Take a seat, any seat, says Harry Bullen.
Twenty-one Squamish artists recently got out their paint brushes in a fundraiser to help grandmothers on the other side of the planet. Bullen kicked off the initiative last July, collecting chairs to be painted by local creative minds before being auctioned off.
Money from the fundraiser goes toward grandmothers in Africa raising a generation of children orphaned by AIDS. The project is put on by the Greater Van Gogos — the campaign backing the Stephen Lewis Foundation initiative.
“I’m overwhelmed with the response to this,” said Bullen, a local hairdresser.
On Saturday, May 10, the chairs will be up for bid in a silent auction at the West Vancouver Recreation Centre at 2121 Marine Dr. They will be on display from 1 to 5 p.m.
Overall, 80 chairs will be up for grabs. They’ve been completed by artists from the North Shore and Sea to Sky. The multitude of mediums and variety of designs is amazing, said Bullen, who himself created a chair on the theme of the Queen of Hearts. Squamish artist Linda Buchanan transformed an old wooden school desk into the Stawamus Chief with two hikers peering over the edge. Painter Toby Jaxon got inspiration from Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh and adorned her chair with The Starry Night.
The Greater Van Gogos — Gogos is a Zulu word for “grandmother” — have raised more than $1 million to help support grandmothers caring for children in 15 sub-Saharan African countries, stated the organization’s website.
Sixty-nine per cent of the people living globally with HIV reside in Africa, according to a May 2013 report from the United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) organization. Despite recent positive trends, in 2011 there were 1.8 million new HIV infections across the continent and 1.2 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses.
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