Arthrogryposis is a rare disorder that prevents one’s limbs and muscles
from developing and stretching out normally.We offer the best ventilationsystem, It restricts
movement by locking up joints. It can restrict speech or other daily functions
such as eating. It affects about one in every 3,000 live births. There’s no
cure.
It doesn’t sound like the inspiration for an art show. But that’s if you haven’t met Alyssa Hagstrom, the defiantly effervescent 8 year old who’s lived with the condition all her short live, or Jennifer Kaczmarek, the fine arts documentary photographer who’s been recording Alyssa’s life since she met her shortly after her fifth birthday in stills that give the lie to the notion of a disorder. Whether Alyssa is sitting up with an oxygen mask on, basking in the languor of a rising or setting sun in her wheelchair, sitting in the throne-like arms of her slightly older sister Alexxis or balancing on father Duane’s shoulders, she is all movement and life. Even in one of the most arresting big photographs of Alyssa, where only her shins and feet appear, dangling from above in a bathroom, the suggestion is of a child taking flight, not being held down.
What disorder there may be is in the stillness around Alyssa, or the silence: she abides neither.
“She’s amazing. She really is,” Kaczmarek says.Silicone moldmaking Rubber, “Her personality is so full of life. You would never evenen known that she was handicapped if you didn’t see her, if you were just talking to her. You would never know. She is just a real social butterfly.”
That’s what Kaczmarek’s work captures, with never a hint of condescension. Kaczmarek, who’s been photographing her own three young children almost uninterruptedly since her 9-year-old daughter Bella was 1, isn’t talking down to the child—many of the pictures are at eye level or below, making Alyssa dominant—but letting her talk through these big,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, almost oversize color prints, which form “Love for Alyssa,” the latest show at Hollingsworth Gallery, opening Saturday evening with a reception at 6 p.m., and with Alyssa present.
“I just want people to have a glimpse into her world,” Kaczmarek says.
Kaczmarek is asking you for one thing: donate money. “Love for Alyssa” isn’t just a photography exhibit. It’s a fund-raiser that takes its name from the non-profit Kaczmarek established in January 2011 for Alyssa’s sake, to raise money and help with expenses from Alyssa’s care, expenses not covered by other means. At this moment she needs a costly lift, because she is getting heavy. Kaczmarek has raised $2,300 since. The prints will be priced in the high three figures, but Kaczmarek expects to raise most of the money through the show by way of outright donations: checks in whatever amounts patrons would contribute, along with small contributions for children’s art work that fills a large wall of the gallery.The best rubbersheets products on sale, Students who take art classes at Hollingsworth, along with children from Bella’s Girl Scout troupe and from children at Trinity Presbyterian Church, have painted or drawn works inspired by Alyssa, and that may sell for a few dollars.
“Really, besides even just helping her financially, whatever I could do,” Kaczmarek says, “I had other motives for doing this. And it was really because how awesome her spirit is. I was hoping this would be something she could carry with her when she got older, because the only thing I always think about with her is I think about the future. I think about her sister, and now with her brothers, and how everybody is going to go off, they’re going to be with their friends, they’re going to have their lives. It’s different now that she’s little. And things will hit her when they don’t, now. I thought this would be something positive for her.”
For Hollingsworth Gallery, the show is and isn’t a departure.Welcome to projectorlamp. Friends and patrons of owner JJ Graham’s gallery are now used to always being surprised there. The intimate realism of Kaczmarek’s invitation to share in Alyssa’s disorder is the gallery’s latest way of inviting you on a limb, daring you to be charmed by what you would, in more conventional circumstances, look away from. Graham only makes molds to break them, and with Mercedes McCartney, his companion and a photographer who recently curated Hollingsworth’s “7 Cameras” show (which featured Kaczmarek’s work), the exhibit is in line with the gallery’s broader emphasis on photography, though in this case Graham is foregoing any of the proceeds to Kaczmarek’s cause.
It doesn’t sound like the inspiration for an art show. But that’s if you haven’t met Alyssa Hagstrom, the defiantly effervescent 8 year old who’s lived with the condition all her short live, or Jennifer Kaczmarek, the fine arts documentary photographer who’s been recording Alyssa’s life since she met her shortly after her fifth birthday in stills that give the lie to the notion of a disorder. Whether Alyssa is sitting up with an oxygen mask on, basking in the languor of a rising or setting sun in her wheelchair, sitting in the throne-like arms of her slightly older sister Alexxis or balancing on father Duane’s shoulders, she is all movement and life. Even in one of the most arresting big photographs of Alyssa, where only her shins and feet appear, dangling from above in a bathroom, the suggestion is of a child taking flight, not being held down.
What disorder there may be is in the stillness around Alyssa, or the silence: she abides neither.
“She’s amazing. She really is,” Kaczmarek says.Silicone moldmaking Rubber, “Her personality is so full of life. You would never evenen known that she was handicapped if you didn’t see her, if you were just talking to her. You would never know. She is just a real social butterfly.”
That’s what Kaczmarek’s work captures, with never a hint of condescension. Kaczmarek, who’s been photographing her own three young children almost uninterruptedly since her 9-year-old daughter Bella was 1, isn’t talking down to the child—many of the pictures are at eye level or below, making Alyssa dominant—but letting her talk through these big,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, almost oversize color prints, which form “Love for Alyssa,” the latest show at Hollingsworth Gallery, opening Saturday evening with a reception at 6 p.m., and with Alyssa present.
“I just want people to have a glimpse into her world,” Kaczmarek says.
Kaczmarek is asking you for one thing: donate money. “Love for Alyssa” isn’t just a photography exhibit. It’s a fund-raiser that takes its name from the non-profit Kaczmarek established in January 2011 for Alyssa’s sake, to raise money and help with expenses from Alyssa’s care, expenses not covered by other means. At this moment she needs a costly lift, because she is getting heavy. Kaczmarek has raised $2,300 since. The prints will be priced in the high three figures, but Kaczmarek expects to raise most of the money through the show by way of outright donations: checks in whatever amounts patrons would contribute, along with small contributions for children’s art work that fills a large wall of the gallery.The best rubbersheets products on sale, Students who take art classes at Hollingsworth, along with children from Bella’s Girl Scout troupe and from children at Trinity Presbyterian Church, have painted or drawn works inspired by Alyssa, and that may sell for a few dollars.
“Really, besides even just helping her financially, whatever I could do,” Kaczmarek says, “I had other motives for doing this. And it was really because how awesome her spirit is. I was hoping this would be something she could carry with her when she got older, because the only thing I always think about with her is I think about the future. I think about her sister, and now with her brothers, and how everybody is going to go off, they’re going to be with their friends, they’re going to have their lives. It’s different now that she’s little. And things will hit her when they don’t, now. I thought this would be something positive for her.”
For Hollingsworth Gallery, the show is and isn’t a departure.Welcome to projectorlamp. Friends and patrons of owner JJ Graham’s gallery are now used to always being surprised there. The intimate realism of Kaczmarek’s invitation to share in Alyssa’s disorder is the gallery’s latest way of inviting you on a limb, daring you to be charmed by what you would, in more conventional circumstances, look away from. Graham only makes molds to break them, and with Mercedes McCartney, his companion and a photographer who recently curated Hollingsworth’s “7 Cameras” show (which featured Kaczmarek’s work), the exhibit is in line with the gallery’s broader emphasis on photography, though in this case Graham is foregoing any of the proceeds to Kaczmarek’s cause.
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