Funky Sexy Manifesto #33 Become an Illustrator

When I was a child, I had many dreams. One of my dreams was to be an artist. Luckily, I had a natural skill for drawing, crafts, and painting although as I got older I began to doubt the practicality of this skill and even my talent. Nevertheless, drawing came very easily to me. (I think this skill runs in my family since all of my siblings can draw.) I never felt anxious or inhibited when asked to draw something in art class since I felt very comfortable coming up with an image from my imagination or sketching a still life. I began creating my own picture books at the age of six. In fact, I felt more relaxed and in elementary school, I often asked the teacher if I could stay in at recess so that I could finish an art piece. Often my classmates said, "You are such a good draw-er" or "You're an artist." I entered my drawings and posters into contests and received honourable mentions. At the age of nine, I had the opportunity to paint a large mural of a picture I drew at the new wing constructions site at the Hospital for Sick Children. I even won the art award at my high school graduation. My middle sister and I both shared a love for art and would spend hours drawing together as children. As I got older, I spent less time with visual arts other than a few courses in high school. Art got pushed behind things like academics when I took more and more science and math courses, got involved in extra-curricular activities, and other ambitions. By the time I got to university, I rarely put my pencil to paper for drawing. (My sister however was smart and majored in art for a time in university.)

A few years ago, I began drawing characters, characters who had stories. I dreamt of doing a graphic novel and began to recover my dreams of being an artist. After creating several sketches, I enrolled in a community college course in Illustration. At first, I loved it. I was being exposed to so many techniques and materials but for the first time in my life, I was being seriously critiqued for my drawings and I wasn't the only "good drawer" in the class but surrounded by other artists. Although, I enjoyed the weekly assignments, I felt overwhelmed with the feedback and the intensity and I dropped the course. I have also participated in my own personal growth for years with a trained art therapist.

Fast forward a few years to 2011. Since my cancer diagnosis in late 2010, on several occasions throughout my journey, I have turned to the arts for inspiration. Not only writing, as you know, and music, but visual art. I created sketches and drawings and paintings in Art for Cancer workshops and on my own. I made thank you and birthday cards. In addition to my dream of writing books for young people, I wish to become an illustrator. I never had someone take me under their wing when it came to art or give me advice on how to make a living at it or even if my art was good enough to make a living at it. So I decided that this needed to be one of my Funky Sexy Manifestos, a survivor resolution. (It's never too late!)

So earlier this year, I had my first opportunity to get a professional (that is, paying) gig as a Illustrator. I was asked by the Spinlaw Organizing Committee to design a poster for the Spinlaw 2012 Conference: A Seat at the Table. (The conference is for law school students interested in social justice and it will take place on March 3rd, 2012 at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.) The poster features Lady Justice as a woman of colour, holding a scale with a Ma'at feather, seated at a big pink boardroom table surrounded by a wheelchair, an Ashanti seat, and Chinese and Middle Eastern chairs. Members of the committee presented their ideas and through our collaboration, problem solving, and discussed, we get the finished poster you see below. I loved this process-- envisioning, sketching, creating drafts, finding techniques, and seeing what works best. I know there will be other projects like this.



Then this weekend, I had my first opportunity to participate in an Art Exhibit thanks to Cid Palacio, the founder of the Art for Cancer Foundation who asked me to participate. The Art for Cancer Foundation is showcasing some of my art as well as that of other survivors and artists at the City Hall Rotunda in Toronto City Hall this week from February 17-24, 2012. This is a free event.



I will also sell some of my beautifully illustrated handmade cards on Friday, February 24th from 1-6pm. A portion of the proceeds from these sales will go to the Art for Cancer Foundation.

Art for Cancer Warrior Prints and Gala Dinner

Warriors...

I'm amused to be a muse and so honoured to have inspired a Warriors... art print by Cid Palacio, artist and founder of Art for Cancer. (The Nadia print looks like me especially in the lips and I've always wanted blue hair.) Support the Art for Cancer Foundation by purchasing a Warriors... print or a ticket for the Art for Cancer Gala Dinner on October 22, 2011 where I will speak about the use of the arts in my healing journey. This will be another installment of My Funky Sexy Manifesto #57 Do A Speaking Gig.



I have taken Art for Cancer Foundation art workshops twice and appreciated the opportunity to get creative and use abstract painting as therapy. You can read about my first workshop here.

For more info about the Gala Dinner, click here or read the details below.

Gala Dinner Oct 22, 2011
Feel good, Do good!
Support the Main Fundraising Event of 2011
What, Where, When
Escape to a magical evening, and support a worthwhile cause.
Your magical evening starts at 6:30pm on Saturday Oct 22, 2011 and includes:

¨ A four course meal, including wine and open bar
¨ Entertainment by young rising stars
¨ Inspiring stories of strength and hope
¨ Dancing the night away; raffles, silent auctions
… and many more surprises

Event will be held at Europa Convention Centre– 1407 Dundas St West, Toronto, ON Map

Secure your spot today!

Tickets on sale – 1 ticket for $100

Table of 10 for $900

All net proceeds from this event, supports our Programs for Cancer Patients and their families.

Funky Sexy Manifesto #57 Do a Speaking Gig

I have a speaking gig that I am very excited about which is coming up on Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 6:30pm in the Europa Convention Centre, Toronto. (I hope this is not the last one.) The event is a Gala Dinner to raise money for the ART FOR CANCER Foundation which does amazing work. I have also used their services and wrote about that experience here. Please support this great cause by purchasing a ticket to attend this event.

Funky Sexy Manifesto #20 Attend a Writing Retreat

Bob Marley So Much Things To Say & Zimbabwe

I think that this song says it best in terms of how I feel after attending a five-day writing retreat. On my Funky Sexy Manifesto list, I very much wanted to attend a healing retreat (or a creative one). My writing retreat gave me an opportunity to get away AND do lots of writing. I found that I didn't do more writing than I normally did throughout my healing journey. The volume is about the same. What the writing retreat did for me was affirm that indeed I have , in the words of Bob Marley & the I-Threes as evident in the videoclip, "so much things to say right now."

Writing is equally healing and a form of creative expression for me. At the writing retreat, I enjoyed the opportunity to write my stuff and get to read it to a LIVE AUDIENCE and GET FEEDBACK. I enjoyed the writing exercise that we were given and I even WROTE SOME POETRY. I never WRITE POETRY. Well, almost never write poetry. I have a binder full from high school and used to publish my poems in the school newspaper (including an embarrassing one describing a boy I had a crush on and he found out it was him). But this past week, I tapped into my poetic voice and even made lots of headway on a picture book that I started a few months ago. It's not easy writing a picture book although Madonna and Will Smith might cause one to think differently.

Inspired by natural settings, daily hikes, afternoon naps, and even a chase by a ferocious territorial unchained dog (who chased me into the street, my childhood fear of dogs and experience with having been bitten told me not to run, thank God I resisted that urge which must have worked since Killer eventually went away), I have been reminded that writing brings me a lot of joy and has done so my whole life.

Before the retreat, I wondered if I could deal with the solitude life of writing, waking up to write, writing in the day and in the night, reading my writing to others and having it critiqued, writing assignments, writing all day, and writing about uncomfortable, personal, troubling, and even controversial topics. I am learning that I can handle these challenges and I have a thirst for more. I think I found my calling.

I am thankful that I had the opportunity to attend this writing retreat and for the generous support that made it possible.

Below are some photos that I took on the beautiful grounds where the writing retreat was held.

Painting at Princess Margaret Hospital

I attended a Painting Workshop at Princess Margaret Hospital, a cancer research hospital located in Toronto. It was organized by Youth In Time, an organization which provides creative workshops and classes for young adults with cancer, and the Art for Cancer Foundation. I learned about it first from Paulene Harvey, facilitator of Youth In Time. The lovely thing about this program is that it is free.

I loved this opportunity to express my creativity. Cid Palacio, our instructor, encouraged us to pain abstractly. I experimented, played, and imagined with the colours-- first, in black and white and then in colour paints.

Here is a video about this experience:


Creating from Within-workshop of July 12,2011


Experimenting with splashes of value

I loved using the knife to slather on paint like butter on bread.

I experimented with different ways to apply the paint and mix colours.

Then we were to imagine a garden. I painted one with pink and coral flowers and bright sunshine. I imagine myself walking on a path and soaking up the sunshine, feeling the warmth on my skin.

Guitar Lesson by the Water

What a dream! I had my first guitar lesson by the ocean. Okay it's not a real ocean. Or even a sea for that matter. This is beautiful Lake Ontario at the Scarborough Bluff's. Pretty convincing, eh?


This is me in my element. Dredlocks. Jamaica t-shirt. Guitar on my back. Makes me miss my reggae bands. The first was a lover's rock one in which I played keyboards and sang back-up and I was the only female instrumentalist in the band. The second band was an all-girls reggae band. Sigh! Miss those days.


My fiance Adam is my instructor.


My guitar on loan.

Cancer Can't Dance Like This

Today I went to check out Cancer Can't Dance Like This, a one-man play staged at the Tarragon Theatre as part of Toronto's Fringe Festival. It had been years since I've seen a Fringe Festival play. These plays always tend to be alternative, quriky, and "on the fringe" since they result from annual submissions from anybody. What an amazing performance! Acute Non - Hodgkin’s T - Lymphoblastic Lymphoma survivor Daniel Stolfi presented an amazing show! His selection of characters ranged from Bruise Portega (his male member), a testosterone-overloaded lady-loving lounge singer with tons of innuendo and unsatiable sex drive, to Capo Capelli (his hair), a sweet older barber with apologetic smiles and jokes that are only funny in Italian. Cancer Can't Dance Like This is a variety showcase of Stolfi's talent and the many "faces", characters which emerge from the cancer closet. Between these colourful personalities, Stolfi's own voice emerges through readings of his diary entries during treatment giving a sobering dose of reality-- this is cancer.



Cancer Can't Dance Like This - Joe Intro

At one point, I found myself laughing out loud when he said, "F*#$ Lance Armstrong" for setting the bar too high for cancer survivors by winning seven "Tour de France" competitions after his battle with testicular cancer. And just like me and several other thyroid cancer patients (as well as some lymphoma patients I've met), Daniel Stolzi was told that he had the best cancer. Imagine that given Stolzi had been hospitalized for over forty days and had undergone two years of chemotherapy. (Two years, people! Doesn't sound like an ideal cancer to me! And I really hate this "best cancer" bullshit.) Set to a soundtrack of disco, hip hop, and Michael Jackson pop, I truly identified with the use of music to tell the cancer story and was pleasantly surprised with the reprise of "Standing Tall", the theme song from the late 1980s/1990s television show, Perfect Strangers. I attended the event with two other young adult survivors, Raymund (leukemia-survivor) and Daniel (testicular cancer-survivor). They both related to this play as well. Raymund described it as sounding eerily similar to entries from his diary. I loved the play and think everyone should see it. I applaud Daniel Stolzi for taking his cancer experience and turning it into an opportunity to express himself creatively and with humour, share his story with survivors and the public. Check it out at Toronto's Fringe Festival from July 6 to 17, 2011.


Arriving at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, there are a lot of folks waiting to get in.




Daniel (facilitator of young adult cancer group at Gilda's Club), Raymund, and I enjoyed the play. I am wearing my Rasta colours (red, yellow, green) since I planned to go to my second day of Afrofest right afterwards.


Daniel, me, actor Daniel Stolfi, and Raymund.

29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE

Totally wants me to stop procrastinating on my next idea.

Group Art

I wish to share this beautiful mural of a garden completed in pastels, chalk, paint, and markers. I attended an art therapy group for cancer patients and survivors for the last several weeks and on the last day we completed this work together. This was an amazing experience for me. Although it was not my first encounter with art therapy (I have participated in individual art therapy years ago), but it was my first group experience. I must say that it is especially rewarding since we all share our stories and offer each other support on this journey. Often, I connected with things with others. I am now more inspired to do more art boldly and shamelessly.

Art Therapy

During my recovery and treatment during this illness, I have been getting some artistic inspiration. Although I have always had a talent for drawing, I don't always feel motivated to do so. However, whenever the artistic inspiration comes, I must leap on it and grab it like a bucking bronco. Here are some pieces that I have been inspired to create.


My Healing Vision Board








Inspiration


Embracing my Inner Rosie Rivoter