it takes a few days and a lot of people to make this happen!

CTT is lucky to have so many hard-working and dedicated volunteers. That's been true since the very beginning - in 2007.

Some of the same people continue to dig deep and help. And then there are some new faces among the CTT family of friends. I'd like to thank all of them for what they do to make our annual fundraiser - our biggest and most important event of the year - such a huge success.

The volunteer committee for this year's event includes:

Kathy Tracy
Lynne Melcher
Wynne Winter
Lee Winter
Jennifer Smith
Jeff Mildner
Gail Lozoff
Avis Smith
Hazel Brown
Augi Grassis
Paula Shteamer
Eddie Feinstein
Kim Davis
Mary Yeager
Michael Spillers
EG Schempf
Emily Ramza
Paige Peppitone
Dawn Taylor
Phil Gayter
Emily Biegelsen
Sarah Biegelsen
Isabella Pallotto
Jennifer Schoenwetter
Suzanne Garr
Max Feinstein
Jennifer Heinemann
Elizabeth Gerson
Catherine Fredette
Emily Collins
Jake Bowers

Without these folks, the CTT Friendraiser/Fundraiser would not be the seriously sizzlin' event that has become a fixture on Kansas City's June calendar of events.

Here are a few snaps from today's set-up. It has taken a bunch of people to put this together this week, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

Eddie

Jennifer and Jake

Kathy

caterer Linda and gallerist Erin

Then, of course, there are the 23 artists who took the time to adorn a doll. They are just wonderful people, I am running out of ways to say "thank you" to them, especially those who do this year after year.

Lisa Lala stopped by to see the show today and posed with her doll

Hope to see you all tomorrow night! I think you'll really enjoy yourselves.

welcome FYI readers

I'd like to welcome those of you who have found your way to this blog via the FYI section of today's Kansas City Star. You're here to learn more about the 5th Annual Change the Truth Friendraiser/Fundraiser, and you've come to the right place!

The event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

It will take place from 7 - 10 PM Friday, June 29th at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore.

7:00 - Shane Evans will take the stage along with singers from the KC Boys and Girls Choirs

7:30 - short documentary film by Lynne Melcher about Change the Truth and its current work at an orphanage in Uganda

8:00 - The BCR Allstar Band takes the stage

Throughout the evening there will be silent auctions for: 

Unique and fabulous banana fiber dolls made by the children at the orphanage and adorned by area artists, including Jason Pollen, Miki Baird, Archie Scott Gobber, Marie Mason, Marcus Cain, Nedra Bonds, Allan Winkler, Anne Austin Pearce, Susan White, Joe Lorusso, Lisa Lala/Wil Lala and Tom Corbin.

Beautiful framed drawings and paintings by the children who live at St. Mary Kevin Orphanage in the east African country of Uganda. These children have lost one or both parents to war or disease. There are 180 children who live at the orphanage; for the past five years, they have depended on Change the Truth to provide them with financial assistance for food, school fees, medical care and various special projects. The sale of their own artwork empowers these talented, deserving children by giving them the profound opportunity to bring in some of that support themselves.

Items that have been donated by caring KC businesses and artists, including gift cards to many fine restaurants, gift certificates for hair and spa treatments, tickets for the Chiefs and Sporting KC, gorgeous jewelry, a winery tour and tasting, original artwork and even teeth whitening and karate lessons!

There will be a raffle for an Apple iPad. Tickets are $10... 3 for $25.

Munchies, a cash bar and valet parking round out the rest of the evening.

Now that you've (hopefully) cleared your calendar for Friday night, please take a few minutes to view some of the dolls and children's artwork on the preceding posts. To see the entire collection of dolls, simply click here.

To read all about Change the Truth, click here.

It's a fun event. Great art, great music, great people, great cause! Hope to see you Friday night!!

oliva

Auma Oliva

Something About Me:   I am 12 years old.  I am a half orphan.  My older brother (David) and younger sister (Beatrice) are also featured artists.  I have 2 younger brothers at SMKOM with me, too.  I attend Primary 5 at St. Mary Kevin’s Primary School.

My Future Aspiration:   To become an accountant.

My Favorite Subjects to Study:   English

Activities I Enjoy Outside of Class:   Reading books

Best thing about CTT visiting us at SMKOM:   They help us by bringing good friends and things to do during the holiday.

One of My Best CTT Friends:  Avis, cause she is kind to me and my family.  We do nice things with her, and she makes us to be happy.

Special Message to You Seeing My Painting:    Hello. I thank you for helping us.  You make us happy every day, every time.  Thank you for being a friend to us.  God bless you!

gail spahr and tom corbin

"I was born in Chicago and moved to the Kansas City area when I was four years old.  Some of my earliest memories are always of drawing and coloring on whatever I could find. Most times my abstract art was not always appreciated probably because of the chosen surfaces. I always knew I wanted to be an artist."

Gail worked for Hallmark for twenty-seven years and is now retired, focusing on her own art. She has recently starting combining painting and collage in various assemblages. This is the first year she has taken part in the doll project.

Tom Corbin’s introduction and subsequent career in sculpture has been based more on serendipity than calculation. Born in Dayton, Ohio in 1954, Tom’s early fascination in art was inspired by his mother, an art teacher by trade. Despite studying painting and drawing at Miami University, Tom’s original career pursuit was Business as an advertising executive. Tom’s first brush with the third dimension came in a chance meeting with a bronze sculptor in 1982. Classes with this sculptor led to a deepened interest in bronze casting and thoughts of a career in art. In 1986, Tom left the secure confines of his advertising agency job for the unpredictability of life as a full time sculptor.

Tom landed his first major public commission in 1988. Additional commissions followed, along with the financial freedom for Tom to develop his own “speculative” sculpture. During this period, Tom was also experimenting with furniture design, an area that would soon play a major role in the growth of his studio operation.

Today, Tom’s work appears in 22 showrooms and galleries internationally. Individual collectors include Mr. and Mrs. Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, Danielle Steel and the late Frank Sinatra. Public installation sites include the United Nations, The Kauffman Foundation, the Firefighter’s Memorial, the Children’s Fountain, University of Oregon and Florida State University. In addition to important public and private collections, his work has found its way onto the sets of some major motion pictures, among them True Lies, A Perfect Murder, It’s Complicated and Transformers.

one more week!

Join us for an evening of serious fun and celebration beginning at 7:00 sharp!   7:00 - 7:30     Shane Evans performs with members of the KC Girls and Boys Choirs   7:30 - 8:00     A special program you won't want to miss   8:00 - 9:30     The BCR All Star Band performs during our silent auction   Enter our raffle to win an Apple iPad $10 per ticket/3 for $25     Bid on beautiful dolls and paintings *** Unable to attend?  View the dolls and bid here *** Be the successful bidder on one or more of our many silent auction items.  You'll want to bid high and bid often on wines, spa services, gift certificates from local restaurants, jewelry and artwork and so much more...including   4 Sporting KC tickets for Game 11 on July 28 in Section F6 with Section A parking - donor value of $1,000 A beautiful bracelet from Tom Tivol (pictured below) - donor value $500 Hors d'oeuvres for 8 set up and served in your home by Lon Lane's Inspired Occasions - donor value $500 Winery Tour and Wine Tasting for 10 from Amigoni Urban Winery - donor value $250 Here are some of the paintings, dolls and jewelry that could be yours if you're the high bidder   www.changethetruth.org [Insert social links here – select the logos from the toolbar on the left side.]

charmalee gunaratne and sherry boemmel

Charmalee Gunaratne is a licensed architect from Sri Lanka and an architect at BNIM architects. She is a the co- founder of Eco Abet, a not-for-profit architecture firm. Eco Abet's mission is to provide design and architectural services to impoverished, underserved and traumatized communities around the globe.

 “I am always mesmerized by the huge smiley faces of children at SMK orphanage and wanted to capture the spirit of the children in the dolls. This years doll came to me with a happy uplifting spirit kind of stating ‘I am on top of the world’. Therefore I did not want to add anything more other that to complement the already happy doll. The theme of the doll is ‘top of the world’. I feel that's what all these children feel when they smile, they are truly happy within."

Sherry Boemmel was born and raised and mostly educated in Chicago where she still lives. She has a Bachelors degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Northern Illinois University. Both those degrees and other studies inform her life and her work because she builds stories from both words and materials.

Her studies as an artist began with tapestry weaving, but she quickly found her bent was sculptural and nontraditional. Her heart has always belonged to fiber, but smashed bits of wire from the street can be as exciting to her as newly dyed silks, ancient quilts, ribbons and laces which she also loves. She has a way of finding stories in her materials, but she also finds materials to illustrate the stories he writes in her imagination.

Dolls and other figures are a particular interest. Lately she has been experimenting with ways to make them move since she has been fascinated by paper engineering, the Cabaret Mechanical Theater in London, and automatons for a long time.

"My doll is entitled ‘A View of Uganda from Chicago.’  The doll reflects some of the best and the worst about Uganda. The doll herself is Ugandan, and so are the banana leaf mats behind her and the fabric used for her sash. Other fabrics in the colors of the Ugandan flag make up her dress. Assault rifles stud her skirt, and childrens’ hands in the same colors speak of the children in the same context. The outside of the box is stamped with musical notes and more small hands and feet."

amy meya and cathy broski: wall pieces

"Starting at the beginning the most important part of my work is the medium, I feel passionate about clay itself. There is something about taking a lump of mud and forming it into an object that fills a primal urge for me. The intimate and personal nature of ceramic objects stands out against other mediums, for me anyway.

The next step is process, I make stamps, rolling pins, and carve out molds from clay that I fire and use for all the texture in my work, Using tools I have created satisfies my need for originality for each piece.

Clay - the medium from nature - lends itself so perfectly to depictions of nature. My family and I love to camp and hike. There is nothing more peaceful than being in the woods. But even in the city I love staring at the shapes of tree branches, watching flocks of birds swoop across the sky, collecting interesting seed pods, growing gourds and sunflowers in my yard. I guess I just take all the forms that I find interesting and express them through my clay work. Even deeper though, I hope that  a message of appreciation and conservation of nature comes across. If we decimate all the wild areas then we will have no place to retreat when we need some peace." - Amy Meya

"'Radiating Joy' is the title of this piece. I am honored to once again be involved in the Change the Truth Doll Project. This year I tried to project the radiating joy I saw in the photos of the children of St. Mary Kevin Orphanage. My love of using found objects can be seen in the use of the bright yellow a orange telephone wire, the reparation of keys and tags.  I also used recycled glass in the ceramic piece that is the base to work from." - Cathy Broski

For more than two decades Cathy Broski has been exploring figurative work. Recognized for her archetypal figures, she is inspired by weathered surfaces as well as gestures of the living. Her work is steeped in archetypal and personal symbolism. The appreciation of found objects plays a big roll in Cathy’s work. She often uses them and emulates the wear of their journeys on her own surfaces. To accomplish this she uses a layering technique. Since receiving her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1990, Cathy Broski has worked in the ceramics field in many capacities. She shows her work nationally and is an active member of the Kansas City ceramic community.

joe lorusso

Joe Lorusso was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1966 and received his formal training at the American Academy of Art. He went on to receive his B.F.A. degree from the Kansas City Art Institute. Born of Italian descent, Lorusso was exposed to art at an early age. Through several early trips to Italy, his parents introduced him to the works of the Italian Masters. Joe would look to these influences throughout his early artistic development, and they are still evident in his work today.

Joe has served as instructor of painting and drawing at the Kansas City Art Institute. He regularly teaches workshops at the Scottsdale Artists School, as well as the Fredericksburg Art School in Fredericksburg, Texas. Joe's work has been shown internationally and has won numerous awards and honors. He has been featured in American Artist magazine, Southwest Art, U.S. Art, Art & Antiques, The Artists Magazine, Art News, American Art Collector, International Artist and Art Talk magazines. His work is part of many private collections; his paintings are represented by several galleries across the country. This is the first year he's been part of the Doll Project.

aryn roth and wil & lisa lala

"Upon our first meeting I knew this representative, introduced to me by Gloria, would be a good liaison for the ‘Expresso Party’. High energy, solid principles, love of animals, people, organic food & fair trade products. The costume was created from a gift via Ferrara, Italy. 

Everyone is free to unite in nurturing the environment we share.

Through art, peace & harmony, Aryn"

"Three Countries"

a collaboration by father/daughter

Wil Lala and Lisa Lala

Wil and Lisa's doll was embellished with discarded cans from Belize, Central America and was wired and composed in Kansas City. The three countries, then, are Uganda, Belize and the USA.

nedra bonds

"The theme of this doll is an angel. She poses her hands and stands on tip toes, ready to take flight.

The wings are made from silk flower petals representing the symbol of my native Kansas, the sunflower. May the children always walk in sunshine.

Each bead represents a prayer offered to support the life of a child.

I used bark cloth, made in Uganda, as the primary fabric for the clothes.

I hope this effort helps make that theme a reality for as many children as possible."

- Nedra Bonds

“A contemporary art quilter, Nedra Bonds comes from a long line of traditional quilters. Both her paternal and maternal grandmothers quilted, as did her mother and father. Each child in the family had a ‘real’ quilt and a ‘play’ quilt. The real quilt went on the bed, and the play quilt was used by the children when taking naps. ‘Sunday’ quilts are also a part of Bonds’ heritage. Every Sunday the beds were covered in the best quilts, awaiting the admiring eyes of those who would come to Sunday supper. As a six-year-old, Bonds was told that idle hands were the Devil’s workshop and was encouraged to begin preparing a hope chest. To help her prepare that hope chest, Bonds’ grandmother taught her traditional quilting techniques. At that young age, Bonds was shown how to make ten stitches equivalent to the length between the tip of her forefinger and the first joint. If she failed at her task, she was required to remove the stitches and to start again. As a teenager, Bonds turned her back on the family tradition of quilting.

As an adult, a private-school and college art teacher, Bonds looked at the tradition with fresh eyes. Bonds, who embraces quilting as a fine-art form that has grown from a folk tradition, incorporates three-dimensional elements and a variety of textures and colors into her art quilts to interpret the world around her and express her views on various social issues. One of her best-known quilts is the Quindaro Story Quilt, a traditional appliqué quilt that tells the history of the Civil War settlement of Quindaro, Kansas. The quilt, approximately four by six feet and bordered in a bright yellow fabric, depicts black people who escaped slavery in Missouri and followed the Underground Railroad through Quindaro. In recent years, an eight-year battle was waged by environmentalists because the state had wanted to convert the Quindaro site into a landfill. The quilt was displayed during a Kansas legislative hearing on a bill that was to declare the Quindaro site a historic area, saving it from pollution. The quilt traveled for more than a year as a reminder of the important historical events in Kansas and the impact of those events on the United States in general. Quindaro did not become a landfill, and some community leaders attribute that, in part, to the creation of the Quindaro Story Quilt.”

- from The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore

kids helping kids: emily trenton and emily collins

There are two young women taking part in the doll project this year. They really aren't kids, I guess. At CTT we love it when young people reach out to help other young people, and we simply (and gratefully) refer to this as "kids helping kids."

Emily Trenton is an incoming junior in high school. She is in the art focus area, and she also plays field hockey and lacrosse. She took Drawing 1 as a freshman and was awarded a silver key in the 2011 Scholastic Art Awards for her mixed media piece "Le President." When she took Sculpture 1, also as a freshman, she won a silver key for her ceramic bust of Queen Elizabeth in her youth. Emily added painting to her class schedule this past year. In her Sculpture II class, she created an independent study in fashion. She made dresses, including one made out of wooden blocks and one made from flattened bottle caps.

  

Emily will transition into AP Studio Art (3D) this fall... after she gets back from two months of teaching sailing at a girl's camp in Wisconsin, that is.

Emily Collins is a sophomore at the University of Arkansas. She is a pre-nursing major and a proud member of the Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority. Originally from Prairie Village, Kansas, Emily led a global service/awareness club “Coalition” at Shawnee Mission East High School. I met Emily when I spoke to that group in 2009; it was on that day that she decided she wanted to go to Uganda. She became a member of Team 4. During that trip, one child in particular stood above the rest in Emily’s eyes. Emily writes:

"Claire Faith, a P6 student was quiet, yet sassy in her quick eye rolls and hidden smiles. The very first day, she took on the role as my photographer and guide, documenting her classmates in their most natural and posed positions and leading me by hand around the SMK grounds. With quiet moments and many jokes throughout the week, Claire Faith and I became inseparable.

 But the moment I realized we would be bound together for much longer than the trip was one day after we had returned from the lake and Claire Faith was trying to fix my broken camera. She worked so hard even after I had given up and told her it was okay. She finally surrendered and asked for my phone so she could play ‘Bug Crusher’ some more. Lying on her stomach on my bed with her petite feet swinging in the air, she beat my high score and simply looked up at me with her sly grin, saying, ‘You have a lot to learn from me’. She had no idea how right she was.”

Emily is now Claire Faith’s sponsor.

“I taught a sewing class when I was at SMK, and fashion design has always been a huge part of my life. I bought the batik fabric in Kampala and decided my doll needed something really dramatic. Whenever I think of Africa, I think of Claire Faith and I picture her strength. I see her in my doll and I wanted her to not only be elegant, but have a sense of heroism. Claire Faith and I are going through school together in a way, and some days when I am not prepared for a test or I choose to slack off, I snap back to reality and know that we must succeed together. The doll’s height , mounted above pattern and material, illustrates that though I am driven and determined, most days, I believe in Claire Faith more than I believe in myself.”

jason pollen

Jason Pollen is an internationally acclaimed artist, designer and educator. He has been on the faculties of the Royal College of Art in London, Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute in New York City and as Professor and Chair of the Fiber Department at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Jason has designed textiles for dozens of renowned fashion and home furnishings firms. He regularly collaborates as scenic designer for the Kansas City Ballet. He is President emeritus of the Surface Design Association and also an American Craft Council Fellow. The Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina will honor him with the Outstanding Artist Educator Award in August 2012.