A few weeks ago I had the honor and privilege of speaking about my involvement with the Joe Bonham Project, an artist activist group that seeks to raise awareness about wounded veterans (physical as well as psychological traumas).
I was nervous about speaking, so I tried out this neat trick I learned from
Lacy Rhoades. He once had to give a speech in front of all the staff at his job (he's a programmer for Etsy and also a talented photographer). Before he started the speech, he quietly took a picture of the crowd at the podium with his iPhone. Looking back at the photo I took now, I am amazed at how kind and sweet everyone in the crowd was--I couldn't see it clearly at the time because of my pre-speech jitters. It ended up going well and I had a really great time. A lot of fabulous questions were asked and really helped me think about my work in new ways. So thanks to the friends reading this who came out and showed your support, you are loved and appreciated! And I hope you think you look lovely in the photograph below.
I also took a photograph of myself in the downstairs bathroom at the Drawing Center because:
a) The entire space has been remodeled and it is a really lovely restroom, especially for a public restroom (in New York, no less!)
b) I thought I should document the experience; it was handy I thought I looked pretty fly in my fancy dress, with my new haircut. I'm also showing support for one of the veterans I met at Bethesda in August, Nathan Rimpf, with a wristband his sister designed. His family sells them for $1 to help with the bills, but you have to beg them to take your money, they pretty much give them to everyone they meet. There's a great photo album on his support page on Facebook, documenting where in the world all the wristbands have made it to, it's amazing. You can check it out here:
Where in the World are Nathan's Wristbands?
