Finding Home - The Chair Affair second piece

What you can do and have done to help the Community Warehouse!

Message from Roz Babener
Board President- The Community Warehouse

Dear Friends,

In 2009, the Community Warehouse, with your support, helped more than 10,000 of our neighbors live in dignity in their own home. As the only "furniture bank" in the Portland metro area, Community Warehouse is a resource for over 100 social service agencies working to support at risk individuals and families providing a missing piece - the essential household furnishings to help people gain the stability and confidence that will help them move forward with their lives and the lives of their children.

Your generosity cannot be truly appreciated without hearing about a few of those we helped together:
-  A mom and her 2 young children escaping an abuser in another state - now have a furnished apartment and a chance to start over.
-  A family with 3 children who lost their home when the father lost his job. They have been living in their car for months. With a stable home, the children can go to school and the parents can look for work.
-  A homeless vet can be discharged from the hospital because now he has a place to go.

The idea is simple. Household furnishings that you no longer need are a piece of what has made a difference for these families. Thank you for your part in making the Warehouse available in our community.

Roz Babener
Board President

SPECIAL ALERT! WE NEED TWIN AND FULL MATTRESSES

The current wait time for families requesting twin and full mattresses can be up to 2 months. WE NEED BEDS!! -Donate your mattresses -Tell your friends -Donate Funds $40 = matt/box Help us tackle this problem and get more twin and full mattresses into the Warehouse.

Community Warehouse Immediate Needs

-Cooking Utensils -Dishrack Strainers -Measuring Cups -Casserole Dishes -Coffee Makers -Toasters -Wastebaskets We are open to accept donations 7 days a week   10:00-4:00 3969 NE MLK Jr. Blvd Portland, OR 97212 If you would like your donations picked up for a $20 fee please call (503)235-8786

Community Warehouse Garage Sale

Funky Finds, Good Stuff, and more of what you have come to love at our new Garage Sale. Open Sat and Sun 10-4 Right next to Estate Store  For more on the Garage Sale visit our blog

The next step to enjoying the Chair Affair and support The Community Warehouse

The 4th Annual CHAIR AFFAIR+ will be rockin’!!

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  Live auction: trips, beach houses, celebrity cooking…
  
  
  
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  Silent auction featuring the work of 100+ artists creating gallery quality, funky/functional, one-of-a-kind chairs and household items…
  
  
  
• 
  
  Food, Drink, Fun…all supporting the important work of Community Warehouse — providing basic household necessities to those in need.
  
  
  

Date: April 8

Time: 6-9 pm

Location: The Bison Building

What Next?

Buy a Seat: $50 – Click here to purchase individual seats!

Buy a Table for 10: $400 – Click here to purchase a table for ten!

Can't Make It? Please donate! – Click here to make a donation to the Warehouse.

Questions? Contact linda@communitywarehouse.org; 503.206.5244

Another Chair!?!

In the interest of sanity and the spirit of giving, I have decided to contribute a second chair to The Chair Affair. This second chair is entitled "Finding Home". It was actually the working title of my first chair, which eventually took me in another direction, as collaborations with my materials often do, to "Pieces of the Past". This"new" small piece is actually a gathering of things I have made, things I am repurposing, and words I have collected. Pictures to follow....... As I count down 15 days till my wrist fusion surgery I am trying to practice self care, and am trying to recognize and listen to The Sacred Pause. I also recognize that I still have to create space for the creating.

The Chair Affair is Swiftly Approaching!

Jo Grishman

I have seen myself as an artist since childhood, always drawing and creating imaginary worlds, growing up in New York City. My passions for family and nature have been nurtured and blossomed since moving to Portland, where I finally feel at home. I am an artist exploring narrative sculpture combining found objects, text and mixed media. Manipulating the variety of materials is like a dance, as the images emerge and take on a life of their own. Through the process of excavating layers of memory, the story of each piece I create gradually begins to reveal itself to me. It is an unfolding."What a caterpillar sees as the end of the world the butterfly sees as just the beginning".


The 4th Annual CHAIR AFFAIR+ will be rockin’!!

• Live auction: trips, beach houses, celebrity cooking…
  
• Silent auction featuring the work of 100+ artists creating gallery quality, funky/functional, one-of-a-kind chairs and household items…
  
• Food, Drink, Fun…all supporting the important work of Community Warehouse — providing basic household necessities to those in need.
  

Date: April 8

Time: 6-9 pm

Location: TBA

The Chair Affair 2010 Update

Our great event - even better in 2010!

More artists...

Over 100 artists! Look forward to some amazing creations.

More variety...

The + means (re)created chairs and other basic home furnishings.

More food...

In unique Community Warehouse style

CHAIR AFFAIR+

More fun... to meet a greater need!

The 4th Annual event will be the biggest ever with over 100 artists participating! Besides the fantastic one-of-a-kind chairs, look for art made from tables, mirrors and lamps; as well as photography, sculpture and jewelry.

The chairs (et.al.) will be displayed at three locations.  Mario's always does a stunning display of about a dozen chairs in their window. 

P.H. Reed will be showing a window full of art for us again - they also did this last year.  We have arranged to have the rest of the work displayed in the Galleria windows - the space that was occupied by Made in Oregon! 

~  We will have a First Thursday opening on April 1st at these locales. I hope you will all attend! It will be a great way to preview and tempt you with all the wonderful creations that will be part of the Chair Affair auction on April 8th

~ The event will be held at The Bison Building in Northeast Portland.  Take a look we are very excited about this venue!

All art will reflect the work of Community Warehouse - providing basic household necessities to those in need. For those of you in the know, this is the place to be to purchase gallery-quality art that's both functional and funky! All proceeds go directly to Community Warehouse which enables us to continue our work in providing for those who have little-to-nothing.

Information and ticket sales contact:

linda@communitywarehouse.org, or call 503.206.5244

Young@Heart

I ended my evening laughing and crying as I watched the most amazing heart warming, powerful film about living life to the fullest at any age. If you have the chance do not miss the independent film documentary Young@Heart showing on PBS. It is both extremely joyful and very sad but so full of life, love and zest for living that it is a must see. What a perfect way to complete an exhausting rollercoaster emotional day and put life in perspective!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3uOOhm8Fj8&feature=related.

A Change Is Gonna Come!

 Last night at dance, I tried to channel all my anxiety and stress about today's upcoming Regional Hand Surgeon's Conference by creating through my dance. When the evening was winding down, Winky, in her infinite wisdom played an instrumental version of  the old Sam Cooke song A Change Is Gonna Come. I danced my heart out and through my tears felt the meaning of the words I have come to know over time. They could not have seemed more appropriate for this time in my life. After over three years and two surgeries and a significant effect on the quality of my life and my work, I have hope for the surgery on my wrist on February 10. The team combined their knowledge and experience to come up with a plan of action to fuse my wrist and help me to get on with this wonderful life I have been blessed with. The dance continues to amaze me in the way it mirrors my life. I dance in celebration of new beginnings!

 

A Change Is Gonna Come

(Sam Cooke) (1964)

 

I was born by the river in a little tent

And just like the river, I've been running ever since

It's been a long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come

 

It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die

I don't know what's up there beyond the sky

It's been a long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come

 

I go to the movie, and I go downtown

Somebody keep telling me "Don't hang around"

It's been a long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come

 

Then I go to my brother and I say, "Brother, help me please"

But he winds up knocking me back down on my knees

 

There've been times that I've thought I couldn't last for long

But now I think I'm able to carry on

It's been a long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come

Pieces of The Past

In an attempt to focus on the CAN DO and not on the CANT'S,  I photographed my completed piece for The Chair Affair 2010. She is aptly entitle "Pieces of the Past." I am faced with a cancelled surgical date for my wrist and anxiously awaiting the rescheduled date, to say the least. I am trying to hold it together, leaving pieces of the past behind, moving forward with the new, but with the inability to let go of memories and experiences from the past, be they positive or negative. Memories are something we carry with us. It is not a choice. Creating the chair has been therapeutic for my spirit but painful for my hand. I am glad she is completed. I feel a sense of satisfaction that I was able to complete her and pour my pent up creative juices into her to the best of my ability and to try to accept that being enough. She is, what she is. The chair I began with is old. She feels broken, lost, left behind. The chair is collaged with handmade paper I bought, that reminded me of days gone by, possibly another era, another place. I then used the chair as a place to land. I patched her up, added worn, rusted, found and collected elements. I created an assemblage of things I have found and collected that conjure memory, partly for me and partly for some other fictitious life. There is a sadness about her. She has a sense of completion for me, yet a sense of possibility, of waiting for someone, something, to arrive. 

I sit with her........I sit..........I wait...........I become her..............