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Pray for peace
Love unconditionally...
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Here's the latest and the not so latest too!
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It's been a busy summer so far and that has kept me from having a presence here. While uploading a new blog today I realized how long it's been since the one prior. New blogs form in my head nearly every day, but they don't always find their way to post. You can read the newest here.
Summer highlights so far...
- Most recently we had a wonderful, albeit brief, vacation in Canada at our friend's cottage near Goderich. While we were there we attended an excellent play, "Against The Grain", at the Blyth Theatre Festival. The production was amazing and very well done.
- The Farmington Hills concert was rained indoors, but the crowd found their way from Heritage Park to the Costick Center and we had a splendid evening. (There's a beautiful new stage at Heritage Park that I hope to make use of next summer when the weather allows!)
- Young Scholars Institute. We teach there for two weeks every June. I teach paper making, a larger than life portrait drawing class, and this year, offered a new paper crafts class. We made all sorts of unlikely things out of paper (shoes, furniture, games). It was a fun class and the students seemed to enjoy it. Here's a pic of the portrait class. (The large piece was a class warm up project. They didn't know who they were drawing or what the photo looked like until all the pieces were assembled.)
- I've also been busy in my studios writing music and painting "heads". It seems these two activities compliment each other well. Chris booked another combination concert and gallery showing in Blytheville, Arkansas. Check out my tour schedule for the details. As I understand it, my paintings will hang for a month. The concert is in October and they want the paintings up in September to help promote the performance. We've been calling my collection of "heads" (so far exhibited at the Williamston Theatre in Williamston, MI, and the Lansing Art Gallery in Lansing, MI), "All Kinds of Kinds". It's named after the Don Henry song included on my Breath By Breath CD. As many of you well know, the song is a part of my grown up concert. I have new paintings that will be included in the AR exhibit.
- Speaking of painting, It won't be long before the 2009 Kanuga Watercolor Workshop brochures will appear. This week long workshop in Hendersonville, NC happens every Spring. Painters (of ALL levels!) gather in a magnificent setting and paint every day (with their chosen instructor). The experience is wonderful, inspiring, challenging, amazing, and all things good! I wrote about it in a couple of blogs. (Check them out at myspace.) If you're interested in participating in this amazing experience next year, be sure to sign up EARLY. The classes fill very quickly. (Brochures usually ship in August.)
- You can also see some of my paintings here. I am now selling my work. Let me know if there is a painting you're interested in. (Some are already sold or spoken for.) Another thing still on my 'to do' list is to update that page (and the BBHpaints website!) with the paintings (old and new!) that are available and their prices. (It's hard for me to get that job done when I'd rather spend the time painting!)
I have some great venues coming up this month and next, including the Chautauqua Institution, and Aten's Barn. Please check my tour schedule to see where I'll be performing in the months ahead. As always, I hope I'm coming to a town near you. If not, let me know of a venue in your area and we'll see what we can do to book it!
I wish you joy and all the very best this beautiful season has to offer,
For those of you who haven't been here for ages or maybe this is your first visit, here's some news of the past....
The Arts in Education benefit concert in February was a wonderful success! Mark Mehaffey, my painting guru, has a scholarship fund designed to assist students who wish to further their art education. Mark and I joined with the Lansing Art Gallery and the Performing Arts Department at Lansing Community College to present a benefit concert at Dart Auditorium in Lansing. Josh White Jr. (my music guru) showed up with Cliff Gracey and Jack Hamilton, all gifted musician friends. I lured them up on stage and the four of us sang a couple songs together. It was very unrehearsed and a lot of fun. I think we show great potential! (grin)
The Lansing Art Gallery displayed some of my paintings throughout the week and held an afterglow reception following the concert. It too was a delightful success. We gave away a couple hundred of my Portrait CDs to the good folks who attended the afterglow. (All the paintings I had on display at the gallery were portraits! "Heads" are what I most love to paint!)
To all of you who participated in this event, thank you so much!!! Hopefully, this will be the first of many. Considering all the cuts made in our public schools, (art and music are the first to go!), this is a very worthy cause that needs our complete and continued support.
Although we long to return to Thailand, this year we changed our schedule a bit to participate in a humanitarian trip to Central America. We travelled to Nicaragua with about 18 folks organized by Gene Cotton to rehab a school in Managua. Since we've returned home from this life changing experience, our host family there, Corina, Fernando, and 4 year old Mateo, have called us every week, sometimes several times, to keep in touch and say hello. Mateo has decided to learn to speak English so he can talk with us. Last night they called so Mateo could show us what he is learning. He can now count to ten, "One...Two...Three...Four...", and the last thing he said was "I loaf you foravar! One... two... three... ADIOS!!!" He fills my heart to overflowing. There are a few blogs about our adventure posted at myspace, along with assorted photo albums of the experience. (Those of you who have not yet signed up for myspace, what are you waiting for?!)
Ancient History... (Read on, if this is your first time here or you haven't been here in a very long while....)
Thanks to the generosity of our family, friends, and fans who bought CDs, Holiday Cards, and simply donated their hard earned money, we were in Thailand, for the month of January, participating in The Give-Live-Ride Thailand Charity Motorcycle Ride 2007. We were also there to work on the latest construction project, completing a dormitory, at the Children's Garden orphanage following the ride. If you'd like to read a little about our adventure, check out my blog at myspace.com. I've uploaded a few photos there also and promise more as the days progress. You can also still see our pics from our 2005 trip (below and in the archives). I will say, the children have grown since then and there have been some wonderful improvements at the orphanage.
Thailand is a beautiful country, the scenery and the people. There's a reason it's known as "The Land Of Smiles". We've only been home for a couple of days and yet we miss being with our friends in Chiangmai, playing with Abu at Children's Garden, going to the market to buy pomelo and mangosteen, the brilliant sunsets that reflect in the freshly planted rice fields, the glittering Buddhas, the monks in their saffron robes, the water buffalo, the elephants!! We're already planning our return.
Please tell your friends, if they're thankful for the blessings and abundance in their lives, and are looking for a way to "give back", we can offer them a wonderful way to give and live throughout the year! There are a couple ways you can help us raise additional funds to help the wonderful kids at Children's Garden!
An autographed BBH CD makes a lovely gift! We also have the perfect CDs for brand new babies and their siblings. I have different "package deals" available to save you on cost. If you want a large quantity of one particular CD, contact me by email and we'll work out a discount for you. Be sure to tell me if you do want the CDs autographed and for whom.
Another way to help is to simply make a tax deductible donation. The money will go directly to the cause and not be devoured by administrative costs.
So my friends, I humbly invite you to assist in our endeavor to raise funds for our efforts in Thailand by donation, and/or by purchasing BBH CDs for your family, friends, neighbors, business associates, cohorts, and anyone else you can think of. Share the gift of music, art, life, and love all year long. Celebrate giving and living!
There is so much need in the world and we all have our special causes. You won't see kids from the Children's Garden orphanage on CNN, but their needs are many, and a little goes a long way over there. Thanks again to all of you who have already given so much for this cause of ours.
I wish you all joy and happiness. Take care of each other and of strangers that cross your life path. If you know someone's story, you will love them.
Peace...
In 2005, we participated in a series of Give and Live Benefit concerts with Scott Jones. The concerts raised some much needed funding for food, shelter, clothing, medical care, and school supplies for orphans in rural Thailand. Scott created Give and Live, the non-profit organization that drew us to Thailand in the first place. As many of you already know, that experience changed our lives.
While in Thailand, we visited the schools of some of these kids, many of whom have been orphaned by AIDS. Their needs are great, and every little bit we give goes a very long way over there. If you were unable to attend one of the benefits, donations are still gratefully accepted and ALL the money will go to help the kids. Go to the Give and Live website, GiveandLive.org, and you will find the information to help you make your donation. Be sure to check out some of the pics of our trip farther down this page and on the photo archive page. (There are photos of the children there too.)
There is enough to go around in this wide world and we are all in this together. No one can do it all, but we all must do what we can. Thank you for keeping your heart open to the possibility of continuing to provide assistance to our global family, even those who are not included in the nightly news.
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I received this wonderful picture of my old friend,
the Martin D-35 I sold to help finance our first trip to Thailand for the Give and Live benefit concert in Chiang Mai.
The caretaker, Grant Peyton is an awesome guitar player.
I'm happy to know my old girl is in good hands!
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My sweet Abu
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We returned from The Land of Smiles enriched, inspired, and in awe. As we anticipated, it was a life changing experience and a breathtaking adventure. Here are a few photos. Click here for more. When we visited two of the schools, Children's Garden and a Hmong school at the top of Doi Sutep, we were greeted by smiling wonderful children and their caregivers.
These kids don't have much, but they welcomed us, included us in their games of tag and dodge ball, shared their dinner of rice and vegetables, and let us "help" them with their homework! (I think we were more of a distraction than a help!) We wanted to bring all of them home with us, especially one little girl whose name is "Oh".
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Dinner at Children's Garden |
Chris & Abu |
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Hmong students on Doi Sutep |
Thanks to the generosity of our friends, family, BBH fans, and Edgehill United Methodist Church, we were able to present Give & Live.org and FERC (Foundation for the Education of Rural Children) with a donation that totaled nearly 20 percent of what the benefit raised. The funds will go right to the children, most of whom have been orphaned by AIDS.
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While in Thailand, we rode a train for 14 hours from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and back again. We toured the north on a motorcycle, visiting a multitude of places including two of our favorites, Pai, and Mae Hong Son. We rode elephants, and saw magnificent mountains, hot springs, an endless array of exotic flora - orchids, papaya, mango, and banana trees, palms of every size and shape. We ate fruits and vegetables whose names I'm learning to pronounce, and slept in one room bungalows made of woven bamboo with thatched roofs.
We saw herds of goats and cows wandering free along the road, the tinkling bells around their necks making a joyful noise with each step. The ubiquitous roosters that crow ANY hour of the day or night. Dogs sleep in the middle of the road. Cats curl up on the rainbows of displayed wares in the many markets along the way.
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There's so much more to tell. And then there are the 3,000 pictures we took! (I wish I could post them all! I will post more on the archive page soon.) Check out Scott's web site for some funny insight on this grand land. Sawatdee! enjoy....
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PHOTO ARCHIVE
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©2005 Dakota Records ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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