Those five of you who actually read my blog know I have a running list of things that annoy me. Well, "Perception Without Deception" has been a negative blog for too long. I would like to start an alternative "make the world a better place list" and see how that turns out. Oh, I will still write about things that bug me, but it will be good to balance it with some positive posts.
Last Friday, Laura and I had a great night out in Durham. Every third Friday of the month, the city of Durham hosts an art work where several art galleries are on display within walking distance of each other. Laura and I went around to the various places and had a great time checking out what local artists have been doing. Well, we came across a piece that we both really liked, and in an unlikely spur of the moment decision, we bought and brought it home. You can check out what we bought here. It was done by a local artist named Todd Bond, who seems to be doing some cool stuff.
As I study and learn more about poverty, I find that poverty is often an economic problem. This may seem obvious, but people are poor because they do not have good job opportunities. Tied together with poverty is violence, because people who do not have good economic choices tend to turn to violence as a means of securing life's essentials. Both poverty and violence are cyclical, meaning they are cycles that will be repeated over and over again unless that cycle is broken. As I wrestle with these realities and struggle to find answers, I am starting to think that art is a creative and positive way to break cycles of violence and poverty. If more people used their creative energy for making art and not violence, then this world would be a better place. If a community can support more and more artists, that community will have better alternatives for exercising creativity in a positive way. Therefore, I believe that buying local art is a small, but effective way of working to make the world a better place.
Here is the better world list as it stands right now:
1. Buy Local Art
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
2 comments:
Todd, this is actually on my list of stuff to blog about on our Community Planting blog.(www.communityplanting.com)
Have you heard much about gentrification? Not sure if i spelled it right. But it seems like a cool thing at the ground level. I've only done a little bit of reading. And as we talk about "community" developement it seems like it could be a valuable part of our conversation.
I LIKE IT! The link to you new art didn't work. I'll try it again.
Todd -
I completely agree that "Buy Local Art" is on the list - along with Buy Local in general.
We often underestimate the power of our purchases to create change!
Post a Comment