WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:00.160 Okay. 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:09.359 I wanted to speak in the sanctuary because I consider my project a spiritual project. 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:13.359 And so I wanted that energy here. 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:25.440 So as I talk about it, and you go back and visit the images that you carry with you your heart as you look at the images. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:31.440 And as an artist, I am so delighted to be here. 00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:40.159 And my photography and human rights project for women, our sister's keeper, is here for three months. 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:48.240 And thank you to Reverend Stone for having me here and for the volunteers who helped. 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:50.479 Sean was one of them. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:57.679 It really made putting the exhibit up very easy, and we got done in record time. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:05.599 I've been photographing women in underdeveloped regions about 10 years. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:11.599 And I was initially drawn to these women as a textile artist. 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:37.519 I've been doing textiles for about 30 years and weaving and stitching, and I wanted to go see the cultures in which women were still doing these handmade garments and beads and all of the adornment for their bodies because I felt that over time that was going to disappear. 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:53.439 So the more time I spent with these women in various countries, I've been to 62 countries for this project and other photography over the last 10 years. 00:01:54.319 --> 00:01:58.799 The more time I spent with them, the more I saw their lives. 00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:08.479 And I'm amazed at the beauty and the resilience and the strength that women have all over the world. 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:15.840 They care for their families, they do all of the work that brings the family together. 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:26.400 And in Africa, in the Maasai, the women build their houses, and the men are out tending the cattle, but the women do all the work. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:34.719 So, and they make these amazing beaded necklaces, and they wear them every day. 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:51.439 It's not just for tourists because you can go into a Maasai village anytime and see these beautiful garments that they wear as well as their big necklaces that they've made. 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:13.759 And I did a lot of research on human rights abuses for women, and found out that for so many, human rights do not exist. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:25.840 They don't have access to education for the most part, very little health care, physical abuse, early marriages, sex trafficking. 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:28.080 The list goes on and on. 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:32.560 And I have a few statistics that I want to share with you. 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:37.759 And it's staggering about being born a female. 00:03:50.960 --> 00:03:52.479 They want boys. 00:03:53.759 --> 00:04:01.439 That's a huge amount of human life, of creativity that just will never be here. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:09.439 Three million girls a year, mostly in Africa, are being genitally mutilated. 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:17.199 Three out of four war fatalities are women and children. 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:27.680 So you think about Syria today, you think about Yemen and its children and women who are suffering the most. 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:37.439 77 million girls worldwide do not go to school, and one out of three women in the U.S. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:42.240 will experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner. 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:44.480 That just floored me. 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:56.399 But it exists, it's with us, it's in our families, and uh I know bringing awareness is so critical. 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:02.240 Sixteen million women and girls are victims of human trafficking. 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:12.000 With these statistics, how could I ignore and turn away from the issue of human rights for women and girls? 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:13.360 I just couldn't. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:36.879 So that brought my project to my heart, and I went to develop a special project called Our Sisters Keeper and photograph the women in their daily activities. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:46.000 I don't do setup photography, and I put a book together that's called Adornment. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:48.000 That was my first book. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:55.199 And it was the beginning of showing the beauty and strength of women and writing about their life challenges. 00:05:55.759 --> 00:06:05.680 I began searching for pathways where I could display my project in images and educate those that were willing to listen. 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:21.839 I found out that President Jimmy Carter had just published a book called A Call to Action, and he also was putting together a forum for women, and he's done such marvelous work throughout the world. 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:31.360 I said, I've got to get my work to Jimmy Carter and see if I can be in his museum as an exhibit. 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:48.879 And it was amazing that he sent me a copy of his book back, signed it, and had invited me to show my project for three months at the Carter Museum, which when I found out it just kind of panicked me. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:57.360 I thought, oh my gosh, this is so big and such a wonderful place, but it was my first start with the exhibit. 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:01.360 So it was just such a special time. 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:05.279 I'd like to read a quote from President Carter. 00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:17.120 He says, there's a system of discrimination extending far beyond any small geographical region to the entire globe. 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:32.079 It touches every nation, perpetuating and expanding the trafficking in human slaves, body mutilation, and even legitimized murder on a massive scale. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:39.839 This system is based on the presumption that men and boys are superior to women and girls. 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:44.720 He goes on to talk about the misuse of power. 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:53.199 I just want to think about that. 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:55.199 The misuse of power. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:58.399 And think about our world today. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:24.079 And I have a book that was supposed to be here but didn't arrive. 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:26.560 So it will be here next week. 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:32.799 And all the proceeds, 100%, go to the project for girls. 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:34.320 Days for girls, yeah. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:36.000 Days for girls. 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:45.919 And so I will sign books in and put them in the mail, and so hopefully you all can raise funds for that project. 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:53.759 So I want to share a little story about the Gambaga witch camp in uh Ghana, West Africa. 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:58.240 Because I think some of you have asked me about the witch camp. 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:02.879 A little background before I share the travel story. 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:26.000 In many parts of Africa, voodoo is the religion, and it's very much based on ancient superstitions, ancestral worship, so forth, and many primitive ways of dealing with life in particularly the northern part of Ghana in small villages. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:33.360 So one such problem is witchcraft. 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:54.799 And when you think about the economy in a small village in a dried area in the middle of nowhere, when people are no longer productive, then some way the village feels that they're a burden. 00:09:55.200 --> 00:10:03.919 And in many cases, women are accused of being a witch, particularly older women and those that might be mentally ill. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:25.120 And so what happens is if Jo Smith comes to the chief of the village and says, I saw Mary on the broomstick last night, and she bothers me every night, and she is in my dreams, and I think she's a witch. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:33.039 So then the woman has to come before the chief and the priest of the village, and they do ceremony. 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:49.279 And in the ceremony, they bring in a chicken, they cut the throat of the chicken, and depending on how that chicken dies, head up, head down, the woman is determined to be a witch or not. 00:10:50.399 --> 00:11:02.080 And so that's a very primitive way to put somebody in jail or ostracized from the community, which is a type of jailing. 00:11:02.399 --> 00:11:13.600 The women used to be murdered 75 to 100 years ago, taken out and murdered, so they were no longer in the village. 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:27.200 But six camps came into existence, and so the large camp in Gambaga is over 200 women who have been placed there for the rest of their lives. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:39.200 And we were going to visit the village, and it would, this is on my second trip to uh the village. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:12:05.360 There were six women photographers, and so the first time that we went, we had taken some money and a few gifts, and uh we tried to give it to the women as we were visiting with them, but the chief's son followed us all around, and we figured the women never got the money or the gifts that we brought. 00:12:05.679 --> 00:12:08.399 So this time we were gonna be really sneaky. 00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:19.360 This was two years after that, and so we drove right to the witch camp, which is part of a larger village, and we thought we're just gonna bypass the chief. 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:23.519 So we're there about 10 or 15 minutes later. 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:27.200 Three men come and they say, What are you doing here? 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:28.720 through an interpreter. 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:32.559 And we said, Well, we're here to visit the women in the witch camps. 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:36.639 He said, You cannot be here without the chief's permission. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:43.919 So you have to get out and uh we'll see if the chief is willing to speak to you. 00:12:44.480 --> 00:12:50.320 So uh we through the interpreter begged and said, Yes, we really want to see the women. 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:59.919 We've been here, uh we bring information and money uh to the village, so uh ask your chief if we can visit. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:11.279 So the interpreter had this long conversation with the chief, and finally, with money, we could come back in two days and visit the women. 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:14.879 So uh that's how our second visit came about. 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:29.600 So we thought we would be really clever and um asked the chief's son if he would honor us with giving the money to the women, and that way uh we were sure what was going to happen. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:44.799 So he was the one who got to distribute the money and the gifts to the women when we came back, and so we had quite a good time photographing, and um we had several hours there to visit with them. 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:55.759 But it's uh interesting how harsh their life is, and when you see the photographs, you'll see the little mud huts that they live in. 00:13:56.399 --> 00:14:10.320 They are fed by they work in the fields, and it's mostly dried corn, and so they're given some portion of that as they uh work in the fields. 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:22.960 So that's kind of their life, and very seldom would they ever leave the village because they would be ostracized in their community and wouldn't be wanted back. 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:33.120 So I hope in viewing the exhibit you'll look at these women and feel the heart. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:47.840 Um that's what I felt when I visited with them, and uh I was very careful about picking out those images that really spoke to me, and I hope they speak to you. 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:57.360 So I'm willing to take any questions you might have, and I'll be here wandering around and open to talking with you. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:10.799 Do these women know how much about another song of life do they know? 00:15:10.879 --> 00:15:14.320 So do they really know that there's another way away? 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:34.159 They would know their village that they came from and the fact that they had a family and they were part of life in that village, but they would not know the greater world like Accra, which is the capital, is quite a ways from the northern part. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:37.039 So they live pretty isolated lives. 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:45.679 So the witch camp is for its services or takes care of women from many villages. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:46.720 Correct. 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:48.399 Okay, in that area. 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:49.120 In that area. 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:51.519 What kind of gifts did you take? 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:52.879 What would they give? 00:15:53.519 --> 00:16:09.600 Shampoo, soaps, uh things that we figured they they wouldn't have, um, mostly money, because they are able to do a little shopping and buy a little jewelry or something that makes their life uh a little more joyous. 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:11.919 Um what else did we take? 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:26.000 Oh, um some medical supplies, um, simple things like maybe uh skin cream, um aspirin, things like that. 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:29.279 Yeah, thank you. 00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:38.399 So whether it's what they should have said so that they can go back to their village that they've been so much back. 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:45.679 They can go back to their village, uh and but that is expensive. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:17:10.400 They have to their family has to pay for the time they've been there, which could be 50, 60 US dollars, which is very unlikely they'd have that money, plus the fact they would have the stigma of having been in the witch camp, and can you trust a woman who has been, quote, a witch? 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:14.160 So it's it's almost impossible. 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:19.519 But if they have children, and their children are witchcraft with them, or are they separated from their children? 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:21.680 There there's two things. 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:26.640 They have children they can bring with them, or they have visitation. 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:32.960 And it was hard to tell um in which cases they were visitation. 00:17:33.039 --> 00:17:55.839 I think with the older women it that would be grandmothers, uh the children that were there were uh visitations, and also from the larger um community of Gumbaga, there's children in that community, so they they do come over into the camp once in a while. 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:05.279 What is their perception of you, photography, cameras, and the people living outside? 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:12.480 How did you make that i I I think it was mixed. 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:27.759 Uh for the most part they were really happy because we brought things for them and um we were smiling and you know we uh had them um do what they normally do. 00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:42.160 I mean we didn't set them up, but the interpreter said that we wanted to show their um strength and so forth to our friends back in the United States, which they probably had no idea what that was. 00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:44.880 But um they were happy. 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:56.799 There were a few that seemed to be very within themselves and kind of didn't have eye contact, so uh for the most part they were happy. 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:08.079 And we did notice that a couple of English uh NGOs, non-governmental organizations uh did some uh work with them. 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:17.200 They built chicken coops and a few other things, so there are some resources uh that come in from England into there. 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:49.359 And that's very observant, thank you. 00:19:49.599 --> 00:19:54.240 Um how friendly India was all over. 00:19:54.400 --> 00:20:01.039 I've probably been all over India, but most of these are from Gujarat area, northern India. 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:10.079 They were very open because normally I'll ask, can I can we take your photograph and just spend some time with them? 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:15.759 And I never had any woman say no, go away. 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:22.559 But on the Gold Coast of Ghana, it was very cold. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:39.279 There was still the feeling of slavery from 200 years ago, that memory there, so it was it was guarded, it was um not receptive in a sense. 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:48.160 Uh when you got back to the uh northern part of Ghana, away from the coast, it was fine. 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:51.039 They didn't mind having their photographs taken. 00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:56.160 So it was a definite cultural thing. 00:20:56.400 --> 00:21:02.240 Being uh Caucasian women was not a real popular thing. 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:11.200 So I think that's um hopefully for India. 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:19.119 Uh we had scheduled um a trip this year, and then my husband got ill, but he's fine now, so hopefully we'll go back. 00:21:19.359 --> 00:21:24.319 Um but not probably to Ghana. 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:37.680 So um do you travel with the same usually I I don't travel alone, that's one thing I won't do. 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:45.680 Um mostly my husband is with me, although he did not go to the West Africa countries that I've been to. 00:21:45.839 --> 00:21:55.279 Uh and there's a group of uh six women photographers that uh I would go with uh several times to those areas. 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:59.680 So um I try and find um a place. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:07.279 Where I feel I want to photograph and then see if there's some photographers who are willing to go. 00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:10.799 So it's a group activity. 00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:12.400 It feels safer that way. 00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:18.079 So when you think of landslide, did you know about the virtual camp of the morning or did you stumble upon it? 00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:26.480 There's a book called Spellbound that one of my friends came across, and it's about the witch camps in Ghana. 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:29.599 So that's where we first learned about it. 00:22:30.319 --> 00:22:36.240 And very few photographers or people have been there. 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:38.799 So we made an effort to get there. 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:49.920 It's difficult because it's the roads are, I mean, potholes like this, and you know, after the rains, it's all dirt roads. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:58.240 So it it took quite a while to get out to the village where the witch camp was, so it's off the beaten track. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:01.599 But we found out about it through the book. 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:22.319 And I believe the woman who wrote the book was there on a trip with the church group and spent some time really uh investigating the village and and then wrote about it. 00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:23.839 She's from Canada. 00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:49.119 Well all of your work really accentuates color and um you know the human connection in some ways, beauty, uh, instead of really um instead of you know instead of showing how awful living conditions are, which is another way of doing photojournalism. 00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:55.359 So would you say more about your perspective and and you know sort of why you you're angry with this? 00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:14.079 Well, behind it all, um I feel like I'm a joyous person and I feel that there's dignity in all humans, no matter what their circumstance in life is. 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:18.160 So I bring that personal orientation with me. 00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:26.400 And I'm also a textile artist, so I do a lot of work with color. 00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:36.720 And um I started, I think I'm probably mentioned it, I I started by wanting to see the work that the women did. 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:57.519 So the beauty of what they produce and just seeing the smiles on their face, or if they're intense, at least a feeling that their life is challenging, and um I honor that. 00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:20.960 So I I really don't want to show the ugliness because we all know that it's there, we need to know about what happens, but I'm trying to uplift these women, and so I pray for them, I um give them honor by the photography that I do. 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:28.480 You've done that because some of those faces are the most known faces I've seen in a long time. 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:30.160 Oh, thank you. 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:35.279 I uh do a special treatment of the images. 00:25:35.440 --> 00:25:38.160 They aren't just straight out of the camera. 00:25:39.519 --> 00:26:11.680 I I do this probably doesn't make sense to a lot of you, but I do layering, so I'll do a black and white and then a full color, and I'll merge them and then come out with the uh right feeling for that image so that it mutes the color because somehow just bright colors doesn't quite get across the point of uh the human rights. 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:15.759 So um it's interpretive. 00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:33.599 Is there an opportunity for the understanding of similar to it to develop any kind of bad college industry that they can exploit their artistic connection? 00:26:34.240 --> 00:26:35.759 Not in Ghana. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:43.599 Um, they're they're pretty much just there and do the field work. 00:26:44.400 --> 00:26:58.559 The women, Maya women in Chiapas, Mexico, and Guatemala make their money, they're spending money for their children to educate their children for the most part, from their textiles. 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:43.119 So Mayan culture has a whole many thousand-year tradition of weaving, and it's passed down through the matriarchal side of the family, and unless a daughter has no mother because the daughter, the mother has died, she learns from age eight or nine how to weave, and then she can make weavings and either sell in a co-op, or many of them sell on the street or in a shop, and they make enough money to put their children through through school, even though it's pinching pennies. 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:45.359 But yes, in that case they can. 00:27:45.519 --> 00:27:57.920 And the Maasai women, which aren't in this exhibit, but I've spent a lot of time with them, do the bead work not only for themselves, but for the tourist industry. 00:27:58.559 --> 00:28:01.279 So that helps make money there. 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:04.960 So, yes. 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:17.200 It struck me in looking at your photographs that even in their living condition, which we would consider poverty, they must have a certain amount of dignity. 00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:22.559 There was not a piece of litter on any street in any one of those photographs. 00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:24.799 Everything was clean. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:28.319 That isn't always the case. 00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:34.880 Um there's there's a lot of of litter. 00:28:35.440 --> 00:28:40.160 I try and not take pictures with the litter in it, but you know. 00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:54.480 Um the streets, how do I say this? 00:28:55.039 --> 00:29:08.960 Like in um Chiapas, Mexico, in the village area, for the most part they're fairly clean because there's a lot of pride there. 00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:19.839 Uh in Ghana, in the coast, no, it was pretty littered, particularly in the fish market and some of the markets that and in India also. 00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:25.680 Um but it it just really depends, I think, on the village. 00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:32.640 And and the Maasai women are good at keeping their camp clean. 00:29:33.680 --> 00:29:36.480 Most of the paper goes on their house. 00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:44.160 So they it plastic and whatever they can find, a cardboard to make their hut. 00:29:45.279 --> 00:29:45.599 Yes. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:47.599 Are we still doing textile art? 00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:51.519 And what impact is this trial and you sort of have that? 00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:54.319 Yes, I am still doing textile art. 00:29:54.880 --> 00:30:00.079 And um what impact? 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:14.160 I don't really know other than um a visual sense of color and sometimes in pattern. 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:20.640 Um I'll pick up something and and do it in my textile work. 00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:29.359 But um I find that it's it's hard when I'm really intense into a project like the women's project. 00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:43.839 I don't do a lot of textiles because my I have to shift my whole uh uh I guess world of thinking from um photographs into um textiles. 00:30:44.079 --> 00:30:49.359 So um at this point I would say there's not a lot of crossover. 00:30:50.960 --> 00:31:02.400 I disagree with that because if you layer like you're talking about the photographs and look like that, that's like leading a little bit at a time. 00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:03.440 Yes. 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:25.200 Well, I love to do the artistic part of Photoshop and working with the images, so that's I I I still continue doing the artistic part, but putting my hands on uh dyes and uh yarns and threads, I I haven't done any big projects. 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:28.880 I oh I did some Japanese dyeing project, yeah. 00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:36.640 But I I just dabble in that when I'm really heavily into my photography. 00:31:36.960 --> 00:31:40.000 So I I kind of switch back and forth. 00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:43.599 And I'm going to be doing a lot of textiles this summer. 00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:47.920 So it's kind of a shift that way. 00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:49.200 Sorry. 00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:51.920 Any other questions? 00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:52.799 Yes. 00:31:55.759 --> 00:31:58.000 No, and I don't think I want to go. 00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:17.279 Um to try and and photograph women in covered circas, and no, it's not safe and um it's very much frowned upon. 00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:21.759 Um I would not feel safe doing photography of women. 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:37.279 I was in uh United Arab Emirates, and that of course is like a Beverly Hills of the Arab world. 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:45.920 Um and Dubai was fascinating, and we went to all the seven Emirates uh in UAE. 00:32:47.359 --> 00:32:58.400 But I I probably had four or five images of women, uh Muslim women, and that was done on the key team. 00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:06.720 So I found that it was not something that really could be done in the fashion that I I like to photograph. 00:33:06.880 --> 00:33:14.960 There was no uh interchange between the women and myself, so no feeling, I guess, in that. 00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:16.559 What about China? 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:22.640 China, I've been several places in China, and I do have a lot of photographs from China. 00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:28.160 So putting together the exhibit I had to eliminate and just to focus. 00:33:28.400 --> 00:33:40.400 So um I found in the villages in uh China that the women were very open to be photographed, especially the old grandmas. 00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:54.960 But you know, the younger people are wearing jeans and western clothes, so finding the minorities where they're wearing their um traditional garb in China is the grandmas. 00:33:56.319 --> 00:34:09.840 And and so I have several photographs of the minority women and in their festivals, like the water festival to photograph. 00:34:09.920 --> 00:34:12.559 So yes. 00:34:16.639 --> 00:34:20.719 I'm sorry, I can you find your projects you just not get some master find. 00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:23.519 Oh, do I find my own project? 00:34:23.920 --> 00:34:24.480 Funding, funding. 00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:25.119 Funding. 00:34:25.199 --> 00:34:27.039 Oh no, I fund everything. 00:34:27.199 --> 00:34:51.679 I've been very fortunate in um having had a long career in education and um actually I retired as superintendent for schools, so I felt like I want to give back in some way because I've been blessed in my life, so I fund everything myself. 00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:55.119 It's it's not a money-making project for me. 00:34:56.239 --> 00:35:01.760 So I do sell, um, but that's not my primary focus. 00:35:02.320 --> 00:35:17.519 So it's maybe helpful to know that uh Marie flew here from Seattle on her own dime and uh has given this exhibition to the Diocese of Los Angeles, but she or they nailed it to us. 00:35:17.760 --> 00:35:26.320 So this is really about uh getting her artistic point of view across to help us build bridges uh with women across the world. 00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:27.840 That's sort of the point. 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:31.840 Um it's it's a pretty amazing ministry that you give us. 00:35:31.920 --> 00:35:33.199 Um thank you. 00:35:33.440 --> 00:35:36.639 Yeah, my pleasure. 00:35:37.199 --> 00:35:39.119 Feels good to do this. 00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:52.159 Please follow up with Marie with individual questions on any of the pieces or or other questions you have we didn't get. 00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:53.519 There's a guest book in the hall. 00:35:53.760 --> 00:35:56.320 I know she would appreciate if you would sign. 00:35:56.480 --> 00:36:02.559 And of course, you can find more information and more um images on our sisters keeper, the website. 00:36:02.639 --> 00:36:04.000 Uh, you'll see that display. 00:36:04.239 --> 00:36:14.719 And um, if you have any other thoughts like, hey Marie, I'm spellbound by this one particular image, that's a great way to connect with Marie going forward about your thoughts. 00:36:14.880 --> 00:36:36.159 And you know, what I think all artists, I'm I'm gonna speak for you just for a second, really appreciate is not like, hey, I loved it, but um really thoughtful feedback about uh what you saw opened your eyes to something new or something different, even if that's a year from now, uh that kind of feedback is just tremendous to receive. 00:36:36.239 --> 00:36:37.199 So um thank you. 00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:37.920 Yeah, thank you. 00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:41.599 So thank you for being here and enjoy Marie and enjoy yourselves. 00:36:41.840 --> 00:36:46.159 And uh this will be uh in our halls until about the end of July. 00:36:46.320 --> 00:36:49.760 So uh friends can come anytime to view the exhibition. 00:36:50.079 --> 00:36:51.039 Great, wonderful. 00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:51.599 Thank you. 00:36:51.760 --> 00:36:52.880 Thank you for coming.