That does not sound quit as exciting as Humans of New York. Most people in this country have heard of Brandon Stanton’s Art Initiative Humans of New York. Brandon photographs every day people in New York City and lets them give a brief story about anything that they would like people to know about them. He photographs them in their “natural habitat”. The stories are funny, happy, sad and at times evoke compassion in the viewer.
Today while I was sitting at Nosh Cafe in Oldsmar FL working on my 100 Cups of Compassion initiative I struck up a conversation with 3 tourists visiting from MN. They asked me what I was doing with my paintings and I was happy to engage them in the history of 100 Cups but the conversation quickly became about the weather. I find it so interesting, being a native born Floridian that people think the weather here is so wonderful. I know it is because they are only here for the one month that it is not oppressively hot and these folks were not unlike any of the others. As we talked about how the weather was on the other 360 days of the year, Angela picked out a cup of compassion. She told me how she missed painting and used to paint all of the time. I talked to her about my degree in Arts In Medicine and she shared with me a story about her friend who was in a deep depression and had chronic pain. She coaxed her friend to go with her and paint at a local studio and shared how freeing it ended up being for her friend and that for those few hours her pain was not a part of her life. In the end I was glad that Angela had taken a painting. She understood compassion. She helped her friend by using creativity and in return, I hope I showed her a little bit of compassion through creativity myself.
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AuthorBy getting out into the community, I have the opportunity to meet strangers, engage in conversations, and give my paintings away to COMPLETE STRANGERS! In practicing using my Art as a form of compassion, I must overcome my ego to use my time, talent, and money to create an original work of Art to give away, not for sale in hopes of making someone else’s day a little brighter. Archives
September 2021
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