Sisters raises its 'Own Two Hands'

With bells and chimes ringing and drums thundering, the Sisters Americana Project students kicked off the 14th annual community arts fundraiser My Own Two Hands (MOTH) on Friday, making their way down Main Avenue holding up the MOTH banner, followed by young artists from the SPRD Community School. This year's event theme was "Imagine." Students from the Grasshoppers and Dragonfly programs celebrated using their imaginations to create art.

Directly following were students of Sisters Elementary School excitedly showing off their colorful wings and "imagination hats." Teaching artist Karen Williams coordinated their projects for this year's parade.

Next up were Sisters Middle School students depicting their creations as what they imagine the world could be with help from fifth-grade teachers Mrs. Young, Mrs. Pledger, and Mrs. Tisdel. And bringing the parade to an exciting grand finale was the Sisters Middle School Marching Band.

The parade is produced by Sisters Folk Festival (SFF), and supports the Americana Project and affiliated programs of SFF.

The Americana Project helps to connect young people to self-expression through the visual and performing arts, guitar-playing, songwriting, recording and performing.

The parade was followed by a town-wide art stroll. Folks came from all around to join in the celebration with Sisters residents as they moseyed through the streets to enjoy the various venues, mingling with artists and musicians and exploring shops and galleries filled with music spread across town.

This year's theme, "Imagine," was exquisitely depicted by Sisters artist Kimry Jelen's painting of a radiant horse that looked as if it would gracefully fly off the canvas on its translucent wings.

Jelen's original was on display at Sisters Gallery & Frame Shop.

"There are two stories that inspired me to paint that horse," she said. "When I was displaying my artwork in France, an artist friend and I watched a beautiful gray Iberian stallion perform, being ridden with just a neck rein, and the rider rode him with about 15 other horses in the ring. The horse that I painted has the spirit of the stallion from France; he was so elegant, graceful and powerful and had such a great partnership with his rider.

"And then when I was a child, my grandfather lived next to an Arabian breeding farm, and when I was 5 or 6 I used to go out and feed a stallion named Galaxy.

I would hang out and talk to him all the time.

One day when nobody was around Galaxy invited me to ride him; he seemed to ask me if I wanted to see where he lived at his paddock.

So I climbed up the fence and got on him.

He walked around with me riding him without a halter or anything, and then brought me back to the exact same spot and he let me get off.

As soon as I got down my dad came flying around the corner and couldn't believe I had ridden that horse.

The face on the horse that I painted is Galaxy; he was so kind and amazing.

So my painting 'Imagine' is made up of all those beautiful moments that I had with those beautiful horses."

After the parade many of the students of the Americana Project performed during the art stroll at Sisters Coffee Co.

Sisters High School music teacher and singer/songwriter Rick Johnson entertained folks during the art stroll playing his acoustic guitar at Sisters Gallery & Frame Shop.

The festivities continued at The Belfry, where the community performing arts evening was held.

The show brought the community together to enjoy an amazing evening of music, with Sisters High School Jazz Choir singing up in the pews of The Belfry, and the Americana Project students performing on stage, along with veteran musicians from the Sisters community.

Following Friday's events, the celebration continued with the My Own Two Hands Art Party and Auction at Ponderosa Forge & Ironworks, which raised over $135,000 to support the varied programs of SFF (see related story page 23). SFF provides significant financial support to budget-strapped schools, assisting in providing visual arts education opportunities, music education and a unique guitar-building program in which students learn a variety of transferable skills, including computer-assisted design (CAD) (see school budget story page 1).