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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Because Art Matters

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Pablo Picasso

Do you remember the first time you felt creative? The first time your masterpiece was hung on the fridge? Your first recital, concert, lesson plan or great idea at work? Few things feel as good as a unique contribution of creativity to the world.

But I don't have to tell you that. Most of you are artists. So you know how important it is in a person's life.

Meet Darden Smith.

He created the Be an Artist program I teased you about. Through a strange twist of providence, I met Darden Smith, and have recently been given the opportunity to help him do something that absolutely melts my heart every time I hear about it.

His non-profit Be an Artist program has a simple mission - teach kids that art is that thing you do when you don't have to do anything. For us - it's stamping, of course. But for some people, it's riding a bike, or gardening, selling houses, welding or any of the millions of things that people are passionate about.

What if you could start all over and be so super focused on what you LOVED to do from the time you were old enough to read? Do you think you'd have a better chance at turning it into your life's work? Don't you think that's worth teaching to children?

That is what Darden Smith thinks. And he spends an awful lot of time and money trying to make that happen.

Watch this video ....

So on Monday, October 27th, I'm going to help him. And so are a lot of other people. Most notably, one of my FAVORITE restaurants in Austin - Fino, home of several of our most memorable secret stamping society dinners and both the best patio and the best tapas in Austin!

Fino will be the location for our Be an Artist Fundraiser. There will be a four course dinner, a private concert by Paris 49, and the chance to hang out with Darden Smith and see why Be an Artist is changing the world - one kid at a time.

I know you wanna come... :) But we only have a limited number of seats in the restaurant, so please contact me to reserve your seat!

If you don't live in Austin, please click here to make a contribution for this event and support this amazing program. Please enter "Understand Blue" as the company name on the donation form so that I can send you a special thank you gift from me. :) I think you'll like it. If you are donating on behalf of a company, then please enter your company name and use "Understand Blue" in the comments section.

Tomorrow morning I will post the Pocket Silhouettes cards I made tonight - I needed some quick simple cards and these fit the bill!! I hope you like them, but I'm too sleepy to photoshop.

So in lieu of my own stamped creation tonight, enjoy this.

1 comment:

  1. This sounds amazing. And I obviously don't get out nearly enough - you're mentioning ANOTHER place in Austin I've never been to (or even heard of...!).

    ReplyDelete

Every time you leave a comment, a new LOLcat is born. ALSO - don't panic if you don't see your comment right away - I moderate my comments to keep those spammers out, so your comment will show up in short order. Unless you're linking me to Russian brides or Nigerian princes.