'Bald & Beautiful' painted heads calendar for Cancer

I was given a calendar from a friend the other day with heads shaved for cancer fundraising and then painted by local artists/volunteers. It had a nice writeup on each model and artist too. I'm thinking this is an awesome opportunity for our community. Has anyone done anything in this vein before?

I hope they used face paints.

I haven't, but what a fantastic idea. I work with 2 cancer foundations and will definitely mention this concept when I talk with them next, thank you. It's hard coming up with fresh fundraising ideas for these organizations and this is a great one!

The woman from www.65redroses.com (her blog is www.65redroses.livejournal.com/ ) was working with organ transplantees recently a few months back. she was trying to get a transplantee for each organ and painting their tasnsplanted organs on them (she was a fabulous painter and a double lung transplant recipient) and there was talk of a calender at one point ,she was an incredible woman and raised sooo much awareness for CF (CYystic Fibrosis) and made a movie even! unfortunately she died last week while waiting for a second transplant (her body rejected the first pair). It would be so lovely if it could be put together in her honor. Maybe I will contact her family about this in a week or two.

Wow, that would be incredible if that could be completed for her.

I know it would be, her legacy is a strong one that's for sure!

here is the link to one of her body paintings..
http://65redroses.livejournal.com/90593.html

I just wanted to also say I think doing this sort of thing as a cancer benefit is fantastic! If anyone wants to put our heads together I'd definitely participate if at all possible. I think raising awareness with what we have to work from is so very important. (What I learned from Eva)

Perry Noia wrote:I hope they used face paints.

Yeah, it would seem pretty counter productive if they were using craft or fine art paints (many of which contain carcinogens) to raise awareness and money for cancer research.

Anna from Jestpaint did a calendar for this year to benefit a project to raise awareness about the educational system in Mozambique. It's beautiful.

It's such a great idea. CF is a rare disease too (1 in 10 Americans have a rare disease). I once considered organizing a benefit/concert to raise money for IIH (Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension... what I have), but my illness got the better of me. Painting would be so much easier, if that makes sense.

Okay, so logistics. When would a calendar of, say MINIMUM 13 images, need to be compiled to go to print for the 2011 year?

Oh, and if, as a forum, we decide to back a cause and donate images, who's gonna organize?

I know the not-for-profit organization behind IIH has a fundraising person that is really helpful with helping sort out ideas, getting receipts and the tax stuff sorted out so those who donate can claim things properly (and you get to claim the value of the art piece). Perhaps the whatever cancer organization we choose would have a similar person? Also, maybe that person would know how to distribute said calendar to the masses?

Maybe sweet-talk a certain shop-keeper into selling them out of her online store of the most fabulous forum in the world!

I'm going to throw out women's health: breast, ovarian, cervical cancers, and we paint nekkid women! Seem a bit obvious, I know. Or, maybe March of Dimes? Paint some bellies. Just brainstorming here....

I think this is a great idea! I'd love to contribute. I'm for causes... I'm totally supporting A21 Campagine(stop human trafficing) & also do a lot for our youth pastor's daughter who was born w/ an unknown genetic disorder. She's on a breathing machine & has muscle weakness. She's defied the doctor's prognosis & is now 2 yrs old. They said she'd not live past 6 months, then they said she'd never sit up or communicate... she made her 1st sound on Good Friday & is an avid signer
Africa's kids are always on my mind(been there 3 times & want to move there some day).
I'll paint for any good cause!

I'm just throwing one out there, but we could help Operation Smile, then we could paint the faces. If we decided to do that, I actually know a woman who works for them.

I've kind of taken Leukemia as my "personal cause" ... we've not been directly affected by it in our immediate family, but the fact that it mainly affects children has driven us to really want to help.

Although, if we were to do something as a group, I would certainly like to participate. It does give me an idea to suggest to other fundraisers though... I could certainly provide 12 or 13 pictures for a cause.....

I'm loving your responses! I'm a good organizer, but am in the process of buying and selling a house right now. I have a tonne of ideas, so give me a few days and I'll come up with some choices for us. I think off the top of my head we might want to segment some causes and maybe even countries. Canada do something and US something else.

Thanks, Magna

Wow... It looks like we all have our own personal causes, which is really great.

What I was thinking was I would work on a calendar to support my cause... makes sense to me in that I really really want them to find me a cure. IIH is really rare and I understand that there are things out there that equally close to peoples' hearts.

But I figure everyone would be willing to donate one image to a group effort, and there's probably plenty of us willing to participate. I don't think it would be too hard to find a photographer or a willing model, given the charity theme, only 1 good image may be needed, and they love knowing face/body painters. (Go to ModelMayhem if you need to find someone who will work trade for... where everyone trades for services so everyone benefits from the work without having to pay).

I have some thoughts:

*We can rally up some ideas for causes and do a poll, and run with whatever wins for a group effort.

*When someone is ready to organize a calendar for his/her own personal cause, he/she can post a call for images and the guidelines for theme and timelines and such.

*I think the organization will be a big undertaking, so whoever wants to do this should speak up. So whoever has the time and a passion needs to not be afraid to speak up. I would, but what usually happends is my ambitions get put in check by my brain, so I can't volunteer to organize but I'll help in any way that I can. But, depending on the cause, it may be as simple as collecting high quality images and getting them to the right people.

*I think people start marketing calendars in September???? So we need to get a move on for 2011 if we want to do this as a forum. So maybe while we are working on organizing an idea and leaders, we can scout where to get calendars printed both quality and inexpensive in case we are the ones who have to sell them and donate the profit instead of the charity selling them.

So, I'm gonna go look around the webs at calendars, maybe we can throw out some more ideas for causes.
Prevent Child Abuse is a big one for me.