Erika, me and Jen
Elizabeth and me
Life is a Spiral -http://www.mintmuseum.org/happenings/396/artist-s-talk-alice-ballard
The topic for my talk, Life is a Spiral, was supported by a warm and wonderful group of family members, old friends and new friends, all spiraling back to the Mint Museum to help me tell my story and remind us all how extraordinary life is! This morning, Cheryl Palmer, Curator of Education at the Mint and close friend for some 35 years emailed and commented on how amazing it was to look out into an audience filled with so many unexpected family, old and new friends! She said about the experience, "I hope it felt like a giant hug". What a lovely way to put it! It was like we were all embraced by the spiral of the experience and the feeling was mighty special.
I need to extend a huge thank you to my son Ryan Munn who was instrumental in helping with technology I needed to put the talk together and then did all the fine tuning at the end to make sure the images were at their best. Having Ryan, Jen and Erica in the front row of the audience rooting me on was great. Having Ryan share the podium with me at the end to talk about how the "Bud" and "Bulb" came to be part of the Mint's permanent collection was the absolute perfect way to create another type of closure for both of us as we invited everyone to visit these two pieces in "The Allure of Flowers" exhibition currently at the Mint.
Support for the Power Point aspect of the talk was also made possible by Karen Polstra at CCES, where I teach Middle School art 2 days a week. Many other folks who are friends and colleagues were also a support because they were aware of the emotional content of this talk and stood behind me like cheerleaders. Lucky me to have all that support!
At brunch before the talk, I was telling everyone about all the help and moral support I had received in order to put my first Power Point presentation together. I said I couldn't help but think about the saying that "it takes a village to raise a child." In fact, it felt like I had entire village of family and friends cheering me on and making my talk possible!
Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart. Alice
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