Art for Food

Spring break is nearly over and I am feeling quite refreshed. I stayed in Providence and did art all week long. Now for some, this would seem like a terrible spring break, since I already go to art school such a thing would not really be any sort of break at all. On the contrary, I was able to do art that I haven't been able to do in a very long time. Painting and printmaking and drawing whatever I wanted. No deadlines to worry about, no requirements, and no critiques or competitions with other people's work. It wasn't even like it was art for the sake of art. No, this art had a cause. A purpose in life. To help others less fortunate than myself....... Art for Food. Henrik, being the wonderful person that he is, started this alternative spring break program last year, and they managed to raise a couple thousand dollars all through auctioning off and selling the work that was created during spring break and by works donated to the cause after Spring break. The money was donated to Heifer International, an organization that gives livestock to villages in developing countries. I was more than happy to help Henrik out with this endeavor in any way possible.

At first, we were worried about getting a gallery for the auction night. Apparently the gallery that was used last year was no longer available. Of course, God provided for us in magnificent ways. Within less than a week, 4 other galleries offered their spaces for our use. By the end of the week Henrik had narrowed it down to two choices, both of which we will use to hold gallery nights and auctions. The first gallery night, which we will have in late April to raise money for Heifer Int. is the the beautiful 17 Peck gallery. The owner of this gallery was especially excited to help us out with this apparently because when he was younger his Grandmother had given him a Christmas present of a donation of a couple of chickens to Heifer Int. in his name, and he felt that this was one of the best presents he had ever received. Not only did he offer us the gallery for the night, he also offered to provide us with all the frames for the artwork (he apparently owns a framing store as well), advertising for the event all around the city and to his long list of clientel, and to provide all the wine and food for the gallery night.

The second gallery, which is part of a Methodist church downtown, is a large space that we will use to host a second gallery/auction night in early May to benefit Pali House (pronounced "Polly"). Pali House, named after the Senior in ID who started it, is a house for a small group of teenage girls in Uganda who were former child soldiers and who, though still children themselves, have had children of their own after being raped and beaten in the war. All the money raised from this auction will go to helping to put these girls through school while providing them with safe housing, food, water, and medical care for them and their children.

As well as the galleries, God continued to provide for us and others came forward to help us out. After making an announcement about Art for Food at a Student Alliance meeting, the owner of the RISD Store came up to Henrik and offered to donate art supplies to us. So on Monday, after sharing a wonderful lunch down by the canal, Henrik and I went to the RISD Store to pick up the supplies. Well, the person there told us that we could pretty much pick out whatever we needed, and even took us down to the basement where he showed us a room full of supplies that had some slight water damage. We were able to pick out a bunch of large canvases and rolls of paper, paints and pastels. Later, they delivered all the supplies to us in the Waterman Building, which the Foundations Studies office had allowed us to use for the entire week, including the Nature Lab, plus a bunch more supplies that the owner wanted to give us. We had been given more than enough supplies to last us the week. The manager of the Watermark Cafe' also came by and gave us a box full of huge burritos, which provided us with lunch for almost the entire week. I am so grateful to everyone who came forward to help out. While there was only a few of us who stayed consistently working throughout the week, equally important were those who found out about what we were doing and decided to come and help us out and make art for a couple of hours one day, and those who chose to give their time outside of the studio to make something they could donate to us.

Easter Sunday was different for me this year. I was really excited about it coming, not because of candy or Easter baskets or anything like that. But because it mark the resurrection of our Lord. I greatly looked forward to being able to say "Hallelujah, Christ is risen!... The Lord has risen indeed, Hallelujah!" But this year, for the first time ever, I did not celebrate with an Episcopal church service. I thought about it, but in the end I decided to go to Renaissance Church because I have pledged myself as part of the covenant there and because I did not want to spend Easter alone. It was different because it was less than I expected for an Easter service, though I suppose that I am just used to all the pomp and circumstance of the Episcopal church. I really had no plans for the rest of the day, and was really just expecting to go back home and make myself some lunch and lay around by myself until Sanctuary since my roommate had gone to Boston for the weekend. Well, after church I was invited by a friend (whom I had barely just met) to come to his house and have Easter dinner with his family. 4 other friends from RISD were also going, so I decided to and have fellowship with them. The dinner was wonderful, and so was the company. Though I didn't know anyone in his large extended family, they all made us feel quite welcome there and I felt like I had become part of this family. The spirit in the house was wonderful and I experienced a family togetherness quite unlike any that I had grown up with. Dinner began with a reading from the Bible of the resurrection of Christ and eating a piece of manna with some grape juice in remembrance of him. After dinner the kids took part in an Easter egg hunt all around the house and the older kids (meaning me and my friends) went outside and played soccer. I am really grateful to this family for inviting me into their home and sharing with me the joy of Easter in the Christian community. At 6 we picked up a couple more people from RISD and drove to Sanctuary, which, as always, was the perfect end to another wonderful Sunday.

I am also really grateful that I have been able to spend a lot more time with friends that I barely see once or twice a week during the semester, and we have grown closer because of it. I even finally got to spend some time hanging out with my roommate. In fact, we had the house to ourselves the entire week and we used it to do a lot of cooking, to watch movies in the living room and just have a good time, which is rare for us since I have to spend so much time in the ID studio during the semester, getting back home most nights after she has already fallen asleep. All in all, I feel that even though I was "working" most of the week, I feel more rested and rejuvenated than I would if I had just gone back home to Texas and laid on the couch watching TV all day by myself. I realize that my family missed having me home, as I miss them, but I am still happy I stayed here, and I look forward to what more good works God can provide us with in this project, and seeing how much we will be able to raise for these great causes.

Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done
In this city

I Love you all,
~Rachael