#OWS vs Shepard Fairey

Local Artist Featured in Province Wide Art Exhibition

Touched By Fire showcases art by people living with a mental illness

Toronto – A Barrie area artist is one of more than 40 being featured at Touched By Fire, a Toronto art exhibition and sale showing works by people who are living with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or other mental illnesses. Work by Sunny Crittenden was chosen from more than 450 submissions by a panel of three judges to be shown at Touched By Fire on December 8, 2011. The event’s main aim is to support and celebrate artists, and to this end artists receive 100% of the funds from the sale of their work.

“Touched By Fire celebrates the resilience, creativity and tremendous courage of artists living with a mental illness. We’re so pleased that artists from across Ontario are such a big part of the exhibition this year,” said Colleen Cowman, Executive Director, Mood Disorders Association of Ontario, the organization that hosts Touched By Fire.

Celebrating its fifth year, Touched By Fire commemorates the life of a young artist, Rebecca Burghardt, who lived with severe bipolar disorder. Rebecca studied art at the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This year, 10 works from Art Institute students will also be on display at Touched By Fire.

“When starting this show five years ago, we could not have imagined how big it would become, and what a real difference it would make in the lives of artists,” said John Burghardt, Rebecca’s father. “Rebecca would be so proud of her legacy, and the way in which Touched By Fire helps to stamp out the stigma artists with mental illness face every day.”

At the exhibition, a panel of judges will award Best In Show and Best Emerging Artist, sponsored by Perimeter Development. Both awards include a $1,000 prize and a keepsake plaque.

“We’re proud to have supported Touched By Fire for the past five years, and proud of the life-changing event it has become,” said Peter Kahnert, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Raymond James, the presenting sponsor of Touched By Fire. “Supporting the arts is important to Raymond James, as is supporting people living with mood disorders and those who love them.”

Touched By Fire takes place Thursday, December 8, 2011 at Coopers Fine Art Gallery (111 Bathurst Street at Adelaide) in downtown Toronto. Attendance is $10.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.mooddisorders.ca, via phone at 1-888-486-8236 ext. 222, or at the door.

About the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario (www.mooddisorders.ca): Our understanding of depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder is shaped by our lived experiences. The Mood Disorders Association serves individuals and families across Ontario by providing: awareness, education and training; family and youth clinical support; recovery programs; and, peer support.

So if you know me at all, you know I get crushes on various boys pretty easily, especially if they happen to be in the arts in any way. ESPECIALLY if they’re super good or super passionate about something. Then I go mental.

So right now I have this pretty massive crush on Eric Calderone who’s this metal genius on YouTube who does covers of popular songs. And he’s absolutely, drop dead motherfucking gorgeous. Not to be crude (too late) but whenever he posts a new video, I sit there watching and my clitoris literally twitches, it’s the most bizarre thing that’s never happened before.

Now of course I would never act on any of these crushes and if faced with one of them I’d probably embarrass myself by crying or something lame like that, but I would definitely like to be friends with them. Like, internet friends. The way I am with you guys except like…we e-mail dumb shit to each other and stuff. Like I do with other people. Like like like.

But anyway, I love him and here’s some of my favourite Erock videos (yes, he calls himself Erock and yes I think that’s kinda stupid – no offence Eric, I love your nerdy ways):

“Hey guys,

So I had requests for more 80s songs and had requests for classical songs which ended up as a combo. The Mozart parts I used just in case anyone is wondering were Symphony no. 25, Symphony no. 40, and part of his Requiem. There were so many to choose from but I fell upon the ones I thought could work best. Hopefully Mozart’s not rolling in his grave. Thanks so much for the comments, messages, and subs. Once again, you guys amaze me, BIG UPS.

Best to ya

E”

OH SWOON. BE STILL MY BEATING FUCKING HEART OR HOWEVER THAT GOES. *fans self*

Okay I’ll stop, I just fucking love the shit out of him. I want Blake to fly him to Canada to play our anniversary party, if we ever actually have one. (Looks like 10 years ain’t gonna be it, so maybe 15?) But watch the videos, isn’t he beautiful? Don’t you hate him for his ability to grow hair? Cuz I totally do.

Anyway, enough about Mr. Crittenden the Second.

[Insert photo of the elusive Benton here]

So Ben’s not really a boyfriend, by my usual definition because I don’t really have a crush on him, but he is a boy and he’s going to be my goddamn friend if I have to hunt him down and sit on him.

Ben is one of my nurses. He’s 29, from Vancouver and from what I can tell, all he does is work. That means he has no friends here and I swear to Christ, I will take drastic measures to ensure that he has people here because he’s great and it bothers me thinking about him just being alone all the time. But hey, what do I know? Maybe he does have friends here and he just hasn’t told me about them yet. YET.

Anyway, I get excited about the prospect of new friends (I never used to, I’m growing soft in my old age) and Ben is a potential new friend and I’m looking forward to having a little party at our house with Alex and Ronny and Ben and lots of booze.

Speaking of booze, I’m too scared to ask my doctor but with all the drugs I’m on, do you think I could get drunk and not die? I guess I’ll ask her when I see her tomorrow. Honestly, all I want to do these days is be drunk and listen to music and cry. I am so goddamned depressed it’s not even funny. I have S.A.D. pretty majorly and like, I missed the whole summer. I went from winter, to barely any spring, to fall, to winter. There was snow on the ground this morning! This is not good for my mental health!

Blake’s mom and Charlie just bought a house in Florida with an indoor hot tub and pool and all I want to do is go there. I need sunshine. Badly. I want to get this stupid pseudocyst “procedure” done (still haven’t heard from the specialist), have my big surgery, go to Florida with Blake’s parents and the kids (that I have no idea how we’ll afford but I really need it :o( Maybe a Chip In account thing?) and then get my job back. That’s how I want things to go. That’s what I want for my life for the next few months.

I got an e-mail from my boss last week, which is promising. I explained everything to her and offered to work part-time until my big surgery if there was work available, but I haven’t heard anything back. We are so ridiculously broke. :o( The thought of Xmas makes me really upset because I just don’t know how we’re going to afford anything when we’re going into debt EATING. Madison’s said that all she wants for Xmas this year is a $25 iTunes gift card which very well may be the only thing she gets. I don’t know what to get Wes. Then there’s my mom, Phil, Lisa, Raili and Rachael. I just don’t know what to do.

Blake’s getting me Skyrim for Xmas, but I’m getting it on Thursday. We can only afford to get that because he’s going to trade in some of his old games and one of mine (Final Fantasy whatever # came out for PS3 that I hated and barely played). My one year old computer isn’t good enough to play the game so I have to get it on PS3, which sucks (and I know how whiny and privileged that sounded) because I hate consoles, but I really want to play the game so I guess thems the breaks. And these days it’s not like I have anything better to do. I sit on this bed in the living room and refresh Facebook and e-mail every 2 minutes, all day, every day. I haven’t even been creating anything because I just too depressed. I should be working on my sketchbook but I just don’t have it in me right now. If I send it unfinished, I send it unfinished.

So that’s life at the moment.

PS. My hair’s falling out at an alarming rate and if I lose much more, I’m just going to shave my head again.

PPS. Water For Elephants was a HORRIBLE movie, but an excellent book. Why is that always the way?

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My father’s father is dying as I type this. He’s in a hospital in Newmarket just…dying. My dad and Lisa went to see him over the weekend but I don’t have any details other than the fact that he’s dying. Just old age, I guess, although I have no idea how old he actually is. The last time I saw him was at Freddie’s funeral which was 3 years ago I think and he seemed just fine then, but I suppose a lot can happen to an old person in 3 years.

I’m assuming the funeral will be at the same church as his wife’s funeral. She died of cancer about 17 years ago. The church is a huge Lutheran thing with nice stained glass windows and I’m betting, like his wife’s funeral, the whole service will be in Finnish.

I refer to them as my father’s parents because I never knew them enough to really call them my grandparents. In case you’re not in the know, I didn’t actually meet my father until I was about 13 years old and contact with him was sketchy until my sister Raili was born when I was 25 and then we kinda became more like a family. However, my dad doesn’t really speak to his father or any of his siblings (there’s a whole bunch of them) so I just don’t really know any of them.

I used to want to know them, badly, and I even tried to teach myself Finnish from a book so my father’s father would be proud of me, but I failed and he’s brought it up every time I’ve seen him since I was 15. My father’s father is kind of a prick, to be perfectly honest.

Anyway, he’s dying and I’m not sure how to feel about that.

“In this mesmerizing debut, a competition between two magicians becomes a star-crossed love story.

 The circus arrives at night, without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within nocturnal black and white striped tents awaits a unique experience, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stand awestruck as a tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and gaze in wonderment at an illusionist performing impossible feats of magic.

 Welcome to Le Cirque des Reves. Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is underway – a contest between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in “a game,” in which each must use their powers of illusion to best the other. Unbeknownst to them, this game is a duel to the death, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.” – from Amazon.ca

I just finished this book and I think it’s fantastic. It’s a VERY easy read (I just have a crappy attention span) and Madison just started reading it last night.

 I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope they make this book into a movie because I want to SEE all of the things described, not just in my own imagination. I think, since the circus is all black and white, that Tim Burton should direct and that Emma Watson (Hermione from Harry Potter) should play Celia Bowen, the main-ish character. Johnny Depp could even play Chandresh, the circus’ proprietor, I wouldn’t mind that.

 If anyone else reads this, I’m curious to see what you might think of a movie made from this book.

This afternoon I tweeted that I was eating salad.
Just now my cousin Haylie called me on it.
“Isn’t that against your food rules?”

Why yes it is.

“Then why were you eating salad in November?”

Because they fed me salad in the hospital.
And it made me poo.
And I need to poo AGAIN, so I ate more today.
Eating salad while watching it snow, I almost couldn’t do it.

So anyway now you know too. :o)