We cordially invite you to participate in this year’s Prayers Exhibit 2020, Art & Performance Benefit Festival. We believe that your participation is important and pertinent to the collection, exhibition, and documentation of these works, these events, and this movement. If you could create a work that reflects the things that you are most concerned with in this day and age, we believe we can bring together a strong encompassing group of works.
We ask that you represent your voice this year. What are your prayers, hopes, dreams, desires, wishes, concerns… for the world today? Share and exhibit your miniature “prayer” art piece this year.
“Some of us practice prayers day to day as a spiritual summoning composed of spoken word, altars and incense, some practice through mediation, and for others it’s just being able to visually articulate expressions of hope, love and peace. In this show, we will refer to the Concept of Prayer as a means to reflect our collective ties and social concerns in the world, in our society, community, our humanity.”
– Margaret Garcia
We invite you to join this movement of “prayers” and come together, put egos aside, speak with each other through our artwork in a manner that cultivates positivism and community building. Let’s show each other, and our oppressors our humanity while we communicate in this artful and heartfelt way. Show what you are for, what you support, what you love… Come join us. Help us bring something special to the community, to support local artists and vendors, and to support the cause. Help us create a beautiful, holistic documentation and publication of the group of works represented by joining us with your art piece(s).
We would like to extend our invitation for you to come share your thoughts, concerns, and visual expressions in your medium of choice.
The world is a chaotic place that seems to grow more painful for us to endure and more overwhelming as we try to express our concerns. As a people, we have lot of anger, a lot of hurt that we cannot sustain. We will hang your positive wishes and concerns.
We want to invite artists and the community to bring a prayer contribution: a small/miniature art piece that shows and tells your individual prayer, wishes, hopes, and dreams for the world today. All mediums are welcome (painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, poetry, ceramics, woodwork, glasswork, and video).
This event will be a small step towards our collective healing. To take that step, we must make ourselves be heard, especially where and when we are ignored. What better way to share with each other and support one another than through the precious and accessible medium of art and performance.
This will be our 4th Prayers Exhibit. We will pray together. Share together. Give each other a voice in this special and universal way. We won't just continue to shout and scream at injustice- we will put aside ego and speak with each other, sharing our varying, interesting, and worthwhile perspectives with our art, performance, and music.
The main portion of the benefit exhibit is an inclusive ‘Prayers’ Art Exhibit. Artists and anyone from the community who brings a prayer may take part in this exhibit and hang your prayer(s) on the exhibit walls for all to see and interpret.
Our goal is for this Prayers Day (exhibits and events) to grow worldwide cultivating positivism and healing in every community. We will choose a day, once a year in December, to come together, take part in this movement, and be vocal as we share our Prayers through miniature individual art pieces.
If we collectively create work(s) that reflect what we are most concerned with today, we believe a strong, all encompassing, powerful exhibit may be brought forth. We invite you to participate and submit your prayer art pieces.
Full Printable Artist Invitation 2016
“In this time of pandemic and isolation it is about turning any and every fear into faith and uplifting and holding each other with loving regard and seeing past the toxic environment and times we are experiencing today.
Joseph Campbell spoke about 3 types of art that exist: A work that is labor intensive, or made out of expensive material that has a lot of monetary value. A work that is pretty and decorative. A work that conveys insight into the human/spiritual condition. A work that when you experience it moves you and opens your heart.”
-- Artist Margaret Garcia
This is a call to artists. This is an urgent call to action, grounded in our collective love and humanity, striving to go farther than inclusion and diversity in our intersectional approach and presentation of all our compounding experiences. This is an attempt at ascension, a force for good by means of transcendence and transgression through the raw language of the arts.
How do we love? Not by being complacent and separate. This is the artist as a crusader. Here, the choice and participation of the artist is of utmost importance: we need you to give out into this world hopes in the face of fears, insecurities, and anxieties that make it so difficult to stay in contact with our humanity so tied to the failures of our world systems. The artist is the reflection, the mirror, that raw stuff who without makes impossible our continual and grand challenge to those systems of fear that shackle each of us from seeing what it means to be human and truly free.
Are we willing to roll together in creating a better world with solidarity at the center? To be willing to go beyond our own egos, to answer a call that brings us outside our selfish predicament, to stay in contact with our humanity and the outside world in such a way that enacts this courageous witness and calls us forth in a poetic quest for beauty, truth, and spirit, hand in hand, standing up in expression, art piece by piece, being free together in this endeavor, this caravan of love. All who are abandoned by the now and by history, stand up together and be heard. What is our prayer?
The year 2020 has been wrought with pain. We are in pain and living with trauma every day. This exhibit is a practice to put forth and to receive our collective freedom and thirst. We come to the water, drinking for different reasons, but the point is to quench our thirst. We all have an opportunity to take something away from each other in this exhibit. Can we help restore a sense of joy within our struggle? Can we externalize our oppression within expressions of love, hope, and compassion? Can we do this together: show one another that love is not a threat, but a ways and means to an antidote? The answer is yes, we most certainly can and any endeavor to love is a worthy one.
The intention of ‘Prayers’ exhibits exemplifies our highest hopes and wishes as artists. Everyone has something to contribute and we thrive best together.
“For me, the process of painting or making art is a form of prayer. Like a deep mediation, the more profound the level of creation I am able to achieve the closer to a state of grace. Here I lose sense of time. It is about allowing myself the ability to become unaware of how I achieve an effect but become one with my brush and my paint, as seamless as breathing.
It is about channeling my feelings, my desires, my hopes and my prayers. Yes, I have studied and learned how to acquire the skill of drawing and painting. Like singing you learn to listen, but then at some point you drop the conscious efforts of trying to hit a note and simply breathe expressions that you feel.
It is about channeling your feelings, the paint or process is a vehicle that helps you get there. The shake in your brush stroke is your pulse and your heart beat. The energy and emotion you feel in your subject, your vista or the social pressure you experience is always conveyed, like a polygraph that always records the truth of what you experience. If you feel disdain or integrity it will manifest whether you want to speak the truth or not.
When the level of your skill becomes married to that state of grace and you are able to express without much indecision, a truth will seduce your audience. True Beauty has character. Without that character it may be pretty. Not all pretty things are beautiful. The character of integrity, compassion and kindness conveys a morality and spirituality that uplifts the human condition.”
-- Artist Margaret Garcia
We strive to channel rage into love and justice rather than hate and revenge. What are we affirming for each other? For our children? What is your calling? Can you answer this calling? What motivates you in your life? Can you bring forth a required courage to help restore each other? Remind each other of how precious life still is and how abundant our world can be? Are our hearts ready to handle the weight of this calling? To participate in an action and concept of prayer as a collective voice? An intercessory energy that has the power in healing our lives? We cannot live without water as we cannot live without each other within safe spaces of love. This is that sacred space where we are all brothers and sisters and where the artist is crucial.
Let us all be spiritual warriors in a kind of artistic spiritual grounding. Through our art pieces shared in this exhibit, we will transgress, we will counter rage with quiet self-reflection and put the fires out with even more love. We are here to prove that we do and can lift each other up. That together we are powerful. That we keep and manifest our own faith in the face of paralyzing doubt and systems that further beats us down. We will not let it leave us lost and confused. We will serve a reminder for and to each other of our humanity and of the gifts this world can provide us.
We are clinging to what we all as a part of humanity know is true: our desire is for life and unity, not death and separation. This exhibit wants to serve as a process of transforming and of experiential learning by a reflection on doing. We can transform unrest by joining together to express our hearts. It can keep us afloat, give us hope within our sense of gratitude and love for this world and for each other. We have lost much in this time: security, certainty. Much has been taken from us: the ability to avoid brokenness and injustice. We can give back to each other, we can bring back personal interaction even while losing physical interaction: a hug or a handshake. Prayer is, in many spiritual traditions, a way of being and a way of relating. Let us relate to each other in opening our hearts and minds in an expressive challenge of growth, change, love, and compassion.
People of every faith can attest or ascribe to this simple notion of collective prayer: joining our voices together, sharing in our hopes, dreams, desires, cultivating this energetic strength and positivism. There is a power, a studied and evidenced phenomenon, in collective prayer. A power to go on. That propels us to action. That inspires us to do good works and to create.
We want our collective voice to be redemptive in a time of division. We want to serve as an antidote or in the very least be a part of the recipe. Sharing our “prayer” art pieces means to be a part of a choir of love and hope, a song to and of our humanity. We sing our own songs, but we must also attend to what is around us and what a difficult year it has been. Now, more than ever, we aim for a hopeful and unified community. Within this concept, we sing to a common beat, we enter at the right moment, and are silent when it is called for.
In this exhibit: we are conscious of being in something larger than ourselves and knowing that we are moved along further and farthest by those who are beside us giving to a moment we could never create alone. We understand the power of singing together and feeling our voices hold us up. We yearn for this triumphant melody. We are all fearful: of the now and of the future, as we all grasp onto our ideas and thirst for stability and freedom especially from that fear. Each of us know we have a shared common experience and have come through this hard day’s night together. We are not alone.
There are moments when a community comes together, in which each individual feels their energy directed to a common purpose. Transcendence is in such moments. Collective energy will raise us up to new heights and bring us closer to the depths of our humanity. The ‘Prayers’ Exhibit is this kind of transcendent moment. This is an expression of that love and that humanity. “Prayers” exhibit aligns and alights with our human and spiritual condition. Worthy of a call to action; a call to all artists: This is the ‘Prayers’ Exhibit 2020.
Welcome & Thank You,
Nataasja Saint-Satyr, Artist-Organizer
Background of ‘Prayers’ & Inspiration
Los Angeles Artist Margaret Garcia had the initial idea for Prayers and has cultivated it throughout the years. "I think that there are certain ideas that are only powerful if you share them; they only matter if you share them. It's kind of like love. Love doesn't exist in a vacuum. You have to share it in order for it to have meaning. And for me, the idea of doing this, these series of prayers, is an idea of sharing. I started first by doing very small, miniature portraits of concerns of mine..." Aligning her grandmother's experience from the 1920s in her mind, concern grew regarding the ongoing news of the hijacked brides of the world, little girls kidnapped, forced into relations, and married off. "It's not new, it's something that exists all over the world, and if you are a person who takes notice and understands it, then you have compassion for other human beings." There are so many issues, whether we are talking about mass incarceration, family healthcare, access and equality, modern day slavery, children in forced labor, Syrian immigrants and war orphans, or the many other human rights violations currently going on worldwide. Now, in 2020, we have the same issues piled over with a pandemic.
Women and children are our greatest victims. Women and children throughout the world: burned for dowries, washed over with acid, forced into sex and slavery; Rampant exploitation, waste, and retrenchment... "We could just go on and on, there is an issue for everything... Not to mention issues like animal abuse, hearing about someone beating dogs to death or doing some horrible thing... Every country and nation is included and has issue. There is no perfect place."
"You see all of that. It’s overwhelming. And, I thought, maybe a small, tiny painting, like a prayer, that's focused, that whispers, that begs an answer, that plays with your consciousness, a small, little thing that allows you to look at it in an intimate setting, not a giant banner, not a big fist in the air, or giant expression of ego, but something where you quiet the ego, and you let your higher power or whomever you believe to answer and respond to that prayer..."
It's not about the size so much as it is about how many people we can invest in it. "It's easy when it is something small. It's nonthreatening and can engage you in a quiet, introspective way, making the viewer ask, 'What can I do? How can I do it?' That's why I wanted to do these pieces small." Small sizing also allows for mobility as well as a greater inclusion by the LA community and world communities participating in this art movement of sharing together. Our attempt and long term goal is to develop into a yearly worldwide exhibition day or Prayers Day through collective participation within our local communities armed with our art pieces. "My hope is that in time, we'll have enough pieces to show at the museums and invite others to come with their prayers and to do it in different locations."
It's meaningful because everyone who brings a piece is invested. "To include as many people as possible gives it more power." Margaret Garcia and friends encourage involvement. Please be involved. Help us in cultivating goodness and positivism through sharing and storytelling in art with artists and our communities. "It doesn't matter what religion or background or who or what you are. The only thing that matters is that you are caring about an issue of humanity, of the human spirit, and the conditions people are suffering under. I don't want pieces that are against anything. That's what I know. I don't need more analysis or negative critique. It doesn't do any good. You turn people off. The idea is to turn people on. Turn people on to the idea of contributing and investing their time, energy, and spiritual concern so that maybe somebody can do something and we can get something moving."
Thank you, Margaret Garcia for this lovely inspiration and idea, for your beauty, passion, and words. We hope that we will receive help in spreading the word of this exhibit. Thank you everyone who will participate and be involved in this art movement.
Exhibit, Events, & Chosen Benefits: Causes
This and future festivities are completely not-for-profit, wishing only to bring all local communities together worldwide, beginning with where we are from: Los Angeles. We come together to share our voices with each other, our Prayers, our wishes, concerns, hopes, and dreams for our world today. In this way, we bring ourselves all closer together, with the each other, the world, and our humanity; we give to our collective cultivation of positivism and healing, of good will and good intention...
For our current Prayers Day exhibit, the benefits of choice for 2020 is up to the collective artists’ decision within their own local communities. For example, Casa0101’s Jean Deleage Gallery artists would donate to Casa 0101: an important venue and beautiful cause for us to show our support. LA Weekly's Best of Arts and Entertainment
Collecting ‘prayer’ pieces will help us help Casa 0101 continue to do good works, supporting both performing and visual arts in the Boyle Heights and greater East Los Angeles areas, motivating and enriching the children and people in our communities. Thank you, Casa 0101, the venue, cause, and Prayers springboard into the world. Donate to Casa 0101 and support the work they do for the community.
The Prayers Day exhibit’s proceeding publication will be titled: Prayers Worldwide; Prayers from Los Angeles. Each year’s event is documented in full and will culminate in this comprehensive publication. We aim to one day have a Prayers Exhibit Book & Catalog from every place in the world that participates. It will serve to catalog all participating artists and will include documentation of our launch event in Prayers 2015, our 2016 Prayers Exhibit & Performance Benefit Festival, our 2017 Prayers, Resistance, and Protection exhibit at the Muckhenthaler Cultural Center, and this year’s 2020 Prayers Digital Exhibit.
Our publication will go into detail regarding this movement and philosophies. It will be a guideline for others anywhere in their local communities to organize similar events for their own local causes. We will include interviews with participating local artists and performers, and more. Any book sales per annum will be distributed to benefit 3 chosen causes: the primary chosen cause and two other local causes.
Funds are raised separately for the production of these Prayers from LA, Art and Performance events and for the production of the publications. We want the events themselves to solely benefit the community, causes, participants, and the Prayers art movement.
We support local artists within their communities and have an open call to world communities to participate with their own prayers
In 2020, artists choose their percentage of charitable contribution from a minimum of 10% to 100% of their Art Sale and Marketplace proceeds. Same for anything we vend during this event.
We aim to spark new and younger collectors, to help invigorate and normalize the desire to buy original art, and to make art more accessible. The public may get very rare opportunities to access and acquire artwork, not normally available or accessible, at our event's exhibits and in our art marketplace. We aim to provide this kind of forum, to create a sustainable, collective art marketplace outside of our world’s capitalistic structures and systems.
We are donations based and accept various forms of donation as well as effort. Volunteers are always most welcome and cherished. Thank you to our wonderful volunteers whose good efforts make this all possible.
Artist donations are also encouraged, but not necessitated. We request that artists who would like to be involved in some way, but can't attend physical events, to please still submit or donate any art pieces you would like us to help sell in benefit.
We encourage contributions of anything you would like to donate to the event. For instance: at physical events, good drink and snack donations won't be refused! Though, we do provide attendees with both great food and drink options. Thank you to our amazing food vendors, who volunteer their time and efforts to bring us their delicious culinary gifts.
‘Prayers’ Point & Summary
Notes from our Organizer. One can think of the "Prayers from LA" community benefit festival events and this year’s Prayers Exhibit 2020 in several parts.
We receive artist submissions from all over the nation including Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Texas, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and New York; and internationally from Mexico City, Baja, Zihautenejo, Puerto Vallarta, Vietnam, and Taiwan. Collectives have been so generous with their participation and artist submissions. Thank you so much for your beautiful contributions.
We hope that in our hometown, LA artists represent at the Prayers from LA art exhibit. That we include as many of your voices in this Prayers Exhibit 2020. And, that artists don't miss out. Please, spread the word to those who may take an interest in join our art movement. We also want the youth know of this exhibit and to take an interest. We intend to include all your prayer contributions. Please feel most welcome reaching out to us regarding your submissions. We will include your artist bios, statements, and contact information to our website.
In 2016, the Casa0101 stage and venue accommodated. Casa 0101students even performed a special skit for us all that year! In 2015, we had the honor to get a Latin Grammy nominated artist come perform for us.
This year's lineup is shaping out to be quite interesting. We hope everyone enjoys it. The format is limitless and we are able to accommodate everyone. Any video pieces submitted have no minimums or even a maximum, but we also ask mindfulness and perhaps a maximum limit of 27 minutes.
We will keep posted on those who join us for Prayers 2020. Thank you to our amazing performers who bring something special for us every time.
Thank you to our filmmakers, photographers, and writers who have tasked themselves for this year's exhibit coverage and documentary.
All artists can be included to vend their wares or works. It is an inclusive, cooperative, collective marketplace where we aim to exist and be sustained outside of any normal marketplace or systems.
Prayers 2020 provides a digital exhibit that will present a digital marketplace where artists’ pieces can be collected directly through the website displaying the artists chosen charitable contributions. All work displayed is safe and secure from theft or downloads and will also contain a hidden watermark, so if one is actually taken, we can easily see this.
Our marketplace includes local and special vendors. In 2016, we had local food vendors like East LA BBQ Co and Three Radishes Eats whose food were big hits and sold out. We had free VR (Virtual Reality) demos by Upload Collective's Sky Nite who is a VR Developer and Educator who has written one of the first books on Virtual Reality. Participants got a big kick out of this: imagine painting in 3 dimensions.
We will keep posted on those who join us for Prayers 2020. Thank you to our incredible vendors whose big hearts help us give back alongside all our prayers in a very big way.
Thank you everyone for your support! We aim to give back to those who participate and can't thank you enough. We promise to sustain this positive, uplifting tradition and continue to organize this special exhibit for everyone and continue with the important aims of this Prayers Art Movement.
