Wha Hoooo!!

Anyone who is a serious Meg Ryan fan or just a movie fan in general has no doubt seen the movie IQ with Meg Ryan, Tim Robbins and Walter Matthau. In the movie there is a scene where Meg goes on a motorcycle ride with Tim and after going over a train track they are airborne and Tim yells Wha Hooooo. Today I feel like that, we have been waiting and working for a long time and today we got confirmation that we have been given a loan to produce a Just As I Am book.

The book should be here in mid Feb. a week before the gallery opens. I feel Very grateful and humbled today, I look forward to giving you an update when I know more.

Rodney

Petrified

Well I just finished a meeting that I never would have thought I would have, I just finished a meeting with a guy from Friesens Printing regarding having a book made for the Just As I Am project. I really can’t figure out if I should be excited or petrified or both; I’m excited to have this as a possibility, at the same time terrified about the 10 thousand or so dollars that will be required to make it happen.

At this point I have a few options, I could rob a small bank or even a Credit Union, or I can pray for wisdom; since I don’t have a gun I guess I’ll stick with praying for wisdom as I think through whether we can sell in excess of 250 or so books.

As I’m praying if you happen to have a small bank or Credit Union and feel like making me a huge loan to help make the book project happen feel free to give me a call. If you don’t have a bank but have a personal relationship with Oprah or someone like her, again I would love to hear from you.

Speaking of a book, if you would like to write a bit about your experience we would like to have some of your stories as an option to publish or else there will just be a bunch of my ramblings in there.

Anyways, as always these are just a few things going through my head, have a great week.

Rodney

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

A Good Question

Someone shared this question with me, and I hope she won't mind if I post it here: "I want to do it, but I don't know. Do you have to be skinny and good-looking like the girl on the web-site?"

The answer is a resounding no.

We need people of all shapes, sizes, ages, backgrounds in order to make this project a success. We want to show that you don't need to look a certain way to be considered a work of art. We have had about a dozen people come through so far, all unique. Some confident, others not. And believe it or not, skinny doesn't automatically mean comfortable with body.

I sincerely hope that any who are reading this that feel they don't measure up in some way, will have the freedom to come and be part of this project. You are needed. You can be part of the solution, part of changing what we perceive to be "acceptable" or normal or okay.

I apologize that our key images for the project have been a deterrent for some. There was a bit of a time factor, and we used the best images we had on file that either depicted an emotion of "Just As I Am" or a very basic nude pose on the background we planned on using.

Our project could still benefit from more variety. We've had some diversity in body shapes, but we'd love even more. We would love to have some 60 and 70 and 80 year-olds! We would love to have more skin tones! We would love to have people with scars that tell a story. Or stretch marks. Or whatever...

Thanks again, to all who have come out so far. It's been fun! I feel like this project has been worth it already.

Just As I Am Project

Well it seems to me that the job of artists in society tends to be to shed light on issues that we face on a daily basis; and given the description that I just gave I would propose to you that Jerry and the cast of Seinfeld were in fact the artists of the century for the 20th century. I draw a lot of inspiration from the light-hearted jokesters in that they seemed to fearlessly bring into the open things that we all thought and were afraid to say while making us laugh about it. As I develop as an artist I have found that it is in fact very difficult to do what Jerry did, it is hard when you feel the judgment of those around you to stand up and do what it is that you think is right or to say what needs to be said.

Just over two years ago I received a phone call from a friend, one of the best and most influential friends I will ever have. Tim is an art teacher in a Christian school in BC and on this particular week he had taken his grade 10-12 art students on a trip to the local art gallery as he was prone to do a couple of times a year. Tim described the experience as they went through the upper floor of the gallery and saw some wonderfully inspiring “Christian” art, that is beautiful water colors and landscapes but then to his horror as they went down into the lower gallery they were hit straight on by a cartoon character in full frontal nudity doing something very derogatory. Tim decided it was too late to turn back and proceeded through the gallery with his students electing to spend some time with them afterwards discussing what they had seen and their thoughts on it.

“Why was there nobody who looked like me in there” was one girl’s response, “They were all perfect bodies.”
“Why are there no Christians doing nudes in art” asked another girl.
“I didn’t feel uplifted in any way from what I saw” stated another.

Art has the power to change our lives, as long as we as artists come at it not as “how can I shock the viewer” but rather “how can I open up my soul or the soul of my subject in such a way as to touch the soul of the viewer.” I have never had the pleasure of going to Europe, but those that I have talked to who have seen the David or the paintings within The Sistine Chapel both of which were created by Michelangelo say that seeing these works literally takes your breathe away. What is it about beauty and the body that is so inspiring??

David the Israelite king whose appearance Michelangelo was trying to capture said in Psalm 139 “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,” I don’t know about most people, but growing up I didn’t feel wonderfully made; I was a skinny awkward kid who never felt comfortable in my own skin. The terms “Bone rack” and “beanpole” will probably haunt me all of my life, and now as an adult I feel as though most of the time I am a beanpole with a big lump in the middle where my thundering abs should be, my chest too small an undefined, shoulders too droopy and arms too spindly; again I feel more fearfully than wonderfully made.

For the past two years I have been thinking about the project of photographing art nudes of anyone who would come in to stand in front of my camera and be photographed “Just as they are” but as is often the case I have spent the last two years in fear of how a project like this would be viewed and so put off doing it. This past year has been a great and hard year for me as Sonya and I have been working on Eve Studios a studio which focuses on building self esteem in women through photography. I have been deeply hurt by the stories I have heard from some clients as they struggle through the question of “Am I beautiful”, and hearing the stories of hurt and pain that many of our clients have held on to for years and decades for some. On the flip side I have had a number of clients who have come in fully confident that they are beautiful and very comfortable with their appearance, and in these cases I have felt immense joy. I have seen incredible beauty in clients of all ages and shapes and can honestly say that they are Fearfully, Wonderfully and Beautifully made.

Just As I Am is a project where anyone from 18 – 118 can come and have 10 mins of photography time to bare their souls as well as their bodies and come to the place of saying this is me, Just As I Am. I ask only a few things of those who wish to be involved, Please bring ID that proves your age, please either write a sentence or two or come with a phrase or two that you feel describes who you are. I welcome men or women to come alone, but also encourage them co come as a couple if they want, or to come as a group; but if you want to be a part of touching the lives of others and in fact be touched with the beauty of who you are please sign up for a timeslot and be part of the healing process.

Rodney