Party Time

It’s 10 pm and I should be cleaning up the studio after an amazing evening with you all (We had the official opening night of the first set of project images tonight ) but instead I sit here with a plate, no a very big plate of two bite brownies, creampuffs, shrimp and of course my trademark Pepsi. I wish to thank you all for coming out on this beautiful evening and celebrating the beauty that is you with us all. I also want to say a huge thank you to Sheena Grobb http://www.sheenagrobb.com/ for not only gracing us with your presence and musical talents but also opening up your heart to us.

Working on the Just As I Am project has been one of the most rewarding and significant projects that I have ever done, my life has changed as much as many of yours has through this process. This week has been an interesting week for me, it’s been a week of remembering many people in history that have had a significant impact on history the most well known of which was Mother Theresa; to thinking about Feron Hall a Winnipeg homeless man who risked his life to jump into the icy Red River to save a life. Neither of these people fit the mould that we as a society look at as successful; neither of them is particularly good looking and neither of them is wealthy. Money and looks are the measuring sticks that we as a society use to determine worth, if you don’t have one you had better have the other to be seen as valuable, yet both of these people are honoured by us even though it seems that they have snubbed us and our way of doing life.

I’ve heard it told (although I have not verified the story as fact) that some years ago Pope John Paul 2 felt that Mother Theresa should have a decent vehicle to drive around in so he donated one of the Vatican limos to her. Mother Theresa being the gentle spirit that she was thanked him and quietly sold it and donated the money to the poor (although she herself was living a life of poverty).

Feron Hall in the aftermath of saving the young man in the river has had a long list of people step up to “Save him” from his life and get him on track so that he can be just like us but Feron in his gentle and kind way has gratefully declined saying that he is happy with his life the way it is and doesn’t see the need to change right now.

All of you who have so far been a part of this project have been a lot like these two individuals, you have stepped up and said I’m more or less at peace with who I am and where I’m at, that is more than most of us in our society ever get to. I want you to know that I’m proud of you and grateful for the way you have impacted me.

Blessings.

Rodney

PS We’d be interested in hearing what your experiences were tonight so please take the time to share them.

Quick update

Thanks again to everyone who has been a part of this project, we originally had planned on simply running for one week but due to increased requests we have expanded and are opening up time slots in the next two weeks as well. Another reason for the addition of times is that more of the Winnipeg media have decided to run with this story and have asked if we could extend our timeframe for a while.

Yes I said the media is coming around, thanks to Tracy Koga from Shaw TV who will be running a story on Monday the 11th on Shaw TV; if you don’t have Shaw you can access it online at www.shawtv.com/winnipeg click on Arts & Entertainment – “Backstage” Tracy and cameraman John Mcclure were amazing, I however felt a little out of place as I am used to being on the other side of the camera and was probably not as prepared for the interview as I should have been.
Avi Saper from Canstar News was also here this week and they will be running a piece to appear in the Thursday edition of the Herald, Lance, Metro, Times, Headliner and possibly Uptown. Avi was great and it’s much easier for him to make me sound good and smooth than it is for the folks at Shaw.
Many of you also saw the Brief that Carolin Vesely a very gifted free press writer did on our project on the 28th of April, thanks Carolin.

I’m working hard to prepare images for our official unveiling on Tuesday night, and will be photographing for that opening on Monday from 4-7 for anyone who still wants to get in for the official opening. See you all soon, happy Mothers Day to all of you who are mothers.

Rodney

A humble thank you

Happy Tuesday to you all. After spending about 80 hours in the last week to get the Just As I Am project off the ground I had a great weekend (Sunday-Monday) with my family.

I have been so humbled and honoured to be a part of the lives of our participants this last week; over 50 beautiful people have so far been a part of this project with more to come and this has been a truly touching experience for me. Something that I’ve noticed this past year was that as people get physically naked it is so much easier to get emotionally naked.

When we started thinking about this project I realized that for me this would be a time of being very vulnerable which I’m really not used to. I have been so humbled and blessed to hear so many of your stories, stories of new beginnings in life, people trying to find wholeness in life and many people who just want to face their fears. Here are some interesting stats;
-We have had about 26% male participation
-so far ages range from 20-64
-we have had people of all shapes and sizes
-Most common Quote “I didn’t think I could get that good a photo in 10 mins”
-Quote that made me laugh a lot – when asked about how she felt about people seeing her image in a gallery “If I have anything that somebody hasn’t seen before one of us needs to go and see a doctor.”

Due to increasing interest and upcoming media attention we are adding more spaces in the next two weeks, they will be appearing in the next two days.
Thank you again to those of you who have been willing to participate in this project, we are more grateful than we could possibly express but we do have a special event coming up for you next week which will be the grand unveiling of the images created so far with web galleries to go up the next day.

Rodney

Sorry About That

We had someone bring up a concern about the coupons we included in our "thank you" package, that I think has validity...I wish we could have changed things sooner, but alas...this is not possible.

Here's the background to them. We have a good relationship with a new spa owner in the city. When she let us put up a poster in her business, Rodney decided to try one of their services where you can lose inches through this muscle-stimulating machine, and then he blogged about it. As usual, she gave us a bunch of offers from her spa (she's always doing things like that). We thought we could include them in case anyone was interested in that kind of thing. And, I have to admit, we were lower on prize ideas than we had hoped, because we had been too reluctant to ask businesses. So, we were thinking more about our end of things rather than the possible feelings of you, our valued participants, particularly after a vulnerable moment in front of the camera.

So, if any of you felt shame, doubt, or (disgust?!) after opening up our "thanks", I am very sorry about that. It was completely unintended. We really hope to be thoughtful about the things we do, and in this case we weren't. And we sincerely hope we didn't sabotage your experience through our oversight.

On another note, we have just confirmed details for a very special unveiling event next Tuesday, so watch your inboxes for details. You all showed amazing courage, trust, and vulnerability in being part of our project...and we are so grateful. We hope you will be able to attend the event, as we look forward to showing back to you how beautiful you are, as well as honouring you with an enjoyable evening out. Thanks again!

More Appointments Available

Due to demand, please note we have made three more appointments available on Saturday (we're open until 5:00) and we've opened up Tuesday evening, 6:30-9:00.