Wesley Building Dreams Inclusive Art Exhibition for People with Disability & Carers

Hi, Friends, our pop-up exhibition will be held in Sydney CBD, 3-10 August. I'm enjoying so much sharing time with wonderful students in Wesley Building Dreams Inclusive Art Exhibition. The theme of "Building Dreams" is "inclusiveness" and the importance of recognising the dreams and aspirations of all, especially those living with disability and their carers. Special thanks to the generous support of our partner Eckersley's Art & Craft that has also offered prizes for school children aged 6-18 across New South Wales in Australia. Already the project has involved15 schools. Wow, this big project is ongoing across NSW! Terrific, isn't it? School kids, come join it! Here, *Entry Form. True to the very nature of the pop-up show, the detailed venue is secret at the moment. Friends, look forward to Wesley Mission's official announcement! Now, I'm mentoring students called "people with disability." 

HOWEVER, I believe my lovely students are people with "THIS ability"!! Each client is unique and nothing different from other people. 
Mentoring is, for a mentor, equal to learning from mentrees. I'm learning how I can assist students rather than teaching them. Also, I want to be a good entertainer and serve them! In this work below, I'm demonstrating a "wax resist technique" and "lift up." These fun techniques amuse students. We chuckle together. Hey, don't say, "Sadami, you look too good in this picture?!" In addition, in my eyes, everyone and anyone is beautiful.

The key person in a Wesley Mission team and I agree that the most important point is to have fun with the clients and bring them dreams by art. I heartily hope the clients take initiatives. I deeply respect each client equally.  

A black and white drawing is based on a photo by courtesy of Wesley Mission. I gained the consent from the client to post the images. BTW, using a photo was very hard for me. Sounds strange? I'm not familiar with using photos to create portraits. For me, a live model is the best and much easier than photos. A live model's movements give me 3D info and I can get on a figure. So, I moved these two people in my mind and drew them on a paper (*Hope, my English makes sense!). 

Regarding using crayons, it's a handy water-resist technique to create white or any colours that depend on crayons, candles' original colours. See below, it's an example. It's up to you how to use it in watercolour painting. I use crayons very often for sketches and they are in my pencil case. 

Back to the topic, the Building Dreams Inclusive Art Exhibition. The Wesley Mission staff and I are working hard to achieve the same goal, "bringing hope and joy." Wesley Mission's positive feedback makes me happy. I want to make clients happy and I want to give carers a break by my art class. Fortunately, my many uni friends are, today, senior social workers and teachers. They cheer me up. Oh, I love the studnets and appreciate the Wesley team's backup, too. **Click a logo that will take you to Wesley Mission's site.  

"Building Dreams" is a part of a wider disability research and awareness campaign centred on the latest Wesley Report, Give Disability Carers a Break before They Break Down.  

Did you know? 

• Over one third of Australian households are involved with disabilities. 
• 4.2 million Australians are classified as having disabilities. 
• There are 2.7 million informal carers of individuals living with a disability in Australia.  (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012)

Sadly, what others do not realise is that carers are often forced to sacrifice their own lives to look after someone they love. This project aims at supporting both carers and artists with disabilities. 

**Click a logo that will take you to Wesley Mission's site.

My dream is that this project will go on "annually" like One Word One Day for indigenous children's literacy, we, Australian picture book illustrators have been supporting across a nation wide. If "Building Dreams Inclusive Art Exhibition," such a wonderful project is only for a once, it would be sad and a bit shame..., although it's really hard to gain stead resources in a welfare system. Let us hope this exhibition will go well and we can demonstrate a good result in order to get an enough budget. I'm happy to weekly assist clients throughout a year, if the project needs me.

You'll see your heart will know, "Dreams are more precious than gold," I like Enya's song.
Indeed, we need dreams to live our lives lively and happily, don't we?

I really thank for Wesley Mission's kindness and this wonderful opportunity to do pay back society by art. Big cheers for Wesley, my students and school children willing to join this exhibition.
Friends, Happy Painting!
**Click a logo that will take you to Wesley's site. 

Wesley Building Dreams Inclusive Art Exhibition for People with Disability & Carers