Book Launch, Immigrant Women Speakout

I illustrated 30 Non English speaking women's success stories in Australia. Immigrant Women Speakout Association celebrated 30th anniversary and did the book launch of "Speak Out" at a party last Friday.
BTW, do you have a dream? Yes, I have. Friends, I've always wished I could use my uni study and art skills for welfare. Now, I've begun to make my dream come true step by step.  "Dream is unrealized reality," is my belief.

 

In the book, the women have overcome many difficulties. The obstacles are, such as, isolation, discrimination, inequalities, language incompetence, cultural differences, lack of information, fall-short-of-certification, domestic violence and so ons. But the women have strength and dream and get help from the IWSA. The IWSA has assisted those women to achieve their goals in life. All stories end up a happy ending and imply a bright future! Actually this is a part of "ongoing" Australian society. The stories are so touching, full of tears, laugh and ... hope!! 

Really wonderful to meet "real authors" or the women in person at the party. Wow, some women's second generations came to the ceremony and met me. One lady almost shed tears when she looked at my illustration...

The purposes of the anniversary book is to advocate women, empower them and show where to get help at an appendix. To some extent, the goal is to support non English speakers in Australia. IWSA will distribute "freebie" books to libraries, public organizations and for anyone wants to get. So, if you would like to get a copy, please contact them. 

I'd say special thanks for the models and the team. When I explained about the project, all the women happily cooperated with me. The great team physically and mentally supported each woman to write up the story, whistle discussing about illustrations with me. 30 Illustrations had to be done in ONE month. Honest, the time frame was too tight. What was worse, I had to slow down from the hand's trouble. But the team backed up me and my daily sketches helped this project! The book includes many of my best sketches. Also, "Thank you, blog Friends," your cheers really encouraged me to handle my hand's trouble. Then, the team edited the stories and the pictures. I admire IWSA's incredible enthusiasm for this project.  

The team and I celebrated the book. Oh, our feeling was beyond language. Next year, IWSA plans to print a book in a big copy run. Onward, IWSA and I will work on projects to help women with language difficulty. With my illustration, women will easily understand the important info necessary for an Australian daily life. I'm very happy that my art work will assist Non Englsih speaking women. Yey! 

But did this project simply come to me like luck? No.
As I'm a practical dreamer --- If I want to reach a star, I'll check a distance and examine a methods to get there. Friends, I make my dream happen on my own abilities. Don’t wait for it. Find it or define it. Also, I'm the dreamer who always takes an action. On net, I saw IWSA's ad and applied to it. I became the successful candidate. ʚ(ˆ◡ˆ)ɞ
In my experience, often preparation meets opportunity.
When I'm not ready, it's time for training. Practice, practice, practice! My daily sketching is both training and genuine art work. Now, I'm working on another project.

Friends, let us enjoy making dream come true. In a big dream, I hope, one day, we do not have any "filter" to discriminate other people such as border line, nationality, race, culture, language etc.
Friends, Happy Painting!

Book Launch, Immigrant Women Speakout