This past Saturday I took part in an Art Benefit for Walnut Place.  Months of preparation, dozens of volunteers, artists, designers, bakers, vendors and residents helped to make this benefit a huge success!! We raised over $7,500 to renovate the community space at Walnut Place!! Over the past few months I’ve been helping out with the marketing team, in addition to donating a few of my fine art prints and a lifestyle portrait session.  I was thrilled with the out come of the event and was so excited to be a part of something bigger than myself…giving back to the community.  Learn more about the event by viewing and reading the segment below!
There were 85 pieces of art donated. I was overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of the pieces donated! I scored some beautiful pieces during the silent auction 
 I’ve already hung a few pieces in my home too! Here is Shauna, who did a phenomenal job co-organizing the event!!
Here are the master design divas, Brittany and Emily who created all of the promotional material for the event. They did an incredible job!
Here is Leslie on the L, she was an awesome hostess and helped coordinate all the baked goods, coffee and drinks. She was a huge help! On R is Kristen, with the other Shauna (whom helped co-coordinate the entire event) with her husband Ray.
Zeph is so much fun to hang out with…we were chillen at a BBQ the night before and he was rather intrigued with my necklace. Here he is getting a kiss 
Here I am next to a few of my fine art holga prints that were auctioned off…a special thanks to Erica and Ray who were the lucky recipients of the pieces.  Ray also took this photo.
Here is Jonathan (L) who designed the website, and also donated some sweet fine art prints, talking to Brad, the pastor of Origins Community, one of the three communities who helped put on {re}novare.
Some of the residents made and donated work to be auctioned off, unfortunately the piece on the left, which was my ALL TIME FAVORITE piece (no lie) was not for sale! I was so bummed, because I think this piece is genius. It reminds me of the folk artists that I studied in art school. These people were outside artist, with no formal training that created similar pieces to this one, “First Day out of Jail”. It featured one of the residents and his dog, who apparently was just rescued from the pound when this photo was taken.
Here is Kristie, one of my favorite residents. I met her the first time I ever visited the Walnut Place,which was for a Chile Cook. She showed me photographs of each of her family members, we talked about music and laughed together. Here she is with a T-shirt, featuring her whole family.
She really enjoyed having her photograph taken…I love this portrait of her.  She also made some really cool pieces for the benefit, here is one featured on the R.  One of the coolest things about being a part of this was not only meeting the resident, but having people purchase their art too. I was fortunate enough to also be collecting money for the silent auction, and people were so excited to find out that the pieces they bid on were created by the residents.  I too felt special, as I purchased several of their pieces. My hope is that when I look around my house and see the work ordaining the walls, that I won’t be consumed by being the next best, and greatest rock star photographer, but that I would be driven to help with events like these that truly create a place where people’s lives can be changed.  If you get a chance to participate or contribute to an event like this, I would highly recommend it! If you’re interested in helping with the renovation on May 31st, please contact Shauna at shaunalott@mac.com
Thanks to everyone who volunteered and purchased art work! I’m tentatively planning a party for everyone who participated on June 7th, so mark your calenders!
Here were some of my favorites from their session.
