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Proud to be exhibiting 3 artworks at the Core, 233 Pinnacle St., Belleville, in celebration of International Women's Day 2013.  This important exhibition will feature artwork from artists in the Quinte area who have been asked to think about the question, "What does International Women's Day mean to you?"  The organizers have asked a powerful question that perhaps many of us struggle to think about.  If you visit this exhibition, I believe there will be a diverse and interesting collection of answers that will stimulate discussion for a long time to come. Not only will you view exceptional visual responses to this query, but many artists will articulate, through written statements, their thoughts and feelings about this topic. This exhibition will continue from March 5 to March 23 at the Core (entrance on Campbell St.). The Opening Reception is Tues., March 5, from 5 to 7 pm.

These are the 3 paintings I have submitted, with their accompanying statements:

Fragments of Love, Oil/Cold Wax

“The best known aid effort in Afghanistan is the school-building project of Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber who came down half dead from a failed attempt to climb the second-highest peak in the world, K2.  Himalayan villagers revived Greg and shared what little they had with him.  When he recovered, he found that the village had seventy-eight boys and four girls studying schoolbooks out in the open – with no school and no teacher – and he promised to return and build them a school. Greg sent out 580 letters appealing for funds and got one check, from Tom Brokaw.  Eventually he found other donors and sold his car, his books, and even his beloved climbing gear to raise the money. Ever since, Greg has been building schools throughout the region, following the lead of local people in each instance.”

-from Half the Sky, by Nicholas D Kristof

                                  And Sheryl WuDunn

Lost Beginning, Found, Oil/Cold Wax

“Honour killings, sexual slavery, and genital cutting may seem to Western readers to be tragic but inevitable in a world far, far away.  In much the same way, slavery was widely viewed by many decent Europeans and Americans as a regrettable but ineluctable feature of human life. It was just one more horror that had existed for thousands of years.  But then in the 1870’s a few indignant Britons, led by William Wilberforce, decided that slavery was so offensive that they had to abolish it.  And they did. Today we see the seed of something similar: a global movement to emancipate women and girls.

This is a story of transformation.  It is change that is already taking place, and change that can accelerate if you’ll just open your heart and join in.”

 -from Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof

                                 and Sheryl WuDunn

Philosophical Figure, Oil/Cold Wax

“In Darfur, after interviewing several women who told of being raped when leaving their camps to get firewood, we asked the obvious question: ‘If women are raped when they get firewood, then why don’t they stay in the camp? Why don’t the men collect firewood?’

‘When men leave the camp, they’re shot dead,’ one of the women explained patiently. ‘When the women leave, they’re only raped.’

In almost every conflict, mortality is disproportionately male. But whereas men are the normal victims of war, women have become a weapon of war – meant to be disfigured or tortured to terrorize the rest of the population.”

-from Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof      

                                 and Sheryl WuDunn