MMPT Art Show for Christian

First, let me say that I think it is going to be another gorgeous fall!!  The foilage is already changing into so many awesome colors!!

We took our friend and neighbor, Bruin, with us on a little outing this weekend.  We were headed downtown to the artshow we'd been awaiting for weeks for a special kid named Christian.

Monroe's donwtown area is really pretty cool!!  It is also a favorite spot for photographers around town to snap cool, hip pics.  I thought I'd see how the cell phone would stand up to that competition.

When we arrived at the art show, I was thrilled ot see that we had a small crowd already!  And we had special volunteers who helped the kiddos stay preoccupied with crafts.

ANd by special helpers, I mean, our special Alex!!  Alex hasn't had tons of blog time, but she is our newest babysitter and is responsible for getting my kiddos every day after school and for taxiing them to dancing, gym, therapy, etc.  She also does homework and will be heading to ElSalvador this week for a mission trip.  Think she is special or what?!

The art the kids in the clinics made  was pretty phenomenal!!  I LOVED these watercolors displayed together.  They were done by four different artists, and they used salt somehow to make the paintings quite unique and textural.

I bought the next three myself.  I think they need to hang in my clinic, for sure!!

ANd Christian, himself, did this one, with the help of Ron, his therapist, who helped him run his little trucks through paint so the tracks would make cool markings across the canvas.

I liked this one a lot too.

Oh... and remember my kids' art classes from earlier in the fall?  Well, we had that one class where we discussed community.  ANd the kids donated one extra house each.  Emery made this cool board with all the extra houses on it.  I had to have that one too!!  There was a second one, which Becky, from my office bought.  Her daughter was one of the contributing artists!!  I don't know HOW, but I think I want to try and eek out some space in my art room to hang it.  My artroom is SOOOOO full!!

This is Christian!  He needs a very special surgery to help him with his extremely stiff muscles.  He is a smart and talkative kid, but his ability to move is very limited due to his spasticity from cerebral palsy.

We chose him to raise money for, because we felt this could truly be life changing for him!  The surgery would be done in St. Louis.

One little girl in Shreveport, spent some of her free time making all of the above canvases and more for our show.  I ended up buying one of her Christmas themed ones.  Hopefully I took a pic of it.

The paintings were done by kids who were about 2 years old up to about 16.  And they were awesome.

All of those on the left were done by little bitties, and we used a variety of toys to create the textures and patterns with the kiddos.  The ones on the right were donated by a local class in an elementary school in town.  VERY generous!

Coen's mom bought this one!

And Kelsey's MK bought this one!!

ANd we had the brilliant forethought to bring the spin art machine.  It is ALWAYS a hit!!

Gaines and his mom and Pi came to buy his sweet little canvas.

Allllll of these people came to support Christian!!

This is Hunter.  ANd we took a picture of him painting his canvas while lying on his belly.  He, too, is really, really stiff, and might I add really, really awesome!!  He worked hard to produce every single stroke on this canvas.

Some of our canvases didn't sell, so if you are interested, we will be posting them on our MMPT facebook page or website.  We'd love to have you help us sell out, especially if you are local and we don't have to figure out shipping!

How I let Gabbi talk me into these high heel hot pink boots is still a mystery to me.

We used some of the leftover houses from the art class and made ornaments.  They were a HUGE hit!! I think we must have sold over twenty of those!

Guess whos spin art!!  One hint.... her favorite color is BLACK!!  (Did you know that about my youngest?!  It's true.  Black is her favorite color.  Ever heard of that before?!)

Emery had the place looking adorable.  And Breanna contributed her handmade garland (for our upcoming handmade tree for the Ballet company), to use as decoration.

The whole thing was just very inspirational and special.

If you think you might want to buy a piece of art, please call the office and ask for Emery.  She'll let you know how to go about it.  318-396-1969

Even this tiny little munchkin made one to contribute to the show.  Good job, Braylon.  (and John Wesley!)

So... a real live art show in a real live art studio.  That is pretty cool, if I do say so myself.

ANd better than all of that... for a really great purpose!!

(Here's my Christmas canvas by Allie!!  Cute, huh?)

This is Leanne, director of our Shreveport office, Amber, from our OT department in West Monroe, me, in my glasses so I could look artsy (did it work?!), and Emery who masterminded the whole show.

It took a lot of work, but in the end, Christian is closer to having a life changing surgery and we all had full hearts for having the opportunity to help him!

Win-win!

MO