Love Each One Proposal Davis Project for Peace 2010 Emily Carlton Ginger Waugh Stanley Moore Hunger statistics tell us that nearly 50 million people in our own country struggled last year to have enough food. One fourth of this population were children. American suicide rates state that over 30,000 people kill themselves each year, and for each death, about 15 people attempted and failed. Nearly half of American marriages will end in a divorce. Some people have never heard the words, I love you. Need is all around us, and our society is often too busy or self consumed to see it or understand it. You don’t need to start the Red Cross to make change in the world. You don’t need to go to Africa or plant a well. Sometimes you just need listen to someone who needs a friend. We feel that in a fast paced world of crowds and instant gratification, we no longer take the time to reach out to individuals who populate our everyday lives. Mother Teresa said, “Peace begins with a smile.” Many of her thoughts tell us to love one person at a time. It’s really all we can do. She had said, “every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” We believe that peace begins with actions of love, even ones that may seem as insignificant as a smile. ===OUR PURPOSE========== The purpose of this project for peace is to love the individual, and challenge others to do the same. On a journey across the United States, we plan to reach out to others with our time, resources and hearts with the attitude that they are important. This could be through a coffee, a conversation, a dollar, a sandwich, a smile, or even paying to fix someone’s car. We call these random acts of kindness “Actions of Love”, and will conduct them all along the way. By meeting people across the entire US and reaching out to them in very ordinary ways, we hope to do something extraordinary. We want to listen to people. On some stops, we plan on setting up “a dollar for your thoughts” booth, where we can ask people questions about what love and peace mean to them. We have been researching a number of social artists, such as Berit Norgaard, Ashley Neese, and Lori Gordon, who are all interested in art operating as a part of society. They believe that art can be used as a tool to suggest creative solutions for positive change in our daily lives. We want to put this theory into action. We will also be volunteering at various shelters, boys and girls clubs, retirement homes, and outreach centers across the country. We will fold laundry, paint murals, serve meals, mow lawns, or simply listen to someone’s story. The aim: to express love through simple actions; to invest time into others on a personal level. We believe this is the key to peace in our society; the answer to hurt in our everyday world. Ultimately, the goal of our project is to then share this message with others. All along the way we will be documenting individuals we meet through audio recordings, photography, drawings we collect, written stories, and videos. This information will be shared with others through three main outlets. 1- the Love Each One Blog. (www.loveeachone.blogspot.com) will be the main way for us to connect back with the people we’ve worked with and an opportunity to get everyone in on
the movement. We’ll advertise the blog through t-shirts, stickers, posters, radio shows, and business cards that we’ll give out all along the trip. We will also utilize other forms of digital media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to get our message out and make it possible to connect with people throughout our country. These platforms will allow people to go deeper. We don’t just want our recordings to be about us. The blog will be about the people we meet and the opportunities we have to touch their lives and be touched by them. We want people to interact, share stories, ideas and dreams. 2- The Love Each One Gallery Shows -We want the culmination of the stories we encounter and the impact of our travels to be displayed in at least two gallery shows at the end of the tour. They will take place in Miami, FL and Sarasota, FL, at Ringling College of Art and Design. The show will allow others to experience what we’ve experienced in a very personal way. Hearing the stories of others is the first step in understanding the need that surrounds us. Photography, drawings, thoughts, and video will immerse viewers in stories, need, faces, and cultures from all over our country. One installation will be comprised of private audio booths where the audience will be able to listen to recordings of people we have encountered along the way. 3- A Love Book – A book with the stories of the individuals we have met, the images we have captured and the challenges and questions that arise when we attempt to love others on a daily basis. The book would be created and distributed at the show or by writing the blog, and a digital download would be available online. We want to love individuals. We want people to value people. The show, blog and book will be very personal and introduce people to needs and neighbors in their own backyards. Their purpose is to encourage others to take “actions of love” in their daily lives. ========Where we will be going=== The Love Each One tour will be a five week drive across the US. We will be sharing actions of love while discovering how individuals perceive love, how they receive it, and how they give it out. Through our journey we will be making stops in Miami, FL; New Orleans, LA; Tulsa, OK; San Francisco, CA; Tacoma, WA; Cincinnati, OH; New York City, NY; Nantucket, MA; Charlotte, NC; Atlanta, GA and Beverly, KT. We are currently in contact with boys and girls clubs in most of these cities along with a women’s shelter in Atlanta. Our plans would also include stops in rural towns, inner cities and different outreach opportunities. Having such a variety of locations will enable us to get opinions and ideas from people living in very different communities. =========The Team======== Our group is comprised of three artists with experience in graphic design, video editing, compositing and photography. One has experience in gallery showings and focuses in areas of social arts and relational aesthetics similar to what we will be doing with the tour. One has experience with outreach groups , inner city mission trips, and classroom teaching at the elementary school level. One is a published author and illustrator who has experience with book writing, printing and publishing. He also is experienced with graphic design and the video editing. All of these abilities are necessary to make the project a reality. Having majored in different areas, our skill sets are unique, but our passion for the project is the same. We want to spread peace by sharing love, and sharing it begins one person at a time. “Remember, works of love, are works of peace.” - Mother Teresa