doll project film by lynne melcher

The eight-minute film about the Change the Truth Doll Project is now available for your viewing pleasure. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, please take some time to give it a look. Lynne did an amazing job. The Doll Project film features the children from the orphanage, as well as Kansas City artists Susan White, Lee Heinemann, Patricia Caviar, Fiona Gowin, Nedra Bonds, J. Leroy Beasley and Peregrine Honig.



(Depending on your computer, you may have to let the film fully load before you can view it.)

party pics!

Here are some pictures from the CTT Friendraiser/Fundraiser taken by our good friend Michael Spillers. Enjoy!

Dawn Taylor

Team 4 members Jeff Mildner and Jennifer Smith

Volunteer Augi Grassis

Doll artist Fiona Gowin's mom, April Watson

Volunteer Ali Corbin

Doll artist Patricia Caviar

Doll artist Michelle Beasley

Sue Luger and Sue Mindlin

Patty and Ron Dover

Filmmaker and CTT board member Lynne Melcher

Stacy and Tyler Benson



Doll artist Peregrine Honig and me

Melissa Mosher at the CTT info table with Judy Keisling and daughter

Sharon Klaban and volunteer Sandy Czarlinsky

Live auction, featuring Larry Meeker

Doll artist Stephanie Leedy and her dad, Jim Leedy



Doll artist Ana Stanovcic and her brother, Alexander

Doll artist Leslie Mark and her husband, Mark Eisemann

Anastasia Pottinger and me

installation shots

Friday night was a blast and a big success! Thanks to all who attended and showed support of Change the Truth. There were 42 dolls and 50 paintings by the children in the silent and live auction. All the dolls were sold; there are a few paintings left. If you'd like to see jpegs of them, please contact me. You can have them for $65 each (and that's FRAMED!)

Here are some shots I took shortly before the crowd of 400 arrived. The installation of the dolls and paintings was done by Kathy Tracy, Lynne Melcher and me. The store was set up by Susie Corbin and her very able high school crew: Ali, Augi and Andrew.

Party pics by Michael Spillers will follow soon.

matters of the heart

In the village of Buyingi (Rakai district) October, 2006

Little did I know in the fall of 2006 when I made my first trip ever to Africa that my life would change.

Well, a lot of people told me it might. I guess I didn't understand exactly (or even vaguely) what that could mean. The concept was way too abstract.

What changed was the way my heart beat. I was warned about the possibility of getting malaria or a bad sunburn or an upset stomach or crashing on a motorcycle taxi. But no one warned me about the heart thing.

I have devoted myself to helping 180 children who live at an orphanage. How could I have known this was going to happen? More than four hundred others have joined me in this endeavor. How could I ever have predicted that?

When I stop to think about it all, it really does take my breath away.

Thank you for taking this journey with me. I hope to see you tonight at the 3rd annual Change the Truth Friendraiser/Fundraiser.

irene

I have been running a million miles an hour getting ready for the CTT Friendraiser/Fundraiser.

The installation of dolls and paintings at Leedy-Voulkos is well under way. The volunteers are ready to work. People in the community are looking forward to attending.

I'm tired, but feeling really good about the way things are coming together.

I just came across this photo of lovely Irene holding a doll that was made by one of the older girls during Team 2's visit to the orphanage in 2008. We all fell in love with Irene - how could we not?

Her warm, genuine and beautiful smile is what this is all about.

ana stanovcic

AS 33

Ana is 10 years old and will be in the 5th grade at Pembroke Hill School. Her favorite things to do are drawing, reading, swimming and playing outside.

Ana believes knowledge about the world is important for understanding different cultures. Her doll is holding a book because she enjoys reading, and “books give us knowledge.” She said she wanted the skirt to represent fabrics from all over the world and the shirt to be international by including the names of the seven continents. She included a small selection of her favorite book titles on stacked books at the base of the doll. Some of these are "Harry Potter" and "The Anybodies".

She placed a butterfly in the doll's other hand to represent hope and encouragement.


At 10, Ana is the same age as some of the Ugandan children who made the dolls. Her life could not be more different than theirs, but she comes from a family that encourages her to learn as much as she can about the world around her and to care about others. She strikes me as the type of person who will work toward positive change based upon those differences and ultimately try to make the world a better place. Kids like Ana should give us all hope for the future.

sher pierson

SP32

"My art is a reflection of my personal experiences and explorations. My intention is to make work that is soul searching and honest, even in its mystery. The pieces are intended to speak with truths that are strong and adamant, but are not necessarily intended to tell a story. Some of the themes are born out of compassion for the dilemmas I see other people, especially women, stumbling through. In my paintings and sculpture, as in life, there are some unpleasant themes that are dressed up in pretty pictures and surfaces. Much of my work is about that - about the masks or 'faces' we put on for those around us. The inner nature that we hide, even from ourselves, and the joy and freedom we can find in the revelation of the truth.

One of the most important aspects of the process of making my work is the influence of poetry. I am in no way a writer myself, but I am obsessed with the written word. Although I read novels voraciously, it is poetry that especially moves me. I read a poem and it 'roosts' in my head and will not let go. This obsession leads to a painting or sculpture, and once that poem is purged, the next one enters, and so on. I am often compelled to integrate these poems into my compositions. As an added benefit, perhaps a few more people will be exposed to this beautiful form of expression.


The physical act of making art is cathartic for me.... I am gently exposing a theme as the painting or sculpture progresses. It may be about yearning or mystery or sexuality or pain or injustice of some sort, and it may be communicated in the layers of glazing or 'aging' that go into the surface. No face or element is left pure and clean, they always have a patina - that is, they are disguised, distressed, or diffused in some way. It is that patina that makes the piece a real and breathing thing to me, as I've found there are few people on earth without their own patinas. That may be why I am so drawn to objects that are old and show their age. I like the mystery of their history, and of giving discarded things a new life.... and ultimately - in transforming them into a lasting piece of art."

stephanie leedy

SL31

Stephanie grew up at Lake Lotawana in Missouri. She graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in the sculpture department where her father, Jim Leedy, had taught for over forty years. She continued her graduate degree at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and then stayed for a couple of years to run a hot glass studio. She moved back to Kansas City and, during an apprenticeship, learned to bend neon. Stephanie opened “Downtown Neon” and ran a sign shop and then a gallery.

She now helps oversee and manage the buildings that contain artist studios and the much loved Leedy-Voulkos Art Center. I took this picture of Steph and her really cute rescued dog, Winston, on the front steps of Leedy-Voulkos, a place I hope many of you will be next Friday night!

sonie joi ruffin

SJR30

Sonie is a contemporary fabric artist, fabric designer and writer based in Kansas City. Sonié grew up in a family of seamstresses and clothing designers. She started sewing at the age of four.

Her vibrant quilts draw from a centuries old wellspring that explores humanity through the crux of the black African American experience.

Sonié’s designs and stories are distinctive, her stories embrace and inspire, the mastery of her writing shares stories from her life’s experiences, the black African American culture, hardships, triumphs and the courage to celebrate life.

She designs from the heart, paints with fabric and embellishes with her needle revealing universal truths. She is a master at incorporating the boldness of African fabrics such as kente cloth, mud cloth and korhogo cloth with American print fabrics to create striking designs with an engagement of color dialogue.


She has conducted lectures and workshops on quilting at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. Sonié has been invited to exhibit of her artwork in museums and galleries across the United States. She is the visiting curator at the American Jazz Museum.

Her fabric collections “My African Village and Drums of Afrika”, can be found in fabric shops internationally. Both collections have appeared in Better Homes and Garden Quilting, McCall's Quilting, Fons and Porter Quilting, and Designer's Quarters Magazine.

To date she has two books to her credit “The Soulful Art of African American Quilts: Nineteen bold Improvisational Projects” and “Opening Day" which is about the Negro Leagues Baseball teams.

Sonie is a 2010 Charlotte Street Award winner - a very impressive achievement.

Check out this short You Tube video that features her amazing quilts.

joline el-hai

JEH

The artists involved in The Doll Project are all from the Kansas City area - with the exception of Joline.

She had learned about the project on Facebook and immediately contacted me.

She wanted to be part of it.

When I looked at her website, I was surprised to see that I actually had one of her pieces! It was a nightlight my sister had given Eddie and me as a housewarming gift over ten years ago. I've always loved it.

I think it's amazing and wonderful how things/places/people always seem to kind of circle back. I was thrilled to make an exception for Joline and include her as our out of town "guest" artist. She did not disappoint. Her doll came back from Seattle as a lamp!

"Raised under the sun-soaked skies of Southern California I developed an enduring passion for light and vivid color. In 1975 I fell in love with the medium of glass -- its ability to convey emotion and touch the soul -- and began a 35-year journey of designing and fabricating glass panels.

My glass panels are sometimes naturally-lit as stained glass windows or electrically illuminated from behind as glowing tabletop, shelf or wall sculptures.


A gardener with deep roots in the earth, the drama and intimacy of the natural world often inform my designs. Through grainy reductive glass painting and incorporation of layered fused glass elements in my glass panels I celebrate life’s fertile mystery.

Old suitcases and odd antique wooden boxes are the frameworks for my glass panels in most of my current work. I cut holes in them, edge the openings with copper scraps, insert my fused and painted glass panels, and illuminate the pieces from the inside with low-wattage compact fluorescent lights. Most of them use no more electrical energy than a night light.

More and more I enjoy mixed-media combinations of all sorts, as long as they can be lit-up. For the Change the Truth project I sandwiched frosted mylar and theatrical light gels to fashion a dress for the doll with which I was entrusted. The dress is illuminated internally with a 4 watt compact fluorescent bulb.

I am fortunate and grateful to have lived my life as an artist and to have earned my livelihood that way for 25 years."

Treat yourself. Visit her website.

marie mason

MM28

"I love dogs, cats, the garden and the great outdoors. The sunsets, the bad weather, the beautiful flowers that grow with encouragement, the seasons, the starry nite and the sunny day. In all of what is nature and natural there is inspiration for my paintings.

I have lived in the Kansas City area since 1980. I was born in California, raised in Seattle and have spent lots of time in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Corvallis Oregon. I have a BFA from UNLV, and taught school for ten years in Las Vegas before moving to Kansas City. I now called Weston, Missouri home."


Marie is represented by the Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, Kansas. She is well known for Bella Company, a store that has been in business since 1994 and which features dog/cat themed clothing and gifts. Marie is very involved in pet rescue organizations and often uses her artwork to help with the various needs of people, cats and dogs.

Be sure to check out Marie's lovely work here. Eddie and I have been fans of Marie's for years; one of her large paintings is the centerpiece of our kitchen, and we recently commissioned her to do do a painting of our beloved 16 year old dog, Sam.

And yes, her doll is accompanied by a painting! The doll appears to have just danced out of the scene depicted on the canvas. It's a really joyful piece.

marcus cain

MC27

I first met Marcus when I showed my work at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in the late 90’s. He was on staff there. I loved his quiet but determined demeanor, and I adored his artwork. I’m still crazy about both.

Marcus is a Kansas City based artist, writer, and Curator of the Kansas City Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art. He is the founding co-director and owner of Satellite Exhibitions, an independent contemporary art curatorial project, and the former Editor of Review, a regional, monthly visual art magazine based in Kansas City, Missouri. He has served as Lecturer in the painting department and Coordinator of the Corporate Partnership Exhibition Program at the Kansas City Art Institute and as Assistant Director for Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art. He frequently serves as guest juror, artist, and lecturer for universities, art fairs, and organizations throughout the Midwest, and he has produced and curated exhibitions for the University of California, Long Beach, CA, Bridge Miami Art Fair, Miami, FL, Stray Show Chicago, Chicago, IL, and the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO.

Marcus has written for publications including American Ceramics, Bridge, Ceramics: Art & Perception, Venus, and Review, authored articles on art critic Robert Storr and artists Do Ho-Suh, Rosemarie Fiore, Adriana Arenes, and Peregrine Honig, and he has contributed exhibition essays to the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art and the Kansas City Artists Coalition. He has also been written about in such publications as Art in America, New American Paintings, The New York Observer, Miami New Times, Oklahoma Gazette, Review, My Midwest Magazine, Kansas City Star, and Pitch Weekly, and online at MW Capacity and Present magazine.


Marcus’ artwork includes painting, drawing and installation. He has exhibited nationally, and his work may be found in numerous public and private collections including the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, BBC Worldwide America, American Century Investments, H&R Block, Sprint Corporation, Westin Hotels, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and Designer Todd Oldham. He is represented in Kansas City by Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art.

You'd be hard pressed to find a harder working artist or a nicer guy.