7 Things Sunday

One. All I want for Christmas is 3 kittens and a bag of festive socks…

Two. I love lists and this is a really good one:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/art-therapy-techniques_56562017e4b072e9d1c19f9b

Three. I would like to introduce you to my labor of love as of late: the #KnowJustice Project. Between writing grants, researching, and planning out the implementation… this has been on my mind constantly. I. am. so. stoked. for. this. I probably won’t be around to see it happen, which is tough on the ol’ heartstrings. But I digress…

First of all, did you know that Iowa ranks #1 in the nation for over-incarcerating minority men? A 2014 ACLU report found that they are 8 times more likely (compared to a national average of 3.7) to be imprisioned than Caucasians for the same drug posession charges. Right now it feels like a day rarely passes that we don’t hear about police brutality, a school shooting, or racial profiling. These layered, complex issues involve cycles and systems that seem overwhelmingly hopeless of change. 

#KnowJustice aims to show youth entrenched in our judicial system that hope for them as individuals is not lost. We believe their life experiences and voices matter. At ArtForceIowa, we don’t stand in judgement of what they’ve done, but in awe of their creative potential (I am blown away by the kids I work regularly). #KnowJustice will give them the tools and opportunity to learn about their personal rights, contemplate their own participation in the justice system, and to respond creatively through art. Using art to elevate the voices of minority, court-involved youth, this project engages the public in a discourse around system disproportionality and the social injustices these youth face. The project has three components:

1. ArtForceIowa youth who are out of detention will participate in a series of workshops instructed by a group of Drake law students from the Children’s Rights Clinic. In an effort to ensure that youth today comprehend their personal rights, discussions will center around how to handle interactions with law enforcement, what it means to have free speech, and what their rights are at school and in detention. They will be encouraged to think critically and respond artistically, creating work reflective of what they learned in relation to their own experiences.
2. Youth residing in detention will be collaborating with local artist activists to explore, analyze, and strengthen the connections between personal rights, social activism, and artistic practice. The result will be a participatory visual art installation that is designed and conceptualized around the personal narratives of youth facing significant adverse experiences and systematic disproportionality.
3. In a society where a lot of tension exists around minority youth and the justice system, it is the youth involved who largely remain voiceless. In the media, it is not their stories, feelings, and thoughts heard. The #KnowJustice exhibit at Polk County Heritage Gallery will display the art installation and other work created by the youth at ArtForceIowa and the Polk County Juvenile Detention Center, giving them a public platform to express and voice their experiences. The exhibition will run for 6 weeks, giving the public an opportunity to better understand the challenges faced by this underrepresented, marginalized demographic. Throughout the exhibition, other special events will take place such as a poetry slam and public roundtable. 

Four. My friend Jacci posted this hilarious article about a sub Reddit feed where ‘Former Emo Kids Have Been Posting What They Look Like Now That They’ve Grown Up’. I don’t have much evidence of me in that phase thanks to DELL desktop computer crashses and the decline of Myspace, but I did find one picture. I think this is Andrew and I at a high school wrestling match when we were 15. He’s rocking a double popped collar and tiger stripe highlights. I’m wearing a Mewithoutyou band tee. I remember that night we went to Smokey Row, played Candyland and Tetris, and took pictures that we later edited on Windows Paint. LOL. 

And here we are almost 11 years later. Somehow still best friends. And I’ll have you know that hours after this picture was taken, we freaked out over Spotify adding The Spill Canvas’ old albums to their repitoire (yes, I have periodically checked ever since I opened an account).

Five. Friday night I danced, drank and delighted in the festiveness of Peace Tree’s Annual Holiday Sweater Party with Jaxine, my parents, and the friends we made in there (my favorite being Matt, in his ‘Fleece Navidad’ outfit). My professor/academic advisor at Grand View was playing in his band, The Monday Mourners. So that was fun. Woot woot.

 

Six. This is kind of old news, but I love the app PHHHOTO. Go download it. It does stuff like this:

Seven. I just finished reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and it has got me all fired up about creativity. I think 2016 is going to be a year of big magic that I make for myself, if nothing else.

“Stop complaining. Every time you talk about how difficult and tiresome it is to be creative, your inspiration takes another step away from you, offended. I started telling myself that I enjoyed my work. I proclaimed that I enjoyed every single aspect of my creative endeavours- the agony and the ecstasy, the success and the failure, the joy and the embarrassment, the dry spells and the grind…It is not about how you write, or paint, or play… it is about why: because of delight. You must live your most creative life as a means of fighting back against the ruthless furnace of this world.”

Love,

Taylor

7 Things Sunday

7 Things Sunday : Winter Break

One. Nothing beats the feeling of stepping off a train and sneak-hug-attacking one of your dearest friends who you haven’t seen in five years (and then proceeding to do a laugh/cry/squeal-thing and hold the embrace for a few more minutes). I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. I kept wanting to pinch her and make sure she was real and not behind a screen. By day we strolled though art galleries, cathedrals, and Christmas markets. By night we feasted on delicious French food too beautiful to eat, played games, and stayed up giggling in bed until 2 or 3 in the morning. I tried caviar (hated) and escargots (loved). I drank some of the best wine and champagne I’ve ever had in my life. I impressed everyone with my very best French accent singing Christmas hymns at mass in a tiny village church. Everyone made me feel like one of the fam. I didn’t want the week to end. It is one I’ll treasure forever. I left feeling like the luckiest little lady in the world. And I miss this one already…

Two. I spent one tiny day walking the streets of Paris. One day to experience Paris feels like a joke, but I would’ve taken even an hour if its all I had. Paris is stunning even when it is freezing, windy, and everything is a pale shade of grey. Until I was surrounded by (sometimes overly) affectionate couples standing in lines, eating at cafes, and snuggling on the streets…I had forgotten about Paris’ reputation for being, you know, the city of love. This made being a lone ranger feel a little strange. There’s nothing particularly brave or novel about solo travel. Tons of people do it. But there is something just slightly transformative about the experience. I’ll try not to get all Eat, Pray, Love here…but you have to make all your own choices, which is sometimes harder than it sounds. You have to make snap judgements about people and places. You have to be brave enough to walk when you don’t know where you’re going. You have to learn how to be your greatest resource. You have to believe no one is actually staring at you when you’re eating lunch by yourself or taking photos of a knitted toy cat in front of the Musee d’Orsay. At one point during the day, I was sitting in Sainte-Chappelle, enamoured by stained glass so beautiful it could make a grown man cry. I was thinking about my stained-glass-making grandpa and how much he would geek out in this place. I suddenly felt a sense of selfishness come over me to not be sharing this whole day with anyone…which isn’t good or bad. It just is. Paris was an experience entirely my own. I was the only personal witness to my thoughts, feelings and reactions. It felt great and it felt sad. C’est la vie.

Three. I saw ‘The Theory of Everything’, ‘Birdman’, and ‘Into the Woods’ over break. I liked them in that order. T Swift’s song ‘Out of the Woods’ kept running through my head during ‘Into the Woods’. Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods? That’s pretty much how I felt about it.

Four. My friend Ali and I attempted to go hiking around Loch Lomond this week, but then there was rain, snow, and 100 mph winds. Trains were cancelled. The sea was raging. It was a mess. Instead we visited the Robert Burns Museum and walked around the town of Alloway, ate ice cream sundaes the size of our faces, kitchen danced to The Prince of Egypt soundtrack, and watched a lot of movies in bed. We had a real John and Yoko thing going. Ali had the privilege of seeing ‘It Takes Two’ for the first time. It’s a big deal.

Five. I finally (maybe) have a part time job working at a coffee roaster/cafe in the seaside town of North Berwick at a place called Steampunk. I have trial shifts Monday and Tuesday this week! Now I can be like the cool kids and flood your Insta feed with urban, industrial, coffee-related photos…ha.

Six. I’ve been on a Salt-N-Pepa kick lately and might be in the process of memorising all the lyrics to Whatta Man for no reason other than it may come in handy for karaoke one day.

Seven. School starts back up on Wednesday and I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to juggle a part time job, a (TBD) course placement, classes, and homework considering last semester I thought I was going to die solely from the school part. I guess my time management skills are about to get fierce.

Love,

Taylor

Gifting

Last week I was working at the mall when a mother and daughter came in to shop for some new clothes. While the mother was browsing, the daughter began a small stack of clothes that she had set behind the counter. Then, she went on to try on a bunch of clothes for her mother and briefly mentioned in the dressing room, “Oh, I have stuff up at the counter too.”

Once they got to the check out line and mom sees the other pile of accumulated merchandise she exclaims, “You’re getting all of THAT too?!”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, well that’s about it for Christmas then.”

“Are you serious…?” (que whining)

And there went $600 to a teenager’s wardrobe. Cha-ching.

Merry Christmas.

Anyway, that story leads well into a something I read recently at Where My Heart Resides. Jen Hatmaker wrote a wonderful blog about the Christmas conundrum many of us experience. She started a gift-giving policy for her family: something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read. That’s it. Simple. And our “wants” and “needs” don’t have to be material things. I want to make dinner and watch a movie with my parents. I want to go to yoga and grab coffee with my friend. I need to go serve the homeless in my city. I need to spend time with my refugee friends. Someone “getting” or initiating those gifts for me would be incredibly special and low-budget. The gifts of time and experiences are always the best and the longest lasting. I want to make it a goal to give those gifts more frequently, but especially during the holiday season rather than dealing with crowds and the stress that comes with spending big $$$. But, if and when you’re purchasing gifts this season buy what you can LOCALLY. Most of what you can get on Amazon or at Target you can also find in independently-owned stores. It puts your taxes to good use, creates jobs, reduces environmental impact, supports non-profits, and keeps your community unique. Money spent in a locally owned business stays in the community. It’s definitely an investment worth pursuing!

Something she wants: Flowerbomb Parfume by Viktor & Rolf, Le Creuset Skillet (found at Kitchen Collage), Yoga Unmat (found at Lulu Lemon), One Line a Day Journal (found at Ephemera)

Something she needs: Liquitex paints (found at Creative Cold Sno), BareMinerals Foundation in Medium, Warby Parker prescription sunglasses: Thatcher in Greystone

Something she wears: Journey’s Women’s Oxford Shoes, I Heart Iowa Necklace, Fair Isle Open Stitch Sweater, Too Faced Lip Color

Something she reads: Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, Whole Living Magazine subscription, The Story of God, The Story of Us by Sean Gladding, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Love,
Taylor