Girls Deserve More

Maeva Renaud

Title: Girls Deserve More  (Link to more photos)

Medium: Mixed Media, Acrylic, Recycled Material, Poetry

Topic Abstract:

Girls Deserve More is a mixed media pop-up art bags project that focuses on addressing the affects of climate change on young girls living in poverty stricken communities. The bags are tools to be incorporated in a fundraising campaign to eradicate poverty and create awareness on sustainable social change. Each bag also represents a sense of hope for young girls as the bags can either be purchased by donors or filled by donors to support the partnering agency.

The Art Bike

Hannah Poon is creating a project that incorporates art as a tool for community development and community bridging. The Art Bike project will be a mobile mini art studio that will bring art supplies and programming into diverse communities around Calgary.

Educating for Human Trafficking

Bethany Reiff in Bangkok

The purpose of this project by Bethany Reiff was to write an illustrated children’s book about modern day slavery. With upper estimates of 27 million people trapped in human trafficking today there is no denying that modern day slavery is a critical problem. Storytelling is a powerful tool used to educate children. While there has been much attention to the topic of human trafficking in the last 12 years, most of the information has been geared toward an adult audience. (See Video Below)  

Set Your Heart on Fire

by Gina Valenziano

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Topic Abstract: Set your Heart on Fire was created at a couple of different times.  The bottom canvas was created a few months ago when I was just fooling around with different ways to paint on canvas and incorporating color.  The top two sections were created on the same day when thinking about this project.  I have a lot of painted canvases around my apartment and when I like to make them flow into each and create paintings with different sections.  Fooling around the other day I found that the colorful bottom canvas and the top left one had the same shade of red in it and when positioned close to one another it looked like the beginnings of a heart and the idea was formed.  Setting your Heart on Fire though the name of this piece is also the concept of it.

Polyrhythm

Title: Polyrhythm by Callie Dean

Medium: audio storytelling

Topic Abstract:

Polyrhythm features three separate short stories, told from three different perspectives:

1.     “Hopscotch” is narrated by a young girl, who draws pictures with sidewalk chalk. Meanwhile, the children around her fill the pavement with profanity.

2.     “Polygons” is told from the perspective of an older teen, who mentors a young boy and uses art to teach him math.

3.     “Joy, All Day Long” describes a concert hosted by a Salvation Army choir.

All three stories are based on experiences from a middle school mission trip to Houston, Texas, which I led last month. In the final piece, the stories weave in and out among each other, creating a composite narrative that is quite different from any individual component.

“Seeing”

by: Suet Ferng

1.  Title:  ”Seeing”

2.  Medium: Acrylic Painting (32′ x 20′ Canvas)

3.  Topic Abstract:

There are two segments to this painting. The upper segment depicts an ordinary tree that is birthing forth an extraordinary fruit. It takes an observant person to spot the fruit and there is a child standing right under the tree. The lower segment of the painting shows what goes on in the ground that is hidden from our naked lenses. There is an amazing wealth of resources and nutrients underground waiting to be tapped by the tree.

Continuous Flow

by Idalia Adan

 

Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water to clear?- Lao Tzu

Medium used: Recycled wine bottles, paint, and copper wire

Art Abstract

Dr. Corbitt and Dr. Vivian Nix-Early, in Taking it to the Streets, say “people are to be agents of transformation…to change the world in what it ought to be.”In what I have created, and through the process of creating, I had that in my mind. My intention and hope is that a viewer may be able to relate to or think of their place in the world and possibly find some inspiration.

The main concept in this piece is water. It is a free flowing form and ever going. Life is like that; A continuous flow with many paths and journeys. However, like life, it can be inhibited from it’s beautiful flow due to obstacles. An individual or community might be at a point in their lives where they wish to break free from any constraints of negative factors hindering their flow. It could be from obtaining a specific goal or from reaching a peak of enlightenment. Whichever the case, This piece was designed to give hope to the viewer in what ever stage they may be, for no matter what, given perseverance and patience, one can get through and continue to flow freely as they should.