Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I Can Meet the Artist, Get to Know Him Personally- Yadesa Bojia

Remember that Crash Test Dummies Song? I know, I'm really old. That song is so old that I can't even find a link to it.

I thought I'd do some posts about the artists that will be donating their work for our Fundraiser. I thought it might be interesting, whether you can make it in April or not. If there is enough online interest, perhaps we can have some sort of auction pre-bid through the interwebs?

I want to start with Yadesa Bojia. Yaddi commented on this blog years ago. He was (and still is) living in Seattle with his family. He wrote to offer his support and guidance regarding all things Ethiopian. He e-mailed me and told me he was available to help with me with any questions I had. Who does that?

Flash Forward 3 1/2 years, Yaddi is friends with one of my closest friends here in LA. Amy tells Yaddi about the Kambata project, Yaddi becomes my biggest supporter. Yaddi, one of eighteen children in his Ethiopian family (NOT A TYPO!), knows firsthand how important it is to get an education. I am hopeful that he can come to the event in April, and tell everyone his truly remarkable story.

Yaddi has another great story about how he learned that his design was chosen for the Flag of the African Union. He sent in a drawing and then three years later, while watching CNN, saw Kadafi sitting in front of his design.

Yaddi's work was just featured on Marcus Samuelsson's website too.


Yaddi designed our poster.

Yaddi is donating a piece for our auction. I burst into tears when I opened the attachment. It is an incredible painting. Wanna see it?

Ok.

Here it is:
'Nebab'- (means reading)-18x24, Acrylic on Canvas. Starting bid- $1000.**


To say that I am happy about this donation is an huge understatement.

Thank you Yaddi. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is a beautiful, beautiful painting.

**The artist has the only right to reproduce and use for print media or other reproduction rights. According to California Civil Code 982.

11 comments:

  1. Oh my, what a beautiful piece. Truly lovely.

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  2. Oh this auction is going to be a problem for me.

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  3. Amazing.

    I'm all for some sort of on-line auction presence. I won't be able to make it to the event, but I'd love to participate in some way!

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  4. Yaddi & Julie = making dreams come true. I love you both SO MUCH!

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  5. Amazing. Such incredible support.

    You must be getting so excited.

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  6. It is i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e, Julie.
    Yaddi sounds incredible.

    Totally inspiring, all of this.

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  7. Fantastic artwork and what a wonderful project! Thanks for sharing :)

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  8. Amazing, Julie. It's all coming together!

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  9. Love, love, love this.
    And....I still love the Crash Test Dummies! Took my hubby to see them in 1994 in Madison while we were in college there.

    I am so happy to see artist's reaching out in this way. I would love to do the same. My first choice would be to donate and be there in person for the fundraiser....but with 4 little ones right now that just isn't possible. So, please consider my offer to donate a piece of artwork for your fundraiser. My daughter came home 10 months ago from Ethiopia, her given name is Tesfanesh ("you are hope") and I sponsor through Tesfa. Feels like the perfect way to give.

    Here are my websites....www.jenniferrikkers.com
    www.fiddleheadart.com
    blog: www.lifeoftherikkers.com

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  10. I sent you the facebook msg before I read this. I'm supposed to be taking a break from both. It's not working.

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