the Painting Activist

Since last summer’s Kentucky Remembers! Project, I’ve fallen in love with facilitating the creation of collaborative, community art. After returning from that youth camp, I began actively pursuing a way to continually run such projects. To make an incredibly long story short, the end result of my efforts took the form of accepting a position at the Louisville Visual Art Association as a program coordinator. The arts outreach program is called “Open Doors.” The mission of the program sounds like it was scripted specifically for me:

Open Doors is an umbrella program of classes and art enrichment experiences designed to give a voice to under-served populations including the at-risk youth, refugees and immigrants, senior citizens, victims of domestic abuse and more. Our projects are designed to pair local professional artists with groups who have limited access to the visual arts to collaborate in creating works of self-expression. Projects are tailored to meet specific needs of each population and serve to enrich not only the individual participant, but the community as a whole.

Artists who lead our programs are passionate about facilitating the realization of creative talent and offering tangible tools for communication, engagement, leadership and positive change.

So, while I’m continuing with all of my other various endeavors mentioned on my blog, I’m also overseeing an incredible group of talented visual artists bringing their expertise to people rarely exposed to the arts (much less engaged in the art-making process).

Of course I could never be tied to a desk chair as a full-time administrator. I split my time between coordinating all of the Open Doors projects and facilitating my own. Currently, I’m at the Center for Women and Families working with a small group of victims of domestic violence on an 8′ long mural that will hang in the lobby of the Center’s main office.

Introducing the women to the visual arts included meeting them at the Louisville Visual Art Association to see the Liz Quisgard exhibit. I was expecting quick drop-ins from the women, but ended up spending 2 hours with them altogether answering their questions and chatting about their reactions.

After several weeks of preparatory exercises to get them comfortable sketching and thinking visually, we starting on the canvas. I took each woman’s photograph and projected the image onto the canvas for them to trace. Next, they began filling their silhouettes with images from their sketches books.

A group decision was made to jointly create a background that symbolized unity and interconnectedness. We talked about puzzle pieces, which lead to the idea of a using a tessellation of figures. The women also decided to paint the tessellation the colors tied to domestic violence awareness (purple and teal) and the pink to symbolize femininity.

Once again, I’ve been blown over by the progress and investment in the project. I think they’ve surprised themselves just a little as well We’ll be wrapping up the painting this week and focusing on the community celebration/dedication of the artwork at the Center. I will certainly keep you posted about this event since I know these women would be overwhelmed by a strong turn out to honor their accomplishment and gift to the Center.

Do I still have any Courier-Journal writers subscribing to my blog (hint, hint)?

8″ x 10″ oil on canvas, $350 ($50 donated to the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana)

See all artwork available for sale.

The Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana (a.k.a. Louisville, Kentucky + Southern Indiana) recently hosted a breakfast wherein their new CEO, Terry Blackwell (pictured above), gave an intriguing presentation entitled, “Change it Up! What Girls Say About Redefining Leadership.” The presentation was based on a study conducted by the Girl Scout Research Institute (GSRI), which “serves as a center for research and public policy information on the healthy development of girls.”

Every generation takes societal norms passed onto them and molds them to mirror the times in which they live. This study is a thorough look into the minds of our youngest future leaders. With a fine-tooth comb, the study breaks down the definitions, predictors and aspirations that our youth assign to leadership.

A few highlights that especially caught my attention were:

• The number one reason girls resisted becoming a leader was that they did not like speaking in public.
• When categorized by race, Caucasians were the least likely to aspire to, or be motivated by leadership.
• Repeatedly in charts, boys’ positive responses were higher than girls only when the questions included mention of money, power and sports (altruism apparently is not as innately prominent in males).

But in the boys’ defense, one of my favorite quotes included in the intro of the study was by an 8th grade boy in Atlanta:

“I would like to be a leader some day so that I can change different aspects of the world, such as homelessness, poverty, and unjust happenings.”

To read the study for yourself, click here.

9″ x 12″ watercolor, SOLD.
See all artwork available for sale.

This Saturday, March 22nd, is World Water Day. The UN initiated international day of awareness has sparked activities around the globe such as “World Water Walks,” art competitions, and documentary film viewings. The latter is happening in Louisville this weekend at Baxter Avenue Theater. ‘FLOW (For Love of Water),’ co-produced by phenomenal local arts rock star, Gill Holland (of Gallery NuLu and sonaBLAST! Records), will be shown for a week at the theater beginning tomorrow.

Snag tickets early for Friday’s showing to make sure don’t miss the opportunity to meet the film’s director, Irena Salina, who was apparently tear-gassed in addition to receiving a death threat while making the film. I just bought my tickets online for the 7:30 showing on Friday. See you there?

Confession: I have a knack for an embarrassingly horrific use of the English language. I think I was in my twenties when someone politely pointed out that I was pronouncing “fruition” as “fruitation.” I’ve downloaded an extension on my web browser that highlights all misspelled words in every application on my laptop. I’ve come to feel handicapped when I’m on someone else’s computer.

In my own defense, I’m very proactive about addressing this weakness. I subscribe to multiple word-of-the-day-emails and have downloaded another plug-in that lets me right click to get the definition of unknown words. But these approaches pale in comparison to the latest tool I’ve found that does far more than flex the brain’s language muscles. FreeRice is a website where your reward for each correct multiple choice vocab questions equates to 20 grains of rice donated to feed the hungry. The donations are made possible through website advertisers. The rice is then distributed by the UN World Food Program.

Studying for the L/SAT or just readying yourself to impress a date? Fill empty bellies while you’re filling your head with new words.

2.5″ x 10″ mixed media painting in an 11″ x 14″ frame, $190 ($10 donated to The Nature Conservancy)

While watching one of the episodes recently, I was reminded that there is a tremendous amount of daily activity on our planet that we benefit greatly from, don’t contribute to, and get for absolutely free. We’re all painfully aware of the cost of using natural resources such as oil and natural gas, but did you ever think of the free services we receive, such as pollination for example? Probably not since the connection between the existence of much of the vegetation around us and the bees who carry and deliver pollen, like free mini UPS workers, is not obvious (again, maybe because it’s not affecting our wallets).

Well, you may have thought about if you’ve seen the ‘Bee Movie.’ The importance of pollination was highlighted in the animated film when the bees practiced nonviolent resistance by halting their pollination until the humans agreed to stop commercially producing honey by means of forceful bee slave labor. The boycott resulted in a domino effect of dry lifeless landscapes, and ecological and economic sickness of immense proportions (covers quite spectrum of issues, huh? environmentalism, labor laws/human rights, social community organizing).

If you care to engage in two starkly different cinematic approaches to gaining an appreciation and understanding of our environment and the role we play, pop some popcorn, get cozy and make a movie night of it. Hmmm, good idea Ashley!

12″ x 12″ oil on canvas, $400 ($20 donated to Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana)

See all artwork available for sale.

I although I missed it this year, I got an update from my friends at the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana on the outcome of last week’s Dessert First. Over $35,000 was raised at the box-o-cookies-meets-gourmet-ambrosia-sampling. 600 folks with a serious sweet tooth browsed and indulged in treats from 27 local restaurants.

The “Golden Whisk Award”-winning Tagalong cheesecake (a creation of The Jefferson Club) is a clear reminder of why I decided not to utilize my free press pass. Of all the Girl Scout cookies my family bought when I was a kid, Tagalongs were the only ones that ended up getting stashed in my sock drawer to keep my brother from downing them before I got my share. My willpower would have been out the window. This is my contribution to the cause

18″ x 24″ oil on canvas, SOLD.
See all artwork available for sale.

Are you happy? Would you say you’re a happier person than a citizen of a neighboring country? How do you measure happiness?

A 2006 study calculating happiness by nation has added a new unit of measurement to the typical equation of income and access to quality health care and education. Inserting the new variable seems to be based on the theory of “what goes around, comes around.” The Happy Planet Index reminds us that we live in the environment we help create by naming ecological sustainability as one of its 3 primary indicators. No one wants to call smog-filled community without clean water home. The study “shows the relative efficiency with which nations convert the planet’s natural resources into long and happy lives for their citizens.”

A more traditional study would likely name a Scandinavian country such as Denmark the world leader of pleasure and contentment. The Happy Planet Index bestows the title to the unlikely candidate of Vanuatu, a small freckling of islands in the South Pacific that only gained its dependence from Britain and France in the 1970’s.

Analyzing life satisfaction, life expectancy, and ecological footprint yields some very surprising results. Mexico and Columbia are 2 of very few countries on the index’s world map positively denoted in green. Give their survey a spin for yourself to gain a better understanding of information collected for the study. Hopefully you are happy and/because you’re ecological footprint is petite.

This Thursday evening the 24th at the Marriott Louisville Downtown, Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana will be exploiting your weakness for sweets to raise money to continue to serve over 22,00 girls in Kentucky.  As if the actual Girl Scout cookies weren’t tempting enough, Louisville finest chefs will be whipping up new gourmet creations using the tasty treats as a base ingredient.

For $50/person you can meander a ballroom filled with the most incredible culinary delights.  New Year’s resolution-ers beware.  I covered last year’s Desserts First and definitely left in a sugar coma, yet blissfully content.

Further information for tickets and online registration are available here.

Click here for a direct link to watch the video.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

photo by John Rott

Heck, why not partake in a little gloating?   Louisville’s Velocity Weekly recently profiled me in their “What I’m Into” column.  One more thing for my grandmother to laminate.

30″ x 40″ oil on canvas
Contact me at ashley.cecil (at) gmail.com for purchase inquires.
$50 donated to Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana
See all artwork available for sale.

Last year I finally made a list of “things to do before I die.” One line on that list read, “take Flamenco dance lessons.” Not long after creating my declarations of commitments to myself, I saw a Louisville Flamenco group perform at the Americana Center for International Women’s Day. The performance was inspiring to say the least, hence this painting.

Benefits and utility exist for such sinfully enjoyable activity like dance, which pleases folks on 2 diametric ends of a spectrum: those involved in dance for personal expression and those only interested in any activity insofar as it is “useful” (ie does is make money or is it trackable on a spreadsheet). Here are a few ways dance nourishes the creative spirit and yields tangible positive outcomes:

• With one-third of children in the US overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, incorporation of dance into school programs is a fun and effective way to combat overdoses of PopTarts and under-activity and boost confidence. Here’s a great example for you research geeks.
• The calorie-busting, coordination-building video game, Dance Dance Revolution, may lead to improved reading comprehension among kids with ADHD.
• A 2003 study showed that cognitive activities such as dancing greatly decrease the risk of dementia. Dancing (3-4/wk) was the only activity that resulted in a 76% lower dementia rate among study participants.
• If a monetary outcome is what you’re after, Dance-a-thons like this one are a great way to raise money for your cause.

So you see, all of your time spent dancing in front of the mirror, singing that horrible 80’s tune you wouldn’t be caught dead jamming to in front of friends, has simply been a preface to employing your talent for a fruitful purpose. Dance on twinkletoes!

4″ x 6″ watercolors in 12″ x 14″ frames, $175 each ($10 per painting donated to www.stopglobalwarming.org)

Click here to see picture of framed paintings.

See all artwork available for sale.

Who would have thought exercising mischievous behavior over Christmas would have resulted in the opportunity to hear a a personal testimony of the impact of global warming?

I spent Christmas an hour north of Manhattan in a house that sits on the 50 wooded acres painted above. My boyfriend and I set out in snow gear to explore the property which entailed crossing a creek to leave the manicured yard. Rising temperatures had flooded our bridge with melting snow and ice. My boyfriend was ready to call it quits and head back inside to play Guitar Hero since our only alternative was to use the neighbor’s bridge to cut across. He changed his mind after a few minutes of taunting and peer pressure.

Of course, I had to eat my words. No sooner had we crossed the bridge than the neighbor came storming out of his house yelling “Hey! HEY! What do you think you’re doing?!” I thought his thunderous voice might shake icicles loose from the trees to strike us down.

With our tails between our legs we walked toward the white-haired gentleman to explain our (my) weak reasoning. He quickly changed his demeanor and politely explained his boisterous reaction was due to the vandals who been on his property a few weeks prior. We made peace and transitioned into a 20 minute chat about his 3 decades spent on the property. “When I first moved here, there were several days every year when the temperature would be 20 below. It would be in the negative teens for a couple of weeks. Now here it is Christmas and it’s 40.” A comment about global warming skeptics was followed by an eye roll.

Take-a-ways from my soupy-snow Christmas adventure:

1. Observant baby-boomers who stay in one place for an extended amount of time make excellent citizen climatologists
2. Only coax an unwilling cohort into trespassing with you if you’re certain you’re not going to get caught

8″ x 10″ oil on canvas

Here’s a bit of exciting news about 2008: I was recently awarded a grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women to complete a unique series of portraits in the first half of the year. I’m making arrangements to travel throughout the state of Kentucky to interview and photograph my female painting subjects, each of whom has a powerful story of positive life transformation.  The women/girls are being introduced to me through the nonprofit organization that played an integral in part their turnaround.

The completed series of paintings will be on exhibit and for sale at Gallery NuLu in Louisville in the summer of 2008 in honor of the successes of these women and the organizations that served them. Information about each charitable organization will be available for gallery visitors below each corresponding painting.  And I hope several of the portrait subjects will be able to attend the opening to enrich the experience. 

Pending successful sales during the exhibit, a small scholarship will be awarded to a woman/girl pursuing her post secondary education at a Kentucky school.  My regular blog followers will of course hear more about the exhibit and the paintings as the project gets underway.

Please feel free to nominate an individual or organization for the project by using “Suggest a Lead” or “Contact” in the sidebar.  Any portrait subjects must be:

• a female Kentucky resident
• able to disclose their identity and story to the public
• comfortable with the painting being sold

I look forward to hearing your suggestions.  Have a Happy New Year!