Today, I am thrilled to share with you that East Bay Community Foundation has recently awarded me Individual Artist Matching Grant for the amount of $5,000 again this year to create a new painting series “Unity of Symbols and Sacred Words.” These new works will become an artistic endeavor to help audiences understand the common threads across cultural, national and religious lines. I need your help to complete this project.
Over the next year I will create twenty large paintings and six circular Mandalas that use texts and symbols from different faith systems. I will also hold four workshops inviting followers of different faiths to create collaborative paintings to accompany the final exhibition next year at City Limits Gallery in Oakland, California. All of the artwork for the “Unity of Symbols and Sacred Words” exhibition including the sacred texts, twenty paintings, six Mandalas and the collaborative paintings will be published in a fine art full color catalogue.
By June 30th, 2014 I need to raise $5,000 in order to receive my commission – I know you believe in my visual interfaith dialogue and hope I can count on your support in raising the matching funds for this project. If you support raising the matching funds by contributing a minimum of $40 I will send you the catalogue after the project is finished in spring of 2015.
Please send your contribution to:
Salma Arastu,
3 Admiral Drive #354,
Emeryville, CA 94608 .
Or visit my project website www.unityofsacredtextssymbols.homestead.com and donate through Paypal
All project donors will receive a set of Unity-Mandala greeting cards as a token of my appreciation. I hope you will also join me at the community workshops and the exhibition opening! I shall keep you updated on all project related activities.
With warm regards,
Salma Arastu
