Local Art Scene: Moira and Steveboyyi Art Opening/Fundraiser @ The Red Mug

Tonight at 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. there's an art opening / fundraiser featuring paintings and drawings by Moira Villiard and Steveboyyi Makubuya at the Red Mug Coffeehouse on the corner of Hammond and Broadway in Superior.

Here is the announcement that was sent this weekend:

MOIRA / STEVEBOYYI ART OPENING AND FUNDRAISER

DULUTH, MN - On Tuesday, September 12 artist Moira Villiard will be hosting an art opening, birthday celebration and fundraiser at the Red Mug Coffeehouse in Superior, WI from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Her colorful portraits and surrealism will be displayed alongside artist Steven Boyyi's most recent body of incredible paintings that depict animals and daily living in his home country of Uganda. Prints and original smaller artworks will be available for purchase at the opening and refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public, with 100% of sales of Steveboyyi’s work going towards his medical and living expenses following his denial of reentry into the USA.

Steveboyyi is currently back home in Uganda where he's facing a series of hardships related to his health. He was diagnosed with permanent blindness in one eye as a result of a traumatic injury, and suffers from multiple life-threatening conditions that surfaced in the months after returning from the USA. Despite these ongoing obstacles, his dream continues to be bringing art to children who grew up just like him through Dream of Duluth: A Global Street Outreach Initiative.

About the Artists:

Moira Villiard

Moira Villiard is a young, independent traditional artist, activist, muralist, writer, designer and filmmaker who, by some feat of pluralism, hopes better our community through these niches. She’s known for her live painting demonstrations at cafes, fledgling businesses, event openings, and in classrooms; a major part of her philosophy is making art accessible and interactive. Stylistically, her artwork ebbs and pulls between the realms of portraiture, illustration and surrealism.

She currently works as the Cultural Program Coordinator for AICHO Galleries in Duluth, MN, curating art shows, connecting with native artists, aiding in the development of community outreach strategies, and organizing culture, arts and language-based workshops for both housing residents and artists alike. An established visual artist herself, Villiard's career as a professional painter began with the help that AICHO provided at her first art exhibition 3 years years ago. Since then, she has been featured in over 100 gallery exhibitions, art workshops and demonstrations, and has worked as an event coordinator for a variety of different community institutions. She currently serves as a freelance editor and graphic designer, as well as the Vice Chair for the Executive Board of the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and is a coordinator of the Twin Ports-based variety show, A Goody Night.

In 2014, Moira came down with a chronic pain condition that prevented her from painting with her dominant hand for the next year or so. Towards the end of 2015, she underwent surgery and continued in her recovery until she was able to finally (and carefully) paint again that summer. She is currently working on a series of surreal paintings exploring topics related to commodity fetishism, "infrastructure", data clouds, blackbox technology and other arbitrary systems and concepts that form the invisible backbone of society.

Steveboyyi Makubuya

Stevenboyyi is a young artist from the streets of Kampala, Uganda who dreamed one day he might come to the United States and share his talents with the world. Towards the end of 2016, through both hardship and miracles, he found his way to the U.S. with the help of a local church and on a foundation of his artistic talent.

Steveboyyi doesn't know when he was born (though he picked a birthday of October 12 for himself in his later years). Brought to a children's home at the age of around nine months, he grew up without the knowledge of his name, his parents, birthday, or even the presence of a family. When the orphanage closed its doors, Steven was 17 -- he continued his life back on the streets, relying on his creativity and courage to survive daily obstacles. He cites the rain as his enemy and the birds as his friend during this time.

Steveboyyi had been making art since the age of 13, when the orphanage was visited by a local man who taught the children the core techniques of ironing ginger cloth with wax and painting it with watercolors. He paid attention to the man’s work and tried it for himself, developing the style he uses to this day. At the age of 20, just a few years after the orphanage closed, Steveboyyi began gathering bits of trash from the streets and incorporating it as color in his artwork. Having lived on the peripheral edge of society and in spending so much time on his own, his art became a sort living, breathing, meta-cognitive portrait of everyday life in Kampala.

“I base the pictures on my life and the lives of most of the African children who grow up on street and have talents which can be helped to become better people in the world," says Steveboyyi. Little did he know, his artwork would become a catalyst for bringing people together and enabling healing to take place in their lives.

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Learn more about Moira in this Perfect Duluth Day story.

Read my 2015 interview with Moira Villiard here and here. 

Learn more about the artist Steveboyyi of Uganda.

More about Steveboyyi can be gleaned from this DNT story. 

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Meantime, art goes on all around you. Get into it.

Local Art Scene: Saturday Evening with Steveboyyi @ the AICHO

While driving to Trepanier Hall Saturday evening I privately hoped there would be a good turnout for the art show featuring Steveboyyi Makubuya, the young man temporarily here in the Northland from Africa. As we slowed to find a spot to park on Second Street it was gratifying to see all the parking spaces were taken well into the next block. This would be a good crowd I surmised, and indeed it was.

Entering the hall one was immediately struck by the good vibes and energy. Dozens of drawings and pictures filled the walls with conversations taking place in front of each. The murmurs and chatter were indicative of an unusual level of excitement for this show. A WDIO cameraman filmed from different vantage points in the room as a continuous thread of people filed in. Across the room I could see Kelly McFaul-Solem of CPL Imaging rushing to make a mark on the tag of yet another picture indicating it was sold. A keen eye would have observed that numerous other pieces had already been snatched up.

At a certain point Moira (rhymes with Theory) Villiard took the stage and corralled the crowd's attention in order to introduce the young man from Uganda whose artwork was here displayed.

Steveboyyi began by explaining his name and where he came from. When he was found at nine months old and brought to the orphanage in Kampala he had no name and no birth date. Kids called him Street Boy, so it was simple enough to give this a twist. He would be Steve Boyyi. An African last name was adopted and he became Steveboyyi Makubuya.

When it came to filing to get a visa he needed to have a birth date. Imagine if you could choose any day for your birthday. What would you choose? He chose a date that was important to him in October.

Throughout his talk he expressed such joy and natural enthusiasm that the crowd remained fully engaged throughout his storytelling. He shared how when he was seventeen the orphanage closed and he returned to the streets. For more than two years he slept in a tree and fed himself from the dumpsters at a college hear where he made his "home." When he described how the birds were his best friends and the rain was his enemy, everyone laughed.

After his speech the children gathered to hear more stories.

WDIO sent a cameraman to document the event.

It was fortuitous that he should meet some missionary nurses who were serving in Africa. When invited to America to share his art, there were regulations to be overcome. In order to leave Uganda you have to have land and family or you will not be issued papers. These rules were set aside when he showed his art.

Tim Turk, one of the nurses who assisted in bringing him to Northern Minnesota, would tell Steveboyyi and other young people there what snow was like. "In Uganda," Steveboyyi said, "People don't believe snow exists." And with a very big smile he exclaimed, "I really love snow!"

He told another very funny story. So many things here were new to Steveboyyi, and on one occasion when they came out of a store after shopping he saw a dog in the driver's seat of a car in the parking lot with its front paws up on the steering wheel. Tim Turk told Steveboyyi that in America even the dogs can drive. The young artist said it took him three weeks to learn that this was not true.

In addition to original artwork there were also reproductions available.

The beginning of what will hopefully be a long friendship.

He closed by telling us of his deep gratitude for all the people who have helped him, and reminding us that we should be grateful for all that we have. There are so many kids on the streets in Uganda who have nothing.

You can read more of Steveboyyi's story in my previous blog post and in Christa Lawler's March 2 DNT account.

A quick shout out to Michelle LeBeau, AICHO Director, who has helped bring so many really special events to this facility. Though she keeps the spotlight on the performers, poets, writers and artists, she deserves to be recognized for her role in making these events happen. Thank you, Michelle. You are making a good contribution to our community.

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To see more of Steven Boyyi's paintings and drawings, visit this page at Jeff Frey Photography/CPL Imaging.

Throwback Thursday: Art and Sacrifice

"The study of writing, like the study of classical piano, is not practical but aristocratic. If one is born rich, one can easily afford to be an artist; if not, one has to afford one's art by sacrifice." ~John Gardner, On Becoming a Novelist

It's the end of another fast week and one wonders where the time goes. Two blinks ago it was Monday. As Job once lamented, "My days are faster than a weaver's shuttle," an image probably lost on many here in the modern/post-modern Western world.

The other day I contemplated how life might be different if we had thirty hours in a day instead of twenty-four. Would we sleep more? Or would we continue to burn the candle at both ends and still try to get by on four hours sleep?

It's a given that whatever the length of a day, we're all pretty much allotted the same. How we choose to allocate our time is pretty much up to us.

Gardner's quote indicates that accomplishment involves sacrifice. This does not mean all sacrifices are good ones. Peter Lynch, in his book One Up On Wall Street, stated with regret that the price he paid for his achievements managing the Magellan Fund were at the expense of his family. To his great regret, he missed out on several key years in his daughters' lives in their early teens and wishes he could re-do those time-allocation decisions.

Sacrificing television is one way to buy more time if you are a writer, artist or musician. Chopin was never distracted by Dancing with the Stars, and look what the child prodigy Mozart achieved by skipping Saturday morning cartoons. Asimov wrote over 300 books. My guess is that he never did a lot of golfing.

In his book The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker emphasizes in an early chapter that time is a unique resource. "The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up.... Time, therefore, is always in exceedingly short supply."

Napoleon placed a high value on time. "I may lose a battle but I shall never lose a minute," he once exclaimed. He said that for a general, strategy is how we make use of time and space, however, "space we can recover, time never."

Few of us do "nothing" with our time. Even if it is only people watching with friends, that's something. But if we are to become writers, artists, musicians, or bloggers, decisions need to be made. To add something new into our daily regimen means pushing something else out onto the back porch.

Ultimately, we each decide what is important to us. Too often we're over-concerned about the approval of family and peers. What's really important to your heart? What are you really all about? Don't sacrifice that.

Henry Ward Beecher wrote, "In this world it is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich." Just so we don't give up our souls.

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THE WEEK AHEAD  (This section is in the present, March 2017)
Today, 5-7 p.m. kicks off Youth Art Month. The DAI is sponsoring an event at the Whole Foods Coop on Typography. Details Here.

Also tonight at 5-7 p.m., Opening Receptionat the Red Herring Lounge for an exhibition of large format photos by K. Praslowicz titled Broken Duluth and featuring images from Duluth's 2012 flood.

Saturday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. Wine Beginnings at 1413 Tower Avenue in Superior will be hosting their Spring Wine Tasting in conjunction with an open house for Art on the Planet, with whom they share a building. Recommended: Park in the back.

Also Saturday, the show I have been most desirous to see: Steveboyyi Makubuya at the AICHO Galleries, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Read Christa Lawler's story about this young man from Uganda in today's DNT. I first interviewed Steveboyyi in January, which you can read here. The reception will be at Trepanier Hall, the former YWCA at 202 West Second Street.

Meantime, art goes on all around you. Check out the new shows at Pizza Luce, Red Mug and Beaners. And support these artist spaces by purchasing a little java, juice or bite to eat.

See you there.