Email Newsletter
Facebook
Twitter
RSS Feed
Kristina Laurendi Havens, artist
Have you ever been absolutely amazed at how individuals who have never personally met can join together to make something BIG happen? This is one of those stories. And their collaboration has grown into a significant global effort.
Woodstock artist Kristina Laurendi Havens has been a follower of Salt Lake City’s Heather Armstrong’s blog, Dooce. When Dooce – or as she most appreciates being called, Wondrous Being of Light and Splendor – wrote about her journey to Bangladesh with the charity Every Mother Counts, Kristina was inspired to act.
THE NEED: Every 90 seconds, a woman dies from childbirth. Fully 90% of those deaths are preventable. The Aid organization Every Mother Counts is training midwives in Afghanistan, opening health clinics in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and shipping unused medical supplies to South Sudan.
These are tangible, practical projects designed to combat maternal mortality and injuries worldwide.
THE BIRTH OF A BENEFIT AUCTION OF ARTWORKS: When Kristina asked Heather if she could paint some of her photographs from the journey, auction them off, and use the proceeds for the Team Every Mother Counts’ NYC Marathon fundraiser, Heather happily agreed.
As Kristina says in her blog… I spent many restless nights running her photos thru my head, dreaming of ways to translate her photos into paintings… it made me realize and appreciate how lucky I was before, during, and after my two pregnancies.
Kristina painted five of Heather’s photographs and posted them to the Auction tab of the website Daily Paintworks. Other artists asked if they could participate. Many at the Daily Paintworks community wanted to help, too. Today, there are 55 one of a kind, original works of art you can bid on, starting at $25, with almost every penny of the proceeds going straight to Every Mother Counts projects.
The theme of the Auction is Mom, and the works are objects or people – her favorite necklace, favorite food, perhaps even more whimsical like a big pot and little pot, a mother and child, etc.
Would you please click through the highlighted links in this post, starting with the pictures of Heather’s trip to Bangladesh, and ending at the Daily Paintworks Every Mother Counts auction site? Bid on the artworks that mean the most to you. Then come back tomorrow and re-bid, if someone has chimed in. Your contribution will help to save mothers’ lives!
Kristina Laurendi Havens shares studio & gallery space at Ann Litrel Art, 8594 Main St, 2nd Floor, above Outspokin’ Bicycles in downtown Woodstock Georgia.
[...] Artist Ann Litrel, some years ago, shared with me the vision for the Elm Street Cultural Arts Village, so I’ve been aware of a downtown transformation in the works. And when I went to Ann’s studio, unannounced, one afternoon, I was enthralled with Ann’s studio mate Kristina Laurendi Havens’ participation in creating a worldwide benefit auction for Every Mother Counts. [...]