Yes, I do believe it will be a night to remember!
If you are me, you R.S.V.P immediately adding a plus one, buy a new dress and make plans to attend. So incredible to be invited; it feels like a lifetime ago that I graduated from Baron Brown Studio in Santa Monica California. It was summer-time about 12 years ago now and Christian Bale was the guest speaker, it was so inspirational.
Then life happens and you don’t get to work on your acting career with the exception of a few Reality Shows in LA and DK and the filming of the Birth of my Son Winston for the OWN Network in 2009… I think the most powerful realization I have had since that graduation day, is that I am an Artist. To think I didn’t know that even while attending acting school? I was under the impression that to be an Artist one had to be able to draw… what a limiting thought, but it had been told to me by others when my drawings were different and less detailed than theirs and I made the mistake as a child to believe them. It really wasn’t until I was selling Fine Art for Martin Lawrence Galleries and actually a bit after I had quit the South Coast Plaza location to return home to Canada that I realized it… There were so many days of people asking, are you an Artist? As I toured them around the beautiful gallery, selling Picasso, Chagall, Dali, Murakami and more and yet denying my own true nature. I would answer no and feel an ache inside…
It takes such courage to be an Artist, to be critiqued constantly by others who somehow make themselves Art Experts and yet most haven’t even studied or been submerged into the culture. When I started LAG, I knew I wanted to help local Artists in my hometown and that I did and am continuing to do. In fact LAG is on a mission to Support Living Artists… it’s been the journey and courage to say; I am an Artist that is leading my assistance of other Artists. Never let anyone else tell you, who you are. You are an Artist if you are born one and when you realize you are.
Now to do a bit more prep for the big event… yes, I am excited and it will be a night to remember!
PS. my children asked why they can’t join me… I said “your Mama Yogi Bear needs a a playdate too sometimes.”
xo
