ATTENTION...CHAMPIONS AND FANS OF DEVELOPMENTALLY DELAYED INDIVIDUALS!

ATTENTION...CHAMPIONS AND FANS OF THOSE WHO EXPERIENCE EPILEPSY!

A CALL TO INSPIRATION AND ACTION!:)

BE SURE TO WATCH THE ACCOMPANYING SLIDESHOW!

The purpose of this GoFundMe is to establish Gabriel B. Smith, my protege, as a major artist and to establish a trust fund that will allow him to work from a position of ease and confidence for the rest of his life.  Gabriel, along with being a stupendous individual and profound artist, is developmentally delayed and experiences extreme epilepsy.

Here is our story...

My name is Rod Smith and I am writing these words in late March of 2021 on Vashon Island, WA USA. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading what follows.

I have had the pleasure and the honor to be the mentor and collaborator of a fine young man from this community. I know that many Vashon Islanders (USA) know, love, and have the best wishes for, native son, Gabriel Smith. I know that because they have told me so. In a community known for authentic individuals, he has a place all his own.

This is thanks, in no small part, to his mother, Sally Ammon, who has taken such deep, heroic, loving care of him for most of his 36 years. He is also a member of two longstanding and highly regarded Island clans, the Ammons and the Smiths.

I met Gabe when he was 4 and I was 25 or so. We've been fast friends ever since. He's a guy who has always done his own thinking and that's something I really appreciate in my friends.

As his friend, collaborator and mentor, I am here to speak on his behalf and to advocate for his present cause.

In 2013, I was selling tie dye at the Saturday Market on Vashon and Gabriel came by two weeks in a row and bought a t-shirt. I said, “Hey, man, why don't you learn to make tie dye with me and you can make your own”...and thus our artistic relationship began. We're eight years into it now.

He had a natural sense for it from the start. It's a great fit for his personality and temperament. (Dye art is all about patience.) He's one of those lucky individuals who has found something that he loves to do and fits him like a glove. And the experience, for me, from the very start, has had a gravitas about it that I was not expecting...and that continues to this day...present developments only reinforce that.

Late in the summer of 2020, over the course of four dye sessions, Gabriel stepped into his own as a dye artist...creating pieces of dye art that are unprecedented in my experience...and that's not only in my opinion, as the individual who trained him, but in the opinions of everyone who sees his new art. I had never contemplated the idea of dye art as fine art, but I do that now.

In the long tradition of trade apprenticeship, when the student achieves a meaningful, independent new level of skill, a project is begun that lets him exercise that skill...to mark the threshold that has been crossed...and to begin his journey out into the world as his own man practicing his trade.

The accompanying video begins with the unveiling of such a project...Gabriel's Journeyman's Piece. This culminated in the archetypal photograph of Gabriel draped in this piece on Luana Beach on the east side of Maury Island (the third image in the slideshow)...taken by master photographer, Rick Dahms. (www.rickdahms.com) That photograph changed all of our lives.

The unfolding of this process has been the best thing that has happened to me in a long time. I'm blessed to be a part of it. For me, this passing on of skills from one generation to the next...and having it get BETTER... is a fundamental doing of human being.

Gabriel is standing taller. He has grown in his self expression and communication across the board. He has a whole new confidence is his capabilities and in his place in this world.

Initially we were dyeing kitchen towels to sell at The Burton Store, here on Vashon Island (Thanks to Dawn and Craig!)...Gabriel's new canvas is a 28x28 flour sack kitchen towel that we get online. But when these new forms began to come out, we realized that they needed to be hung on the wall, adored and contemplated...not used to dry dishes. We realized we were looking at an authentic, innovative artistic phenomenon. And thus, here we are.

Gabriel, without any prompting from me or anyone else, pulled off what is often, in hindsight, labelled 'a work of genius'. Often, the way this happens is through the novel blending of different artistic and/or intellectual contexts. What he did was to combine his previous experience with origami with the folding techniques of Western tie dye that he got from me...and entrancing, novel beauty has been coming out with bewildering consistency.

There are approximately 50 pieces in this first round. He has created an astounding breadth of forms and colors. It is a body of profoundly mature art. It is a deep contemplative resource. Sally and I cannot get enough of it.

I want to encourage everyone who reads this to come to the aid of this fine, talented, deserving, friendly fellow. As many of us locally know, Gabe experiences severe epilepsy. He also gets the label of 'developmentally delayed'...(though this is not the way I experience my friend.) For these reasons, he will never be able to live independently. His mother has profound concern everyday for his well being and quality of life into the future. We can help them...Let's do!

What follows are 5 initiatives that this GoFundMe campaign will support.


1) ESTABLISHING A TRUST FUND

I want to be very clear about what my overreaching goal is for this effort. I want to make a sale of a select set of Gabriel's original dye art pieces for a sufficient amount of money to establish a trust fund that will take care of him for the rest of his life. Large amounts of money are exchanged for works of art all the time. I want this to be one of those times.

IF YOU CAN HELP US CONNECT WITH A LARGE INSTITUTIONAL BUYER, MUSEUM OR PRIVATE COLLECTOR, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH ME PRONTO.

This art is worthy of placement anywhere, in my opinion. Nobody will have buyer's remorse. Everybody will be inspired...and grounded in beauty and love. I promise.

As long as I am putting it out there, Gabe and I would both love to make a sale and permanent placement into the international collection of the National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan. (We would also love to dye outfits for the members of Osaka based rock and roll band, Shonen Knife!)

The legal expenses to establish a trust, along with the establishment of a resource stream to deposit into that fund, are major goals we are hoping to make progress with as a result of this initial outreach.


2) ON THE SUBJECT OF JAPAN...

If you are a Vashon Islander, you may have read an article in The Beachcomber in January of 2020 about Gabe and I sending our dye art to Japan, to The Tokyo International Great Quilt Festival under the patronage of Hawaiian master quilter, Mary Cesar. Present circumstances have gotten majorly in the way of that. I would love to continue along this trajectory, however.

As I mentioned previously, Gabriel's use of origami folding techniques is a great connect with Japanese culture. Also, family and community in Japan is much more central to their society...Gabriel's and my relationship across generations, I think, would be a meaningful value add. In 'Japanese'...TieDyeOi and his TieDyeOji...TieDyeNephew and his TieDyeUncle!

I also understand that special needs people and their art have a special place in Japanese culture...as well they should all over the world.

Visiting Japan is on Gabe's bucket list!!! He wants to visit temples and bamboo forests and photograph them!

PLEASE HELP US SHARE THIS IN JAPAN!!!


3) GOING VIRAL IN IRELAND

I also think that Gabriel's story and his personality and his art could be a big hit in Ireland.  He is a red haired, jolly fellow, always looking for the craic.  He and his mother both really long to visit there.

I lived in Ireland for two years, myself, and my art resides there in prominent pubs in Wexford and Kilkenny as well as Trinity College Dublin.  I would be great if the Irish embraced Gabe and his art as they did mine 20 years ago. 



4) BUILDING A WEB PRESENCE FOR SELLING HIGH QUALITY ART PRINTS

We have had 44 of Gabriel's pieces professionally photographed. We intend to sell high quality prints. This requires a website and an online fulfillment service to sell and ship high quality prints up to the original size of 28”x28”. All of the research and digital homework required for this is beyond my capabilities and much of the funds collected with be directed here. I have interviewed web designers and have found someone who is a good match for us.


5) ESTABLISHING A VENDING PRESENCE ON VASHON

We need to buy a vending tent. We also need to stock up on dye as the supply chain has been hard hit over the past year and we don't know about the availability of dye in the future.


6) COFFEE TABLE BOOK

Because print on demand technology is available to us now, doing a coffee table book of this body of work is a means of channelling community support into Gabe's art and his welfare. Sally and I have photo documented the process and we can now augment that with professional photos of the work. This could serve as a prototype to repeat with other artists in this fecund, creative community.

……………...

I suppose that's about enough for now. Again, thanks so much for taking this in and thus participating with us in this flowering of the talent and adventure in the life of Gabriel Smith. Sally and I are deeply grateful at this momentous point for us all.

I like to remind people that the word 'economy' comes from the Greek 'oikos', which means 'household'...It doesn't mean 'gambling casino'...It doesn't mean 'king of the hill'. It means 'household'...the place where everyone is nurtured. I encourage everyone to invest in the next generations!

If you have any ideas or input of any sort, please contact me!


Thanks much!!!