Untitled Work, 2013
Acrylic on Crescent No. 215

I met the famous Milwaukee Public Library Storyteller, Art Beaudry, the Swami of Origami. He was a master paper folder and teacher. He taught me some of his origami. I became obsessed with the paper crane and quickly adopted it as my calling card, leaving them everywhere I went.

We worked together through the AP Fellowship. It was a program that gave an art grant and paired an emerging artist with an established artist. We did a project with these wonderful inner city kids to create a giant paper crane, which we all decorated with peace symbols.

Art had Parkinson’s disease and taught me about living with a severe impairment. Somehow, as shaky as his hands were, he could still fold paper with ease and precision. He was kind and generous and a wonderful mentor.

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