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Unlike starving artists everywhere, Bren Bataclan, 40, is giving it away. He paints cartoon characters (neither human nor animal), with one big eye and one small one (he has no idea why), in brilliant colors, and he leaves his small canvases around Boston and other cities. And they're free.
It all started when Bataclan moved to Boston from the Midwest to teach computer graphics. After he lost his job, he started painting what are now his signature characters. He sold 49 in two days and wanted to show his gratitude somehow.
But how? Bostonians' reserved demeanor had bothered him for years. Now he realized the city's residents were as friendly as Midwesterners-in their own way. It finally came to him: He would give away his artwork and ask just one thing in return. He attached this note and his website address, bataclan.com to each canvas: "This painting is yours if you promise to smile at random people more often." It was the beginning of his Smile Project.
Bataclan has left his giveaways in 20 states and 20 countries. People who have found his paintings send him notes and photos. The characters make them smile, his fans tell him, and they give them hope. "It's nice to know that my art really is making a difference," he says.
Since the economic downturn, Bataclan, who supports himself as a full-time artist, has been attaching a different note to his canvases: "Everything will be alright."
Journey of Healing
For years after she was raped as a senior in high school, Michele Sigler lived with depression, substance abuse, flashbacks, and nightmares. After her husband, Brad, encouraged her to get help five years later, she called the Contact Rape Crisis Center in Huntington, West Virginia, her hometown. It took six months of therapy before she could begin to put the past behind her.
Sigler called Contact again three years ago, this time to volunteer. She had a degree in counseling and got still more training to qualify as a victim advocate. Sigler, 36, now works at least two 12-hour shifts a week. "I take the hotline calls, just like when I called. I go with the women to the emergency rooms, and I sit with them during the sexual assault exam, the law enforcement questioning, and the polygraph. I go with them to court. I'm the voice of the victim," she says.
Sigler even started earning a nominal salary last year by visiting schools, college campuses, and senior citizen complexes to talk about healthy relationships and elder abuse.
Last fall, when a 16-year-old girl was raped, Sigler met her at the emergency room, and she continues to talk with the girl about once a week. "She came to me recently to say she hopes one day to help someone the way I helped her," says Sigler. "For me, that's what it's all about."
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