Hands On: A Community Hand Casting Project
I'm very excited to share a logo I made for a project by my friend and former professor, Kara Gunter. After I took Kara's color & composition class, I was impressed and intrigued by both her art and her spirit. She helped me make art as I processed the loss of my role model, aunt, godmother and general favorite person Sue. Her class was one of my favorites that year, and the environment that she created in her classroom was somewhat of a sanctuary for me many days that semester.
I asked her to serve as an article subject for me the following semester. Through that project (which you can read on my writing page), I got to know her even more and learn about her admirable heart and spirit. Kara's friends and family were unfaltering in their descriptions of her as kind, generous and caring. As I spoke with her, I was sure that her friends were correct, and now her Hands On project proves that even further.
"We’re all people. We all have good days. We all have shitty days. We all have whatever. Let’s just relate to each other in a very human way." -Kara
I first remember Kara posting about her idea for this project at the height of the election season. Despite your political leanings, I'm not sure that you can deny that the 2016 presidential election was full of animosity. I personally kept finding myself stressed and overwhelmed by everything we were faced with as a country and as individuals, so I was really heartened to read about Kara's idea for Hands On. Once she called for volunteers, I made sure to offer my services and we worked together to create a logo.
Kara's basic description of her project from the website is as follows: "Hands On—A Community Hand-Casting Project was designed to facilitate real human connections and foster empathy within our community of Columbia, SC. Over the course of 2017, we will be casting the clasped hands of strangers, diverse in every aspect which makes up our human race. In the process we will be highlighting our commonalities and shared experiences, rather than our differences. Through sculpture, writing, and photography we will be sharing and documenting our journey of finding out how we are all connected in this human experience."
If you are interested in participating in this project, you can sign up here. Additionally, Kara has started a GoFundMe to help raise money for materials and supplies. If you are able, please donate here.