"I am continually touched and grateful for my friends. True friendship is a gift. It is a gift given without anything expected in return. Friends are people with whom we choose to share our lives, the good times and bad. They are the people who buoy us up. They are the people who inspire us to be better."

Life is an ongoing series of miracles. Everyone has something to be thankful for or someone they should be saying “Thank You” to. Prayers, large and small, are answered daily, often without our recognition. Ex voto is Spanish for votive offering.

Ex votos are paintings offered to a deity or saint as a thank you for an answered prayer, or, as a form of prayer. Traditionally, the ex voto is signed by the petitioner, dated and explains why the giver is giving thanks. In many cases, they tell a very touching personal story. The personal nature of these stories is what makes them so fascinating.

“These little artworks are painted out of gratitude for the miracles, protection and prayers answered not only in my life, but in what is common to so many of us,” says Cassandra Barney. “In conceiving these paintings, it didn’t seem that I was illustrating ideas, but sharing and exchanging them.”

Each ex votos celebrates the exceptional nature of the common and the uncommon: friendship, love, life, family and self. This collection was inspired by look of the Mexican tin-paneled works and designed to be hung in groupings. As gifts, they are the perfect message at the perfect time. Life is full of blessings and Cassandra Barney’s Ex Votos give us the opportunity to share our recognition of gratitude with beauty and grace.