Ah, Cherie! A template for future encouragement...

I am recently encouraged by a dear friend who is creating really great gifts and photographs, beginning a business and entering her 3rd year at NNU here in Nampa. (check out her cool website: amandacherie.tumblr.com) As we meet, I learn from her and hope my experiences as an artist thus far can provide encouragement and mentorship for her. From this experience, I realize that this blog will serve as an important tool to document the growth of the 'hope+healing' hospital project, serving as a template for student artists to develop sharing what God has given them through the possibility of healing (emotionally, spiritually, physically...) through the arts. Keeping this in mind, this blog will document my journey as I contact hospitals and learn how to best serve the patients and caregivers this exhibition is meant to encourage. My first experience was graciously provided by a contact at Mercy Hospital in Nampa, Idaho. In order to present something somewhat professional, my brother created a gorgeous pdf--a visual overview of the work with a 'key' page interpreting symbols of hope & healing used throughout the exhibition. Through a dear friend and nurse at Mercy, I contacted the liason for the CEO of the hospital. From there, I left a phone message & emailed the pdf to her. She presented this information to the CEO, and we began conversation on the logistics of when & where to hang the exhibition. Although the work is available for sale and will be continually flowing with new work, I decided to explore that area of the journey if someone specifically contacted me about a piece, charging a certain amount per square inch for original work and a set price for specific sizes of prints. I will have this list available but not prominently shown at hospitals, so that if someone asks, they can find out this information discreetly and contribute to funding the project through sales of original art or prints. Patrons will be able to contact me personally through provided contact information/business cards available under my artist's statement for the exhibition. Let's see...what else...oh yes...it's important to know that the number one idea is to encourage the patients & caregivers, which means as an artist, I need to work with whatever the hospital deems best in regard to the details of hanging art (nails in the wall, filling holes afterward if necessary, etc.). In this case, the staff at Mercy is wonderful and provided me with nails, a hammer and the goodness to fill in holes after the show moves to another hospital. I will contact a local hospital that is well versed in exhibiting art and try to arrange a meeting with their art director to learn and gain as much wisdom as possible for how to present the practical needs of a hospital while encouraging it's patients & caregivers. I am here for any questions or suggestions, if you would like! I am learning as I grow! Mary

I'm ready to see a great kid!

Here is a boy doll! Dolls of varying ethnicity are being created! So there's more to come :D See www.marymakesart.etsy.com to purchase. Each doll purchased gives a child in hospital a doll to personalize with fabric paint! See the following post for more information. Here we go!!!

girls and boys! the dolls are ready!

I actually had a dream about giving birth the night before the first doll was stuffed and sewn. Here they are and ready at www.marymakesart.etsy.com. Every doll sold gives a child in hospital a doll. They are great to personalize. A dear friend is ordering several for kids in her family and on Christmas day they will personalize their own dolls with fabric paint (tulip soft fabric paint or fabric markers are great for this project) while they hear the story of how these dolls help kids who are healing in hospital. While the kids enjoy their dolls, their caregivers can view an art exhibition at the same hospital created to encourage and bring hope to families and hospital staff alike! Thank you for your help in the fund raising and telling of this project. Our goal is to have the traveling exhibition reach hospitals all over the nation and give dolls to as many kids in those hospitals as possible! (p.s. orders of 10+ dolls will recieve a discount--dolls are regularly $15 + shipping, but orders of 10+ will recieve their dolls for $10 ea. with shipping included!...please inquire online at www.marymakesart1972@yahoo.com and I will set up an entry on etsy with your name on the item list). Again, this is the maximum time for raising funds by doll and print purchases so we can really get the hope+healing project going! :D We are off to a great start! The first dolls will be given away at Mercy Hospital in Nampa, ID, where the traveling exhibition is currently showing.

thoughts today

Decided to send out a good old blog...just my thoughts about today. First, thank you to those who are reading! I have been really encouraged by looking forward to being part of the next issue of a craft zine, contacting new hospitals, looking toward sponsorship here and there, and generally feeling the love about this project. This morning while spending some time with God I decided to look up every image I could find of pillars of fire & cloud. It was wonderful. And amazing to see how many other artists are impacted by these pictures. I am researching hospital art & a kind of art called "evidence based art", which has to do with finding out what particular kinds of forms, colors, lines, etc. help patients the most. Turns out lots of the images I am inspired to create in this work have been and are becoming what fit into the kinds of images researched that are most relaxing & helpful to those in pain. Really cool. As I research, I will be blogging in a more concrete fashion, but for now, my thoughts are sketches for a larger work. I am still in pain due to figuring out what I can and cannot do as I heal from the surgery I had 3.5 months ago. It helps me remember what it feels like to have pain and helps me focus on why this project is happening in the first place--to bring encouragement, healing & hope.

How it all works out (amazingly!)

I started today wrestling with emulsion fluid. I am learning the ways of the printmaking machine. Successful-one boy on a screen. I learned that after about 30 runs of printing, the screen needs to be cleaned thoroughly and a new 'kid' can be applied :D . (any by the way, 'art' being our third child is becoming less and less of a joke! printmaking has many parts of it's 'becoming' that involve sitting next to a machine or screen and having to 'go!' at just the right moment...breastfeeding mothers, can i hear an amen!?). Having this 30 runs in my head, the kids and I jump over to the fabric store to purchase material as I've exhausted all of my free fabric resourses...and learned that it takes a certain fabric to do this job right. I just took what was available...down to a remnant piece that I got to purchase at a discount (crafters, you know how we like a good discount!)...guess what? Another miracle! exactly 30 rectangles of fabric is what I got from the amount they had available at the store! God really does know just what this project needs...again! So, for now, it's off to watch a great lightening storm with the kiddos and wake up to print 30 little boy dolls tomorrow! I am priviledged to be a part of this project...I can't wait to see what happens. p.s. I now have the coloring book in it's roughest form :D it's beginning!!! several drawings to fit an 8.5x11" book for kids to color while they're waiting for who knows what...maybe a blood draw...maybe a transfusion...maybe another mri in a series of many...the parents need something to color while this is going on as well...and for that matter the brothers and sisters...or the caregivers on a coffee break! hope it encourages lots of people.

Untitled

The Desktop Gallery

This 'Desktop Gallery' is a 3.5x3.5 inch lucite cube containing the seven images present throughtout the Hope & Healing traveling Exhibition. We hope to be able to hand these out with a 'key' (pamphlet which interprets the art) so that caregivers who are waiting in surgery waiting rooms can have something fresh to set their minds on amidst the worry & anxiousness that often accompanies the waiting. In order to raise funds to purchase the cubes and cover printing costs, you can adopt a family by purchasing a cube! They are available at marymakesart.etsy.com, which shows the various pictures included in the cube.