The Continuum

I don't know about everyone else, but 2007 has moved like a movie on fast forward. There are many things I had planned to do and never fulfilled. Now that Christmas has come and gone, we are faced with the idea of a new beginning--psychologically anyway. Many people will think of January as the start date of a diet and exercise plan or the time to set goals to finish projects. Calendars are like the "matrix" of our minds this time of year. I am not immune to the excitement of a clean calendar; however, thanks to the portrait project, this year is a little bit different for me.

The Bravery project started out as a discussion between me and my husband while sitting on the porch in Prescott late last summer. What began as a thoughtful conversation has become a driving force in my life--a dream with a clear plan and purpose. It's easy to think of all the separate things I want to start in 2008, but what strikes me most is the continuum of this project. In otherwords, what really matters at the turn of the year is the consistent efforts we make towards our goals and dreams, not the new ones we set for January 1st.

Time can be put into perspective by simply thinking of what dream you have and starting it NOW. There isn't any reason to wait. In fact, some of the most successful people are those who know what they want, work out the steps, immediately begin action, and stay consistent no matter what the calendar or clock says. In fact, that is what victims of domestic abuse have to face in their lives. One major difference, of course, is that you probably won't die from a heart attack if you don't stick to your New Year's diet plan, but a battered spouse could perish from one more beating. One of my volunteers planned her escape for four long years and managed success with thoughtful planning and consistency. When I think of all the wishy washy resolutions that I've made and broken in the past, it makes me see how silly I've been.

Survivors are people who follow the continuum and you can see it if you ever sit down and talk to one. They follow the same philosophy in other aspects of their lives as they continue to heal from experience. Once fearful and timid , they emerge with one of the best lessons in life to fulfill long held dreams and become a fearless mover and shaker in the community. I plan to learn from the inspiration of these people. If I want to change something in my diet, I will begin with my next meal. If I want to learn a new skill, I will begin today. If I want to set and meet new goals, I will plan and start now and continue through the blur of dates until I finish. You could say it's one way of breaking out of the psychology matrix.

So, with that said, I wish everyone a wonderful New Year holiday and success along the continuum of life.

~HAPPY NEW YEAR~

The Color Red

I can hardly believe that Christmas is next week, marking the year end already. I've been busy this week, working out a problem with a portrait (more on this), so like most busy people, I've been venturing out to do last minute shopping. It's somewhat amusing to see people's faces turn red and flip the finger at each other or cut someone off in a huff on the road or become impatient in line inside the stores. What Christmas spirit! I'd like to see what those people do in a real crisis. Shopping should be fun not stressful, especially in a country where we have just about everything imaginable at our fingertips and on sale too! Sadly, for some people flaring tempers are not seasonal.

When I see people behaving like petulant children, it makes me think about what goes on inside a victim's home. The holiday excuses, the financial implications, and family gatherings become used as REAL threats, not just anonymous annoyances left at the mall. This is one aspect of domestic violence I never thought about. This page on Linda King's website, http://www.fixthehurt.com/holidays.html, explains it clear and simple.

The aforementioned portrait problem has to do with color and some advice based on trial and a really big error. I am working a pastel on bright poppy red paper. This person has fair skin and and unfortunately has a lot of cool tones, even in warm light. It took me a couple of days to figure out the flesh tone on red paper. I was able to figure out a semblance of flesh looking color by covering the red with a cool green and mixing a cool brown into it, then layering the warmer colors. Amazingly it worked, otherwise ALL my colors were coming out like light bulbs. My suggestion is not to use bright red as a ground for a portrait pastel. I found myself turning red with frustration as I repeatedly started over. Now with that said, I am very glad I did it because it was an excellent learning experience in flesh tone mixes and paper color backgrounds. The silver lining cliche really is true, so let's all have a calm and wonderful holiday and leave the color red to lights, bows, stockings and Santa's cheeks and nose this Christmas.

~HAVE A
MERRY CHRISTMAS ~

April Domestic Violence Events

The networking I've been doing is starting to pay off with opportunities to attend upcoming events. There are three coming next April that you all should know about: The Clothesline Project, Take Back the Night, and Walk to End Domestic Violence and 5k run. For those of you who aren't familiar with these events, I'll give you a little brief.

The Clothesline Project is an opportunity for victims of domestic violence to express their feelings by decorating t-shirts. Another great way to share stories through visual art. Since 1990 the shirts have been displayed for the public, and there are clothesline events all across the nation. Any of you who are volunteering for my project are encouraged to create a t-shirt for the Clothesline Project.






Take Back the Night is a powerful protest against fear and violence that began in England, 1877 roughly, and has become a global phenomenon. We will have one at Tempe Town Lake with speakers, a band, a march through Mill Ave, t-shirts, etc. There is even a graphic art contest for the t-shirts that yours truly will contribute. The committee is looking for survivors who would like to speak at this event on April 16th. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?



Walk to End Domestic Violence and 5K Run is sponsored by The Arizona Foundation for Women. Tim and I have done the walk before surrounded by survivors who wear t-shirts with pictures of deceased loved ones. This annual event is full of booths that offer information. I am working on getting one there to promote the Bravery Project. I won't find out until February 2008, so cross your fingers. Booth or no booth, I plan be there.

I am sure there are many more that I am not aware of, but I will post them as I learn. If any of you want to be part of these events, drop me an email and I'll forward you to the right person.

Karyn and Redbook

In my previous post, I mentioned a survivor who is one of my volunteers for the Bravery project. She is an amazing person. When I first talked to her on the phone, I felt she was strong and well organized. When we met, I was right.

Karyn has a real busy life raising kids, working two jobs, and going to school, yet she still manages to champion assistance for issues on domestic violence. She, like many other survivors I have met, are passionate and effective about helping other women. After our portrait sitting, she took me to a new shelter that, for a while, sat unoccupied and vacant. That is until Karyn came along. Within a few short weeks, she had the place furnished and filled with necessary items. What a difference one person can make!

Karyn was featured in one of Redbook Magazine's articles last October's issue. If you missed the article, I have a link here : You May Think Domestic Violence Has Nothing to Do with You.

The article contains stories on four people touched by domestic violence and all are a must read. In fact, another survivor from one of those stories is also a volunteer for me, and I can't wait to draw her portrait.

Lost necklaces and giving

I know it's been a while since I wrote last, but things are picking up quite nicely. First I want to say that the gal in the pastel in my last post lost her beautiful cross necklace after the sitting. Quite a bummer, but thank goodness she wore it as it is now memorialized in the painting. Chalk it up to a reminder to wear what is meaningful to you as a volunteer and model for your portrait painting.

Lately, I've started a couple more pieces. One is an oil painting and the other is a graphite drawing. There are three more on the way. It's so exciting to meet these new people and see how far they've come. One volunteer is a real go-getter. She is so passionate about helping other women that she has helped open another much needed shelter in the Phoenix valley. With her drive and gift for networking and organization, she has coordinated all the furnishings for this new place, practically all on her own, while going to school and working full time. Amazing person! I'll be writing more on her later.

Last weekend we replaced our living room ceiling fan with new one with lights. The old one works fine, so I contacted the volunteer and asked her if she could use the fan for the shelter she is furnishing. Turns out she can. What an idea. If you have any gently used stuff that you might be giving to Goodwill this Christmas season, why not call a shelter to see if the people could use it there. I have some links on this blog that will get you in contact with a shelter organization in your state. It's a simple example of reaching out to others who still suffer and way of giving Thanks for how far we've all come in our lives.

~Happy Thanksgiving~

Portrait Example

(Click on image to enlarge)

I'm sure that some of you who are thinking about participating in the project from a distance want to see what one looks like. Not just a portrait, but one about a survivor. Well, here it is! With permission from the volunteer, I have made a traditional portrait in pastel of her. This one is 16x20 on colored paper. Canson Mi Tientes in Twilight to be precise. I typically start with a light construction line drawing in sepia pencil to get the proportions, then switch to Nupastel and a little Rembrandt stick. She sat for me a little over two hours. This person happened to love purple and lots of color, so I used purple in the shadow and orange, reds, greens, blues, and more in the image. The only black and brown I used were in her hair and eyes. Color is one way she likes to express her outgoing personality that was severely stifled by her abuser. I made a photo copy of this portrait and gave it to her as remembrance of how far she has come in her healing. If you are contemplating about having your portrait done, this is only one example. Each portrait is different, some more than others. The process of getting know these wonderful people as their painting or drawing develops is a real delight.

MCC DV Awareness Conference

Last Wed, October 24th, Mesa Community College had a Domestic Violence Awareness Conference with a series of wonderful speakers and workshops. I met a lot of really great people. It was my first experience promoting the portrait project, and I found the whole event very rewarding.

I was really amazed at how many resources there are for this issue. Although I have been looking for organizations to approach about the project, I had never heard of several of the groups represented at the conference. In one way it's wonderful how much service there is; in another way it's not so wonderful how obscure they are. At least they are available and the web really helps to get the word out, but there is always more that can be done.

Venues

I've received a lot of enthusiasm about this project from all kinds of people. It seems to be a good idea, but I've run into a significant snag. Where to have the exhibit.

To date there are six volunteers for the project and I just completed the first one in pastel. I'm very excited to present the portrait and give the copy to her. Having enough pieces for a show doesn't seem to be a problem at this point, which counters previous questions on "who will volunteer." Now, who will provide space for the show?

I thought 12 months in advance was enough time to approach venues; however, I'm finding most places are already booked past October, 2008. I've spent many hours on the phone talking to people, networking to find a suitable venue, but nothing so far.

There are so many great artists out there all competing for the same spaces, so the difficulty of scheduling a show in the right place is not so surprising. But then, there's the Internet. Could an online gallery and fundraiser be the answer? (feel free to email me personally on this post if you like)

Video for Future Thought

I came across this website, Women Against Domestic Violence. The organization has a really great site and reaches across to women all over the world. They have a memory page for deceased victims, a survivor forum, Myspace layouts as well as the standard info on domestic violence. They cover people from all walks of life. If you visit the site, you must at least see the video on the main page.

Whoever came up with and executed the idea did a fabulous job. The clip is the perfect visual of children learning by example. A lot of parents know that kids are observant and pick up things from them, but if they could really see their child mimicking an exact behavior, good or bad, I think they'd be surprised at how much adults influence the future generation. In many cases, I bet they wouldn't like it one bit.

I personally don't have kids (just kitties and a tortoise), but I try to watch what I say and do when I'm around my nieces and nephews or my friend's children. Sometimes another person's kid is more willing to talk to me about school, or boys, or whatever than she or he is with a parent. That means, I'm probably being watched for monkey do acts, which makes sense since a lot of stuff is learned from watching people on TV. It all goes back to learning by example.

Introductions

When I tell people about my plans for this portrait project. The first question they ask is, "why do you want to do this?" and "Why domestic violence?" Good questions! As a budding artist, I enjoy making cool and pretty things, but... what if I could use visual arts for education? Yes, there are photos and computer technology, however, there is something special about a handmade portrait, don't you think? Cameras are great, but impersonal, and when you consider the subject of domestic violence, that's pretty darn personal.

How about the fact that one in three women are victims of abuse worldwide. According to the CDC, 5.3 million incidents of Intimate Partner Violence occur against women in the US every year along with 3.2 incidents against men. That's just the reported cases. Wow. Like most people, I didn't realise. I could go on and on, but what really struck me was that, in Phoenix metro, thousands of women are turned away each year from shelters because there aren't enough beds. That's pretty sad.

Through visual art, with enough people, I can share stories of domestic violence using portraiture to raise awareness on the issue, and just mabe, sell them to raise funds or collect donations at the exhibit. The question now is "who will volunteer to share their story?". As of this post, I have two beautiful and wonderful volunteers with very surprising and different stories to share. In its beginning, this journey has already blown my own preconceived notions about domestic violence. Now that's pretty exciting.