present beforeshe left earlier this week, depicts two female faces to representthe recent hurricanes and the tree outside the Red Cross staffshelter. Red Cross staff members described the drawing as”touching” and “heart-wreching.”

“It’s absolutely amazing,” volunteer Rhonda Grove said.

Valentine said “Mom” gave her a shamanistic healing, a NativeAmerican practice, to help with a sore shoulder and respiratoryinfection.

“I was really stressed out,” said Valentine.

Valentine added that she had a vision during the healing.

“They weren’t really cohesive. They were shapes and symbols,”Valentine said in describing the images.

Valentine said the drawing was intended to address her wholeexperience of coming to help with the Red Cross and news coverageof the hurricanes.

The central image in the drawing represents Katrina as a woman’sface that seems to be blown away.

Valentine said Katrina is beautiful name but one that now isassociated with destruction and death. Some viewers of the artworksuggest a third eye on the woman’s face represents the eye of thehurricane.

Valentine said the image of Rita, which appears to be sittingatop a tornado, was drawn later. That image is much more calm toreflect what happened locally, the artist said.

“I just wanted to express for myself how I felt about thehurricanes,” Valentine said.