Meet the famous Unicorn Fawn. This little dude has become a symbol of hope and happiness for myself and many others, and his remarkable story is 100% true.
I painted this Unicorn Fawn in February of 2008, and featured it with my series of Unicorn animals in my solo art exhibit, at Charlie's Gallery, on February 25th 2008. The opening night was featured on BlogTO (read the article).
Months after the show, on a beautiful summer day, Friday June 6th 2008, I went for a walk with Charlie and my roommates. On that particular day I felt playful, so I decided to bring the little 5” by 5” inch painting of the Unicorn Fawn with us on the walk.
On our way Charlie found a basket in an alleyway, so we put the Unicorn Fawn painting in it. As the day went on, and we visited shops and galleries, I introduced the little Uni-Fawn to all the people I met, and I explained that I was on my way to the art store to buy sculpting supplies so I could sculpt it.
We all had lunch on a sunny patio on Queen street, and then parted ways. I decided to walk through Trinity Bellwoods park, feeling happy that I had brought the little painting out that day. On my way through the park, I saw a bunch of kids hovered around a bush laughing at something... I asked them what they were laughing at and they said it was a baby bird with only one wing!
I squatted down to take a look, and saw a little bird hopping around with a pink, featherless wing folded neatly on her chest! The other wing was flapping franticly, sending her off the ground but only for a second each time in a desperate hop. I squealed, put my stuff down, and attempted to capture the frightened little bird. After a couple tries I was able to successfully scoop her up. Huddled in my chest, she breathed heavily and looked up at me. I then realized, the little bird was actually a baby robin and I gasped with delight!
Since I was having a hard time carrying all of my stuff, while also cradling the baby robin in the blazing summer heat, I rushed to my friend John's house in Little Italy for some help. When I arrived, I yelled up at John's window, hoping he would be home…
He poked his head out of his window, “Oh hi Love! What's up?”
“I found a one-winged baby Robin!” I exclaimed through my tears.
He gasped, “What? Really?” and rushed down to see me.
John took my things and helped me walk to my house. We found a laundry hamper and he helped me make a little nest in it for the quivering little bird.
I inspected the robin and realized she had tiny feathers attempting to grow on her left side, but they weren't growing any more than a couple millimetres. She wasn't injured or anything, and she didn't look sick, as she hopped around chirping and flapping with a lot of frantic energy.
I called a vet and asked them about it. They informed me that she probably wasn't sick at all, just had a birth defect which happens to birds sometimes. He explained that sometimes based on where they grow in the nest, their feathers won’t have room to develop, so they become permanently stunted. The veterinarian went on to say that it happens a lot in nature, you just never see it, because by the time the baby bird has been pushed out of the nest, only to find that it can’t fly, a cat or raccoon gets to it right away and usually kills it. He said that I must have found my robin right after she had been pushed out of the nest, and that she would most likely grow up with the defect and never be able to fly. He warned me that she might eventually go insane if kept in captivity.
I was dumbfounded by this news, I couldn't believe this magical find of mine! I decided to keep the robin and take care of her – the vet advised that I should feed her cherries and bits of dog food.
The next four days were amazing. She was up at 6am chirp-chirping to be fed. I would drop tiny bits of cherries in her wide open yellow mouth, smiling at how much she ate, and how healthy she seemed. She was beautiful.
Four days went by and I would rush home a few times a day to feed her. Everything was well with the Robin, she was eating and hopping around my room when I let her. And then something awful happened that Wednesday morning ...
Wednesday, June 11th 2008, I woke up at 9am, surprised that the Robin hadn't chirped me awake earlier... I sensed something was wrong. I peeked into the laundry bag and gasped when I saw she had tipped over in her sleep, and died. She would sleep standing with her head nestled in her back, and was still in her sleep position, quiet and asleep for good. I couldn't believe it. I decided she must have died because of her sadness that she couldn’t fly.
As I bawled my eyes out, I gathered her together, and went out into my lush backyard in the hot 9am sunshine, and made a little leaf coffin for her. I buried her, praying to God and Nature. After I buried her, I was so moved by it all, I wrote a poem, and drew this picture of her...
I believed it was because I took the Unicorn Fawn painting that Friday before, that I had found the little robin, so I decided to make tiny prints of the Unicorn Fawn, to give to people, as a tribute to the robin. I printed hundreds of tiny 1”x1” inch prints with my computer and wrote on the back of each one “Believe in Magic”.
Over the next couple days, I proceeded to give the tiny prints to everyone I saw when I was out at parties, art shows etc. I would exclaim “Here, want a Unicorn!?” as I gave out the prints to strangers, and when talking to friends I joked that all I wanted was for the Unicorn Fawn to be real, and laughed about how cool it would be to have a Unicorn Fawn show up at our party.
That Thursday night I had been out all night, going to parties and bars, bright and happy while I gave the Unicorn Fawn prints to everyone I met. On my way home from an intoxicating summer evening, it was Friday the 13th at about 10am. It was exactly one week to-the-day I had originally taken the Unicorn Fawn painting out in the basket - one week to-the-day I had found the baby robin that couldn’t fly.
While riding my little red bike down Dundas Street, I stopped and went into a vintage store I had never been in before. I greeted a man in the store, and he complimented my outfit. As I went to leave I offered him one of my unicorn prints and said, “Would you like a Unicorn?” He took it from me, unrolled it, and gasped,
He said, “Is this that Deer they found in Italy!?”
“What Deer?” I replied.
“Oh, well, two days ago, on Wednesday morning, someone found a Deer in Italy growing a single horn in the middle of his head, and it's all over the news this morning because people believe the deer to be a real Unicorn, and they are rushing to Prado Italy to see him!”
I was stunned. Wednesday morning was when the baby had Robin died. Wednesday morning was when I had decided to make prints of the Unicorn Fawn and give them to everyone I met! The man quietly took me to his computer and googled UNICORN DEER ITALY. A second later images of the Famous Deer they had found flooded the computer screen. Images that looked exactly like the Unicorn Fawn I had drawn six months earlier, exactly like the Unicorn Fawn I had been asking hundreds of strangers to believe in while I paraded my drawing around town that week.
I couldn’t believe it. I told him the story about the baby Robin and about the painting, and how I had taken it out one week ago, wishing for the Uni-Fawn to be real to every person I met that week.
He heard my story, quietly nodding with excitement. Then when I was done telling it, there was a pause as we gazed at the images on the screen together, holding the little print up next to them. “That's the most amazing story I've ever heard”, he said, “and it's even extra weird because my middle name is Robin too!” We were both stunned and so excited. It was a moment to remember.
I left his store and rushed home, running into friends on the way, told them the story and then kept going. When I got home I called my Mom, so excited, eyes full of happy tears, I told her everything. Now to finish this tale, it's truly remarkable what my Mother said next…
She told me that her and my Father had booked their 30th wedding anniversary trip earlier that week, and they had decided to go to Italy. They were even staying near Prado Italy, where the real Unicorn Fawn had been discovered!
Only a couple weeks later my parents went to Italy with my Unicorn Fawn prints in hand, and gave one to everyone they met, attempting to tell my story in Italian. They even visited the Wildlife Reserve where the real one-year-old Unicorn Deer lived, met the man who had discovered the Unicorn Deer, and told him the unbelievable story.
Now my Unicorn Fawn prints circulate in Italy, Toronto, and Vancouver... some of them read “Believe in Magic!” others say “What you will, will be!”... and to this day I still get random emails from people I've never met telling me how they heard this story in their travels, or found a forgotten uni-fawn print in their wallet.
And that's my story about a little robin and a little Unicorn Fawn; a beautiful true story about art, believing in something and the power of positive thought.