Dear All, this is a pre-June update as I would like you to prepare for the June project this week.
I am going to open another WhatsApp group called Monday gallery. The other groups will continue as usual.
During this week I would like you all, yes, the interactive ones and the quiet ones to please find a painting or drawing or photograph or print that you like, that has inspired you, that has stayed in your memory.
Please think this through and research it carefully. The next step is as important; you need to photograph it with your phone and put it on the new group; Monday gallery. If it is half on and half off the page, or has a hot spot, or is tilted, or blurred you need to try again. Practise taking a good photograph from a book or find it on the internet and send it to Monday gallery. Some people will need assistance with this task, please ask when you are stuck. Our phones are different but we will find a way. If you really can’t send us the image please send us a link. For example, if I want to use Matisse’s Snail as my image, I need to photograph it carefully from my book or photograph a copy I find on the internet (or send us the link). Please ask for assistance as you will learn a new trick by doing this and you will contribute to the June project.
I will send details of the project by Monday 1 June.
Thank you very much for offering to send a payment for these projects. It has been very important for many us as a way of communicating and of learning. I set aside three months for this new way of interacting and I think we are all learning how to use this medium and keep a focus. The focus is, of course, the work and the comments about the work. The lockdown group has been very interesting too. Thank you all, even the quiet ones. I still feel that I am seeing “a phantom” of the real images but under the circumstances, we are not too misdirected in our comments, and the focus remains with the image and not personal agenda. Therefore, I would like to suggest the following for June; it will assist me financially as this new project grows and with your assistance, it can get off the ground.
I have been feeling my way into working with a few children and their foster parents in a group of homes. There are 30 homes that make up this particular group on the Peninsula. I think I can assist the five that are closest to the CBD. The response has been wonderful. As you can imagine the parents and all the children need to be busy and better still, creatively busy. Some are able to continue with school projects but none of the children, of any age, do art at their schools.
I would like to suggest that if you would like to donate any sum towards developing this project it would be most welcome. At this time, I will simply arrange for materials to be taken to the homes. I will purchase materials from Art Sauce. I am only able to coordinate this for June and then respond to what is requested by the homes and social workers.
My bank details are; J M Trappler. FNB, 201409, account number 6201 9236 050.
The second step will be to send ideas for the children/teenagers to get involved with. They will send me images of their work for comment. This is already happening; it is interesting for me to be involved with different age groups and their ideas and needs.
There is the potential for this to expand so that each house has an artist managing the interaction. This would be a voluntary gesture from artists.
The third step would be to developed the link between the homes that are involved. In this way the exchange and interaction will grow, encouraging the sharing of ideas and skills. Please let me know if you would be keen to take this up; there are security and privacy hoops to jump through which I respect.
Back to Mondays in June; I will put all the names from the three other Monday groups onto the new Monday Gallery group. If you don’t want to be involved please take your self off. (This applies to all the groups.) I can put you on again if you change your mind. From July we may have to shift focus but for now, I hope you are all enjoying this as much as I am.
More about July options later in June.
Keep warm and well and safe. Keep making images in your own special way, for your own well-being and the benefit of all.
Best wishes from Jill