Grace - A Thumbprint Portrait, Step by Step....

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:41:54 -0700

Grace is one of my friend Lindsay’s two lovely daughters, and I am about to begin her thumbprint portrait and thought I’d take this opportunity to show the process step by step, for whoever might be interested.....

First, we inked both of her thumbprints and scanned them so that we could see them in detail and decide which one’s pattern would make for a better portrait:

(Her mom selected the right one.)

Then I had the selected thumbprint enlarged at Kinko’s to approximately 24” x 36” in size, hang it on my studio wall and overlay a translucent sheet of engineering vellum of the same size. The enlarged thumbprint printout will serve as my template as I lay down bits of color, image and text from color photocopies of Grace’s selected books onto the vellum, recreating the patterns of her print.

Here is Grace’s selection of favorite books......some with specific pages marked, some without:

Once I had all of Grace’s books (most of which, luckily, her mom was able to bring to me, and then a couple of which I got from the library), I spent a chunk of time at Kinko’s (spending a LOT of time there these days.....I bribe the kids with fun coloring supplies and/or treats to keep them occupied while I do my thing) at the self-serve color copier copying the covers and pages of the books, enlarging here, reducing there, in order to get the most important parts to fit nicely into the 1/4-inch thick strips I later cut them into. Here are some images of the resulting copies, along with the lines marked for when I cut the strips:

A couple of shots of one of the pages cut into strips: And the tools of my trade:

I take each 1/4”-wide strip into tiny snippets, usually about 1/3” - 1/2” long, then tape it down:

My progress so far, end of day Wednesday, April 28th :

Any questions? Feel free to send them my way! My e-mail address is: art@cherylsorg.com. Thanks!

Xavier - traveler, surfer dude, golf freak (oh, and my hubby!)

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:13:34 -0700

While at ArtReach's Silent Auction booth at ArtWalk this weekend, I stood at the front of the booth working on thumbprint portraits so that people may see the process and get a better idea of what the heck those things are made up of. On Sunday, I decided to start one from the beginning, and started hubby's. It is going to be entirely made up of maps of the places he's lived and visited (with a little ocean and golf course thrown in, in keeping with the color scheme, as well as his two great passions in life....).

Thumbprint Portraits - They’re Everywhere!

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:31:23 -0700

Thanks to my mother-in-law, who has been visiting from France and helping (a LOT) to take care of the kids, I have had a very productive couple of weeks - here are a few studio shots of in-process and completed thumbprint portraits!

New Thumbprint Portraits!

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:36:42 -0700

Several new thumbprint portraits completed - here are just a few pics!s

‘Meet Cheryl Sorg’ on The Soapbox

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:23:17 -0700

Thank you, again, Amy Taylor for this lovely interview - lots of great questions from her about my life and my work!

THE SOAPBOX.

San Diego Freeze Project - Saturday, April 17th!

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:16:03 -0700

Here is a fun and completely non-intrusive way to help raise awareness about sex trafficking and hopefully, in the process, moving people to go home and learn more and ultimately joining the modern day abolitionist movement. I hope you'll join us!

The Basic Concept:

For our Freeze Project moment, we would like to draw a couple of hundred people to participate in drawing attention to the problem of sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation. Instead of protesting, we would like to create an experience that is fun, non-intrusive (in your face activism), and inclusive. We believe that we could use “the Freeze” to draw attention in a crowd, which will then be followed up with a brief handout to people with basic facts and information about how they can learn more.

How a Freeze Project Moment Looks:

* Participants show up a designated time and place to assemble and get ready to head to the "Freeze" space.

* Participants will then proceed to the “Freeze” space and blend themselves into a crowd as if they were regulars in that particular environments.

* A cue will be given by the director of the Freeze moment.

* Participants will then stop what they were doing and stay frozen for the next 5 minutes until they receive another cue telling them that the freeze is over.

* Following the freeze, participants will handout a couple of print material each to people observing them (with or without conversation). We're going to have some very cool, creative handouts for people that hopefully will really grab their attention.

* That’s it! Enjoy the rest of the day at the venue where the Freeze takes place.....shop, eat, whatever!

Okay, the details in brief:

12:30 - 1:00 - Pre-Freeze meet-up near the downstairs mall entrance to Bloomingdales. Look for the hot pink signs. Be sure to sign in with your name and e-mail address if you'd like to receive photos from the event, and any (hopefully!) press coverage.

1:00 - 1:15 - Participants move from meet-up spot to the Freeze location (The Freeze will take place in the Food Court, upstairs from the meet-up spot, just past Saks)

1:15 - 1:20 - FREEZE! That's all, just five minutes. Can you do it??!!

1:20 - 1:30 - Hand out print materials to folks, chat them up if you like.

After that, you're free to go!

I will be so, so grateful if you choose to participate, AND spread the word. The more frozen folks we have the greater impact we'll make! I think it will be really fun, and it's for a great cause. Once you know just the littlest bit about what happens to some girls at the hands of traffickers (yes, even right here in the United States, in California, in San Diego......), I don't know who could possibly NOT want to do at least some small thing about it.

Please visit the Facebook page to RSVP.

Thank you so much!!!!

Barrio 9 Blog Post About Valentines for Love146 (as well as me, my lovely little family, depression and art therapy.....)

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:54:37 -0800

Thank you so much to Amy Taylor, the author of Barrio 9: “a blog dedicated to using social media for social good through the promotion of outstanding and exceptional nonprofits, small businesses and entrepreneurs around the world.”

On Valentine’s Day, she posted this piece about my - and others’ - efforts to provide a slew of beautiful valentines for the girls at the Love146 Round Home. There is also some talk about my family, my depression and my coming to the cause of fighting sex trafficking (in however small a way....).

She’ll also be doing a post coming up soon about my work - stay tuned!

To read the ‘Love Bowl’ post, just click the pic below........

Thanks for taking a minute to read it!

The Valentines!

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 13:50:15 -0800

So here they are - the valentines! I think you’ll be impressed at all the work and care and attention everyone put into their creations. I know I am! Thank you again to everyone who came, and to Pannikin for hosting us!

Valentines for the girls at the Love146 Round Home in the Philippines

Sat, 6 Feb 2010 20:07:59 -0800

Such a great turnout, and a wonderful time, making valentines for the girls at the Love146 Round Home. Due to the windy, rainy weather we moved things indoors to the downstairs of Pannikin Coffee & Tea, but neither the weather or tight quarter dampened people's spirits or enthusiasm for the project. We ended up with ...SEVENTY-FOUR valentines!!!! And friends contributed so many great art supplies I may even get together with Rebecca tomorrow and make a few more! PLUS, my mom, across the country in Michigan, made FIFTY all on her own and mailed them! Thank you so, so much to everyone who came and participated. Especially big thanks to my husband, who helped tremendously, and to Kelly and Rebecca who were both there for the duration and made some of the finest of the bunch, AND helped clean up (no small feat). And thank you to Carol, who gave me permission to hold the event at Pannikin! Here are pictures from the event, and I'll post pics again tomorrow, of the actual valentines.

Make Valentines for Survivors

Thu, 4 Feb 2010 11:36:29 -0800

I hope you can join me for this event I’m hosting at Pannikin on 101 in Leucadia, this Saturday afternoon. The pic above shows just some of the fun, cool materials and supplies we’ll have on hand for artmaking!

The first celebrity thumbprint portrait - finally underway! Rebecca Walker - author of Baby Love

Mon, 1 Feb 2010 14:51:22 -0800

I have finally begun the actual making of the first of the celebrity thumbprint portraits! This one is of the extraordinarily talented writer Rebecca Walker, and I am using passages from her book 'Baby Love - Choosing Motherhood after a Lifetime of Ambivalence' (Ladies, moms....a must-read if you haven't yet read it!).... She has a gorgeous thumbprint, yes? AND, though most of the thumbprint portraits are and will be 3x2 feet in size, this one is FOUR TIMES that size - 6x4 feet, with text 1/2-inch tall. I am loving it. Thank you, Rebecca, for graciously agreeing to participate in this project.

Here are a handful of photographs of it in its beginning stages - I will post more as I proceed!

Love Protects. Love Defends. Love Restores. Love Empowers.

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:22:21 -0800

My latest donation from proceeds of the thumbprint portraits is from the commission of a portrait of my cousin Sheila’s son Carver (a kid portrait - my favorite....). She of course gets a big family discount, so the donation amount was just $100, but I am very pleased to report that this one has gone to LOVE146, through their Send a Valentine to a Survivor program, an idea I just love. After you make your donation online, they send you an e-mail through which you can then send your valentine to a girl who has been rescued from sex slavery. Really lovely. Please read the story below, from their web site about where they got their name. I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to resist making your own contribution once you read it......

Love Story - How We Got Our Name

OUR NAME IS HER STORY

"The number pinned to her dress was 146..."

In 2002, the co-founders of Love 146 travelled to South East Asia on an exploratory trip to determine how they could serve in the fight against child sex trafficking. In one experience, a couple of our co-founders were taken undercover with investigators to a brothel, where they witnessed children being sold for sex. This was their experience. This is the story that changed our lives. 

"We found ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room, looking at little girls through a pane of glass. All of the girls wore red dresses with a number pinned to their dress for identification. They sat, blankly watching cartoons on TV. They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left. Their light had been taken from them. These children...raped each night... seven, ten, fifteen times every night. They were so young. Thirteen, eleven… it was hard to tell. Sorrow covered their faces with nothingness. Except one girl. One girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. Her number was 146. She was looking beyond the glass. She was staring out at us, with a piercing gaze. There was still fight left in her eyes. There was still life left in this girl...

"...All of these emotions begin to wreck you. Break you. It is agony. It is aching. It is grief. It is sorrow. The reaction is intuitive, instinctive. It is visceral. It releases a wailing cry inside of you. It elicits gut-level indignation. It is unbearable. I remember wanting to break through the glass. To take her away from that place. To scoop up as many of them as I could into my arms. To take all of them away. I wanted to break through the glass to tell her to keep fighting. To not give up. To tell her that we were coming for her…"

“Because we went in as part of an ongoing, undercover investigation on this particular brothel, we were unable to immediately respond. Evidence had to be collected in order to bring about a raid, and eventually justice on those running the brothel. It is an immensely difficult problem when an immediate response cannot address an emergency. Some time later, there was a raid on this brothel and children were rescued. But the girl who wore #146 was no longer there. We do not know what happened to her, but we will never forget her. She changed the course of all of our lives." -Rob Morris, President and Co-founder

We have taken her number so that we remember why this all started. So that we must tell her story. It is a number that was pinned to one girl, but that represents the millions enslaved. We wear her number with honor, with sorrow, and with a growing hope. Her story can be a different one for so many more.

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO VISIT THE LOVE146 WEB SITE AND SEND YOUR OWN VALENTINE TO A SURVIVOR: