Consider shopping in the culturally diverse Kensington Market area
for cheese, organic meats, fruits, vegetables and nuts. Pick up a little
sundress or a unique silk screened tee shirt. Buy a gorgeous pair of $10
sunglasses or a hat for under $20. But don't spend it all.... participate in this fundraiser.
At 6pm, when many businesses are closing and you've
had your fill of doubles, oxtail and assorted baked goods you say hello to
Julian and I at Model Citizen. http://modelcitizento.tumblr.com/
Bid on silent auction items and purchase from a
selection of paintings by me, Simone Frank to raise funds for her invitation to
exhibit in China.
Model Citizen carries designs from Canadian
artists. It houses a collection of unique clothing, accessories and to top it
off, he teaches silk screening courses as well. You can find out more when you
visit the store located at 279 Augusta Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada.
The paintings for sale are from the following
exhibitions:
There Is Always A Way Silent Auction
279 Augusta Avenue,
Kensington Market
Toronto, ON
6 - 9 pm
Thursday May 30, 2013
When
Julian at Model Citizen in Kensington Market learned that I was
fundraising so that I could participate in the 2013 Contemporary Art
Exhibition in China, he offered the use of his store as a venue in which
to fundraise. How kind is that?
Consider shopping in the
culturally diverse Kensington Market area for cheese, organic meats,
fruits, vegetables and nuts. Pick up a little sundress or a unique silk
screened tee shirt. Buy a gorgeous pair of $10 sunglasses or a hat for
under $20. But don't spend it all.... participate in this fundraiser.
At 6pm, when many businesses are closing and you've had your fill of
doubles, oxtail and assorted baked goods you say hello to Julian and I
at Model Citizen. http://modelcitizento.tumblr.com/
Bid on silent auction items and purchase from a selection of paintings
by me, Simone Frank to raise funds for her invitation to exhibit in
China.
There Is Always A Way Silent Auction
Model
Citizen carries designs from Canadian artists. It houses a collection of
unique clothing, accessories and to top it off, he teaches silk
screening courses as well. You can find out more when you visit the
store located at 279 Augusta Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada.
The paintings for sale are from the following exhibitions:
"So far, there is no law against dreaming." Winnie Mandella
On my travels along College Street West yesterday, I was
able to drop into some great stores.
One store that is new to me is called,
Playful Grounds. This dining establishment is
kid friendly, provides workshops for gardening and yoga, for example and best
of all has free Jazz on Fridays. When I asked the lovely owner, if I could put
up a poster promotion the upcoming fundraisers:
If there is a work of art that you have seen online and would
like me to bring to the silent auction, please let me know and I will bring it to
Kensington Market.
The lovely owner of Playful Grounds kindly offered the use
of her establishment as a venue in which to throw an event. Woo hoo! Best of
all, I found out that she throws a free event on Friday’s where there is live
with jazz artists performing.
I suggest you check it out!
Look forward to a weekend event during June or
July at Playful Grounds on College near Grace.
As promised, I have scheduled a couple of great events
downtown in Spadina and Kensington Market area.
Look forward to dining at one of my favourite restaurants,
Xam Yu. It is located on Spadina just North of Dundas. The food is superb. The
service is amazing. The staff is pleasant and patient.
Jimmy, the manager of Xam Yu, (whom I will probably buy a
house from some day), kindly agreed to support my efforts to exhibit my works
of art in China.
You can RSVP by clicking the link below and also leave a comment about Model Citizen's silk screening courses. Julian has a great work area set up in the back of his store where he teaches people to silk screen. Consider registering for a class.
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/390986
Sales from this event will support me in my efforts to
exhibit my works of art in China. If I'm unable to do so, the monies will go to other projects. The exhibition in China is being curated by Shanghai Yude Exhibition Company Ltd. It is not too late for me to participate, although I missed a television interview.
There is still time for me to ship my work to China and to
possibly travel there. The exhibition ends on July 10th, 2013. I
missed a television interview, but expect to be able to make up for lost time.
There is always a way.
Purchase works of art that some of my clients asked me to exhibit in
Toronto:
I was laughing out loud while performing another edit of, No More Kissing Frogs. At
one point, I was worried that the book was a bit too risque to be published under my
name. But if it can’t be published under my name in 2013, then things are worse than I thought.
No More Kissing Frogs, is the story of a Black woman
in Toronto who decides to date online after a long courtship that failed with
an Italian diplomat. She meets various kinds of men but never falls in love and
blames her failed relationships of the men she encounters, the advice she gets
and a world she doesn’t understand. She never blames herself. Bitter would be
an understatement. She has completely lost hope in romantic love. It is funny
and poignant and clever.
I spent yesterday working on the screensaver to give
as a token of thanks for investing in my art career via Indiegogo. The screensaver is
almost complete. I showed it to a pal on Monday, and we both agreed that it
might be a slight health risk due to the dynamic motion graphics. Sadly, my rusty
old computer does not support, Screentime, the required software needed to complete it. Another delay due to technology in the technological age is a sad thing. Sorry about that folks! Soon come.
I’m considering boring myself to tears in an office job
again instead of fundraising. I even wrote a long piece about artists who make that choice. If WARC happily accepts my submission, you’ll be able to view the installation called, Get Up, around the idea of – depression and the need for inspiration and perseverance. The piece was inspired by a visit with my Dad, conversations with pals and relatives. It was also inspired by working alongside Laurence Fishbourne on a tv set, who is now on the cover of Cigar Aficionado.
I have not given up on my dream of traveling to China to exhibit my
art. I missed the television interview. Boo hoo. And still need to raise funds
to ship the work and to prepare all the necessary legal documents required. Hopefully, I can meet the team along the way. The exhibit runs until July 10th, 2013.
You can help get me there by sharing, liking, posting and making a donation via the
link below.
Many people have asked me how the exhibition came to be. Honestly, I was aiming for Spain, New York, Italy, Japan, London or Iceland. I
received an email from Shanghai Yude Exhibition Company inviting me to exhibit
as a result of my website. They simply liked my work and asked me
to participate in their 2013 Contemporary Art Exhibition. I was honoured and
accepted not realizing how much work that entails.
CARFAC is an excellent
organization for artists to join when faced with proposals that are beyond
their knowledge base. There is also The Artists Network. CARFAC provided me with wonderful resources to help me orient
myself in the world of International Art.
Okay, I’ll tell the story that made me run to confession, just in
case word got out to my deceased Mom’s priest friends or the Catholic Women's league that I had sinned and become violent after her passing.
Black Madonna for Mom
I was out for a drink with my pal, R. We simply wanted to
have a glass wine and catch up on a lovely Spring weeknight. There was this
yahoo at the bar who found pleasure in verbally and physically abusing the
patrons.
Before I knew it, he was telling me how gorgeous I was. He
loved my curves. It was a wonder I was single. Men must love me. And then he began to get vulgar. (The unedited version will be
available once my book is published). I got up and walked away. To be honest, I
walked away from him a few times. His friends pulled him away from me a couple
times.
Then he punched Rs boyfriend in the face and was cut off at the
bar, but was allowed to stay. In my day, we sent the misbehaved ones home.
Now, the yahoo, had a very attractive friend who asked me
out to dinner. I was charmed and pleased. I accepted and then saw that Rs
boyfriend and the yahoo were coming close to blows.
I ran in between them. I grew up in the burbs and hung out
with a bunch of guys. I knew better than to let one man who was alone in a bar, fight a guy who was in
a bar with five friends. So I ran in between them and joked around.
Now, I thought that I moved out of the way, but R told me
later that I pushed him and he fell over on to a couple of bar stools. Then I remembered the look on his face and me standing there thinking, 'I don't know if I can take this guy, but there is no way I'm going to stand there and let a man hit me.'
For whatever reason, the entire population of men in the bar
began fight. Furniture fell over, drinks were spilled. People lefts. People
were fighting who had nothing to do with any of it.
Where was I? Off to the side yelling for them to stop.
The yahoo, when he finally got up off the floor from being
pummeled, started throwing glasses at Rs boyfriend and I. R called the police. The yahoo was put in a
headlock and dragged out of the bar by the Saturday night DJ who later said that something just came over him.
I wish I had not become violent. I could have made other choices, like leaving the bar.
I called the show, ‘Self Defense,’ because painting that
series, was my way of healing and regrouping after the incident. My form of therapy. I asked a lot of people what they did to quell their
rage – how they worked out their anger.
One pal, had a punching bag in her
house. You’d never know it see her – elegant as she is. Another pal did Tai Chi. Qi Gong, was used
by another. I had a friend who swam. Some people run. Some destroy things they
love. I tried fencing once and liked that. But this, this worked for me. Painting
seems to usually work for me. This series told the story and made me feel
strong in a non-aggressive way. I am honoured that they chose it for the
exhibition.
Now, the sad thing is, that attractive man never did call me to go out to dinner. Sad. But I didn't blame myself. I blamed the Adjustment Bureau.
'We actually tried free will before. After taking you from hunting and gathering to the height of the Roman Empire, we stepped back to see how you'd do on your own.
"You gave us the dark ages for five centuries, until finally we decided we should come back in. The chairman thought that maybe we just needed to do a better job of teaching you how to ride a bike before taking the training wheels off again, so we gave you, The Renaissance, The Enlightenment, The Scientific Revolution. For six hundred years, we taught you to control your impulses with reason. Then in 1910, we stepped back.
"Within fifty years, we brought us WWI, the Depression, Fascism, the Holocaust and capped it all off by bringing the entire planet to the brink of destruction in the Cuban missile crisis. At that point, a decision was taken to step back in again before you did something that even we couldn't fis.
"You don't have free will, David. You have the appearance of free will."
