The Foundation will be at The Aquarium of the Pacific tomorrow for it's celebration of Black History Month. We'll be doing hearts with the several thousand visitors who are gonna roll through from everywhere. Days at the Aquarium and fun, exciting, lots of art and lots of people! It's exciting because we really get a chance to share arts with all kinds of different people from all different walks of life. It's also great because we get to make things with recycled pieces of everything. Great chance to have fun. I remember the last time we were there, for Halloween, I was working with this little boy and while we were picking what supplies he wanted to use, he had the choice of used toilet paper rolls, fuzzy dice, googli eyes, paint, crayon, these crazy leather strips, he was like "I'm getting confused, there are so many things I don't know what to choose," at that moment, when I told him he could choose as many as he wanted and do whatever he wanted to do with them...when he looked up at me with these big wide excited eyes I realized that art is one of the only places where it's appropriate and exciting to do exactly what you want...anything you want. That's why I like the days at the Aquarium, to see kids come through and stop and look and sit and stay and work and create something of their very own...it's alot because there are SOOOO many people and the days are long, but it's worth it.
Long Beach is coming along in general. I am certain that Living Love Foundation will continue to grow here. For the first time, I really feel like we've found our niche. The programs are growing like crazy and there's so much excitement about the mission and what we're doing. It makes all the hard times feel worth it. This April will make four years since we launched Living Love and it's come along way. I'm humbled to see the progress and the way communities have embraced what we're doing. Feels weird to be doing work that is the answer and have it regarded in that way.
This past February 13th, Mom's birthday, we had children and volunteers and consultants having fun in the garden, planting, painting, it was great. The community involvement here in this city is great! I don't think I've lived anywhere where just about everybody is active in one way or another. And in March we're gonna take some of our volunteers and students up north to Ventura to work on the art program at Pleasant Valley. That will be great, I love it when all the different programs get a chance to meet and compare work and styles. Not an easy thing here without solid public transportation. In New York you could get some train passes and get everybody around like that...not so here. But the hard work pays and in the spring when the gardens blossom ( you can already see the little fennel poking its head up in the herb garden) that will be the best :-) all that sweat and toil coming up daisies...the road to beautiful...I mean :-)
Ciao
