12/02/2018
Entry #4 of 7 for the Love Gr***de Campaign.
"Love Gr***de Project"
I decided to interpret the Love Gr***de Project as a photo series. When reading the original intention, I thought to myself, “What if my Love Children started a Love Army?” And so, I took the symbol for the Love Gr***de, made it into a physical object, and invited people to a local park for a photo shoot.
Now, in my mind, I had envisioned children of all races coming together, holding hands and hugging- doing various poses for the camera while holding the toy gr***des. But what you imagine happening, and what actually happens is often vastly different. No one showed up for my photo shoot (except for my children, who didn’t have a choice). I had a few people say they were interested, but already had plans- you know the story.
Luckily, my children, ages 4, 2, and 1 were willing to help me out- the oldest had already been eying the toy gr***de for a few days, so was glad to finally get his hands on one. After I finished shooting the pictures the kids played at the playground. A group of 4 moms and their kids showed up. They knew each other from church. Among the children were boys about my oldest son’s age. Interested in the toy gr***de my son had, the boys inquired about it. I gifted 2 or 3 to the children at the park and made their day! Afterwards we were out and about and people were commenting on how cool the love gr***de was as my child was carrying it around with him.
So really, it was a great experience and I met some potential mom friends whom I did pass my business card along to, and chatted them up a bit. So, we all made new friends that morning, and I think that is what the heart of this project is really about. Making the world a little lovelier, one person at a time.
I do want to make a comment about some preliminary research that I did which brought up a photograph by Diane Arbus. It is called “Child with a Toy Gr***de in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962.” It is a picture of a boy with a toy gr***de making an almost painful expression. I wanted to use a park setting like in this image, but with the opposite emotion. In an interview with the subject, Colin Wood, he states, “She captured the loneliness of everyone. It’s all people who want to connect but don’t know how to connect. And I think that’s how she felt about herself. She felt damaged and she hoped that by wallowing in that feeling, through photography, she could transcend herself.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_with_Toy_Hand_Gr***de_in_Central_Park) I feel that by making art, people can transcend themselves, and get in touch with the divine. As spiritual beings having a human experience, we are supposed to feel the wide range of emotions our ego makes available to us. But it also necessary for us to detach from these emotions in order to grow. I also think that to truly connect with other people on any meaningful level, we must first connect with our true selves. And so, having done some work to clear away the clutter of my own ego, I am here to give, take, and experience love in its grandest form. Hopefully this image series starts to scratch the surface on the amount of work we must do to get the world back on the path of light and love
This image series and reaction was sent to us by Gabrielle Wilson. Every "like" is counted as a vote for this submission. Voting will close at 11:11pm MST on Feb. 25, 2018. Best of Luck! ***de
