The Re51lient Project
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The Re51lient Project: 51 Paintings of the Dogs Rescued from Michael Vick's Bad Newz Kennels
The Re51lient Project is a touching, soul-awakening art advocacy project that combines Levity Tomkinson's signature pop-art dog paintings with her innate ability to connect with each dog rescued from Michael Vick's Bad Newz Kennels through her emotional, honest and witty writing. The Re51lient Project is inspiring others to approach life with the same re51liency that these dogs have displayed while showing others that we have no reason to not wake up every day and choose happiness. Re51lient aims to make a indelible mark on the positive pit bull movement, showcasing the incredible nature of this breed and promote the rehabilitation of dogs rescued from dogfighting.
Levity's goal of $35,000 will give her the ability to focus full-time on The Re51lient Project, enabling her to produce Re51lient paintings in a consistent manner and spread the message of Re51lient to a larger audience, fulfilling her passion and creating what she believes has the power to change lives.
Any donation is appreciated with a smile beaming straight out of Levity's heart and the deepest of gratitude knowing that you also believe in Re51lient's power to make this world a more compassionate, happy, loving, forgiving world.
Quotes from The Re51lient Project http://re51lient.blogspot.com
"We are given one life, ONE life, and our time left is never known, but we should do the absolute most to make every second a positive, happy experience. It is much easier to continue to dwell on negativity or berate yourself than to choose an attitude of perseverance and resiliency. But if this dog who was thrown into a ring of blood, fur, saliva, money, curses, and brutality time and time again can be described as 'the happiest of them all,' don't you think we all could follow his example and do the same? If in your life you have experienced a tragedy or something extremely painful, think of how beautiful it would be, despite all that you've been through, to hear someone describe YOU as 'the happiest of them all.'"
"[Dogs] live in the present, in the now, in the treats and belly rubs, in the slobbery kisses they can sneak to your face, or the sandwich they can snag a bite of because after all, 'Mom, you're holding that a little too close to my whiffer.' You can reprimand them and five minutes later, they're back to resting up against your leg with their hot breath smacking against your skin telling you, 'Hey, do you know how much I love you?' They give and give and give and never expect anything back. They love because that's just what they do - it's an organic love. It's that kind of love that I want to show myself, to show others that I care about, and even others that honestly leave me with no positive experience. Life is too short for anything but unbridled, passionate, forgiving, sweet, unconditional love."
"One of my favorite parts of the video, though, is when the camera follows Jonny Justice through a crowded sidewalk and you can see his beefy frame and springy step just happily bouncing along in this life, passing by all different kinds of people with not a care in the world, just happy to be in that moment going for a walk....And I thought that even if those people who Jonny Justice was passing had no idea who he was, and the importance of his being saved and giving hope to other dogs, they saw him, he came into their lives and awareness, even if only for a split second with the flit of a glance. And technically, he wasn't supposed to be alive. They were essentially witnessing a walking miracle - a very happy, springy, walking miracle."
"We never know the stories of those who pass by us on a street, but what I want you to see is the possibility that maybe some of those people weren't supposed to be here. Maybe even you yourself weren't supposed to be here. And when you think of life like that, our spirits, minds, hearts, bodies telling another world, 'no, not yet,' the simplest things carry the greatest meaning."
When [these dogs] mouths hang open and tongues wag, drool drips down their mouths and onto the floor, couch, or someone's leg, when they sit unchained in streams of sunshine, and nuzzle their noses against a warm chest, they are reveling in their new path. Nothing is unconquerable; nothing is unforgivable; nothing is so stuck to you that you can't begin a new path."
"I watched videos of Ellen and noticed her right ear seemed to always hang back more than the left ear, and that her mouth on the right side appeared to droop a little lower than the left. Sometimes her right eye looked bigger, and all of these observations led me to believe that these are results from the life she used to live at 1915 Moonlight Road. It's interesting, though, that before I saw videos and just looked at photos of Ellen, all I saw was a beaming girl, full of love, smiles, and life. Her spirit came through so much that the pain and scars from before melted into the background, literally. How can we all focus on being so full of the present and the happiness we have now that we can allow our past hurt to blur to the back, that what people see is who we are now, not who we were?"
"Maybe I'm sounding a little paranoid to you, and maybe I was, and maybe I'm also kind of sort of a little bit of a perfectionist, but it is so vital to me that the personalities of these dogs shine through in every way possible, and if I don't get the background color right, well, I'm afraid I might have nightmares of giant paint bottles with gnarly teeth chasing me trying to beat me with wet paintbrushes. Not exactly how I want to spend my nights, ya know?"
"[H]elping people doesn't always mean grand, over the top gestures. Helping people is loving them. It's a text to tell them they're oh so brave. It's coming over past midnight during the winter armed with extra blankets and movies to comfort you even when you tell them you're fine. It's in a message that says, 'I know I don't really know you that well, but if you ever need to talk, I'm here....' It's in the moments we share together, and the time we take not only to listen, but to understand and relate. To be human with each other. We all have our own heaviness to carry, and sometimes it weighs us down to the point that our legs (no matter how many squats, lunges, leg presses, and picking the 60-lb dog up to put him in the bathtub repeats we do) feel like they're about to give out below us. And sometimes, my friends, they do give out. We are left on that floor, and we can feel the bumps and grooves in the tile, how cold the wood feels underneath us and how it makes our hairs stand up on end prickling our skin, but you can't stay there forever. Eventually your ass starts to hurt, you get hungry and think, 'Mmm, McDonald's would be good right about now,' or most dreaded of all, I.have.to.pee.' (So terrible when that happens at night and you try to ignore it saying, 'Go to bed, bladder!' but by doing so you just keep yourself up even longer, huh?) What I'm saying is that life makes you get up, and when you get up, you have to start doing the every day things we do. But if you do those things with open eyes, an eager heart, and an attitude that tells you it's mother-freakin' adventure time, y'all, I promise you'll see those friendships begin to blossom that will lift you up time and time again and that cold, hard floor will only be something you'll be sweeping up dog hair from."
"Scars don't heal overnight, or even over weeks or months, sometimes healing is even years in the making, and we all need someone there to help us heal, to tell us we're normal, we're okay, to hold our hand or rub our fur, to tell us we're brave and they are proud of us. But I think most of all we need love - love for ourselves and love from others."
"I encourage you to love, and love now. Love yourself because you need it now. Love your friends because they need it now. Love your mom, your dad, your siblings, Aunt Mildred, and Uncle Buck because they need it now. Love your gramma because sometimes she can't feel the love for herself, and she, too, needs it now. Love your dog, your cat, your hamster, your goldfish that only lives 10 days and that you bought for $1.99, because they all have hearts and feelings, and need it now. Love whoever you come into contact with.... We all need love. We all need belonging."
"Yet despite how badly we want to suspend our beliefs and logic and believe that bears and lions can raise a young boy in the jungle, that our toys do come to life at night and have a get-down with squeaky aliens, and that lions speak in a language we can understand, we know this is not reality.... But Disney has taught me enough to see that there are beings in this life who truly are magical and mystical and who do have the ability to speak to anyone. And I know that Jhumpa Jones is indeed one of these magical, mystical creatures that has been given the life and breath to grace us here on Earth. She is the heroine in that story. She is a bush full of hydrangeas coming to strength in the Spring. She is a beam of light at high noon. She is those butterflies, and bunnies, and all good things that sparkle."
"To be able to hug is one of the most fortunate and greatest abilities that we have."
"To be that happy is not only beautifully stunning, it is beyond words powerful. It's electric to light up in such a way that it seems like your happiness comes from holding the secrets to life. It touched me so much to not only view Ray's own happiness, but to think that it is possible for me to share the same experience. And blossoming with my own possibility, simply because I am a human just as you, comes the same possibility for you. I began to imagine seeing complete random strangers beaming so brightly that there was no way they couldn't be seen. Showing to others that this happiness doesn't come from holding the secrets to life; it comes because it IS one of the secrets to life."
"What these dogs give to me, which I aim to convey to others, charges my heart and my soul and reminds me, 'This is important.' It is important to raise others up, to lighten the load, to be positive. Love is essential to our functioning, and forgiveness is a grand act we can all perform."
The Re51lient Project is a touching, soul-awakening art advocacy project that combines Levity Tomkinson's signature pop-art dog paintings with her innate ability to connect with each dog rescued from Michael Vick's Bad Newz Kennels through her emotional, honest and witty writing. The Re51lient Project is inspiring others to approach life with the same re51liency that these dogs have displayed while showing others that we have no reason to not wake up every day and choose happiness. Re51lient aims to make a indelible mark on the positive pit bull movement, showcasing the incredible nature of this breed and promote the rehabilitation of dogs rescued from dogfighting.
Levity's goal of $35,000 will give her the ability to focus full-time on The Re51lient Project, enabling her to produce Re51lient paintings in a consistent manner and spread the message of Re51lient to a larger audience, fulfilling her passion and creating what she believes has the power to change lives.
Any donation is appreciated with a smile beaming straight out of Levity's heart and the deepest of gratitude knowing that you also believe in Re51lient's power to make this world a more compassionate, happy, loving, forgiving world.
Quotes from The Re51lient Project http://re51lient.blogspot.com
"We are given one life, ONE life, and our time left is never known, but we should do the absolute most to make every second a positive, happy experience. It is much easier to continue to dwell on negativity or berate yourself than to choose an attitude of perseverance and resiliency. But if this dog who was thrown into a ring of blood, fur, saliva, money, curses, and brutality time and time again can be described as 'the happiest of them all,' don't you think we all could follow his example and do the same? If in your life you have experienced a tragedy or something extremely painful, think of how beautiful it would be, despite all that you've been through, to hear someone describe YOU as 'the happiest of them all.'"
"[Dogs] live in the present, in the now, in the treats and belly rubs, in the slobbery kisses they can sneak to your face, or the sandwich they can snag a bite of because after all, 'Mom, you're holding that a little too close to my whiffer.' You can reprimand them and five minutes later, they're back to resting up against your leg with their hot breath smacking against your skin telling you, 'Hey, do you know how much I love you?' They give and give and give and never expect anything back. They love because that's just what they do - it's an organic love. It's that kind of love that I want to show myself, to show others that I care about, and even others that honestly leave me with no positive experience. Life is too short for anything but unbridled, passionate, forgiving, sweet, unconditional love."
"One of my favorite parts of the video, though, is when the camera follows Jonny Justice through a crowded sidewalk and you can see his beefy frame and springy step just happily bouncing along in this life, passing by all different kinds of people with not a care in the world, just happy to be in that moment going for a walk....And I thought that even if those people who Jonny Justice was passing had no idea who he was, and the importance of his being saved and giving hope to other dogs, they saw him, he came into their lives and awareness, even if only for a split second with the flit of a glance. And technically, he wasn't supposed to be alive. They were essentially witnessing a walking miracle - a very happy, springy, walking miracle."
"We never know the stories of those who pass by us on a street, but what I want you to see is the possibility that maybe some of those people weren't supposed to be here. Maybe even you yourself weren't supposed to be here. And when you think of life like that, our spirits, minds, hearts, bodies telling another world, 'no, not yet,' the simplest things carry the greatest meaning."
When [these dogs] mouths hang open and tongues wag, drool drips down their mouths and onto the floor, couch, or someone's leg, when they sit unchained in streams of sunshine, and nuzzle their noses against a warm chest, they are reveling in their new path. Nothing is unconquerable; nothing is unforgivable; nothing is so stuck to you that you can't begin a new path."
"I watched videos of Ellen and noticed her right ear seemed to always hang back more than the left ear, and that her mouth on the right side appeared to droop a little lower than the left. Sometimes her right eye looked bigger, and all of these observations led me to believe that these are results from the life she used to live at 1915 Moonlight Road. It's interesting, though, that before I saw videos and just looked at photos of Ellen, all I saw was a beaming girl, full of love, smiles, and life. Her spirit came through so much that the pain and scars from before melted into the background, literally. How can we all focus on being so full of the present and the happiness we have now that we can allow our past hurt to blur to the back, that what people see is who we are now, not who we were?"
"Maybe I'm sounding a little paranoid to you, and maybe I was, and maybe I'm also kind of sort of a little bit of a perfectionist, but it is so vital to me that the personalities of these dogs shine through in every way possible, and if I don't get the background color right, well, I'm afraid I might have nightmares of giant paint bottles with gnarly teeth chasing me trying to beat me with wet paintbrushes. Not exactly how I want to spend my nights, ya know?"
"[H]elping people doesn't always mean grand, over the top gestures. Helping people is loving them. It's a text to tell them they're oh so brave. It's coming over past midnight during the winter armed with extra blankets and movies to comfort you even when you tell them you're fine. It's in a message that says, 'I know I don't really know you that well, but if you ever need to talk, I'm here....' It's in the moments we share together, and the time we take not only to listen, but to understand and relate. To be human with each other. We all have our own heaviness to carry, and sometimes it weighs us down to the point that our legs (no matter how many squats, lunges, leg presses, and picking the 60-lb dog up to put him in the bathtub repeats we do) feel like they're about to give out below us. And sometimes, my friends, they do give out. We are left on that floor, and we can feel the bumps and grooves in the tile, how cold the wood feels underneath us and how it makes our hairs stand up on end prickling our skin, but you can't stay there forever. Eventually your ass starts to hurt, you get hungry and think, 'Mmm, McDonald's would be good right about now,' or most dreaded of all, I.have.to.pee.' (So terrible when that happens at night and you try to ignore it saying, 'Go to bed, bladder!' but by doing so you just keep yourself up even longer, huh?) What I'm saying is that life makes you get up, and when you get up, you have to start doing the every day things we do. But if you do those things with open eyes, an eager heart, and an attitude that tells you it's mother-freakin' adventure time, y'all, I promise you'll see those friendships begin to blossom that will lift you up time and time again and that cold, hard floor will only be something you'll be sweeping up dog hair from."
"Scars don't heal overnight, or even over weeks or months, sometimes healing is even years in the making, and we all need someone there to help us heal, to tell us we're normal, we're okay, to hold our hand or rub our fur, to tell us we're brave and they are proud of us. But I think most of all we need love - love for ourselves and love from others."
"I encourage you to love, and love now. Love yourself because you need it now. Love your friends because they need it now. Love your mom, your dad, your siblings, Aunt Mildred, and Uncle Buck because they need it now. Love your gramma because sometimes she can't feel the love for herself, and she, too, needs it now. Love your dog, your cat, your hamster, your goldfish that only lives 10 days and that you bought for $1.99, because they all have hearts and feelings, and need it now. Love whoever you come into contact with.... We all need love. We all need belonging."
"Yet despite how badly we want to suspend our beliefs and logic and believe that bears and lions can raise a young boy in the jungle, that our toys do come to life at night and have a get-down with squeaky aliens, and that lions speak in a language we can understand, we know this is not reality.... But Disney has taught me enough to see that there are beings in this life who truly are magical and mystical and who do have the ability to speak to anyone. And I know that Jhumpa Jones is indeed one of these magical, mystical creatures that has been given the life and breath to grace us here on Earth. She is the heroine in that story. She is a bush full of hydrangeas coming to strength in the Spring. She is a beam of light at high noon. She is those butterflies, and bunnies, and all good things that sparkle."
"To be able to hug is one of the most fortunate and greatest abilities that we have."
"To be that happy is not only beautifully stunning, it is beyond words powerful. It's electric to light up in such a way that it seems like your happiness comes from holding the secrets to life. It touched me so much to not only view Ray's own happiness, but to think that it is possible for me to share the same experience. And blossoming with my own possibility, simply because I am a human just as you, comes the same possibility for you. I began to imagine seeing complete random strangers beaming so brightly that there was no way they couldn't be seen. Showing to others that this happiness doesn't come from holding the secrets to life; it comes because it IS one of the secrets to life."
"What these dogs give to me, which I aim to convey to others, charges my heart and my soul and reminds me, 'This is important.' It is important to raise others up, to lighten the load, to be positive. Love is essential to our functioning, and forgiveness is a grand act we can all perform."
Organizer
Levity Tomkinson
Organizer
Louisville, KY
