Mu Tau Mu of Alpha Chi Omega

We have such an interesting and inspiring project to share with you this week! One of the best parts is that it's interactive, and meshes our love as Alpha Chi Omegas of the fine arts with our ongoing mission to promote domestic violence awareness. Michelle Major is an artist and a survivor of domestic violence. When her husband tried to take her life, he also took a butcher knife to her paintings. She is safe now, out of the relationship, creating new art, and speaking up through her website Be A Voice Arts. 

In preparation for an upcoming show, Michelle is creating an interactive piece of art. Please create a small card, the size of a baseball card, with art or words of peace and hope. From her website:

"I want to create a work of art where the cards hang on my wedding dress as an interactive gallery piece. The reason I am creating this wedding VOICE piece comes as an outcropping of a painting I did called "Til Death". 'Til Death' is a painting of me as a bride, tortured and hopeless, with 'X's" over the mouth to symbolize the secret and shame and inability to speak up during a relationship of abuse. After viewing that portrait, one would think that my wedding dress would be a symbol of the loss of hopes and dreams for a marriage and a future, yet in actuality, the dress will be transformed to symbolize the literal artistic VOICES that have come together as one to "Speak Up Against Domestic Violence". I want to hang all the submitted cards from the dress skirt and viewers can come up, turn the cards over in their hands, move around the piece and experience the "Voices!" I am hoping to generate enough response to fill up the skirt. I think it will be a very powerful piece and full of hope!

"Help me fill the dress with YOUR artistic voice.
"You may save a life!"

Here are the details for the cards:

Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern baseball cards, or 2 ½ X 3 ½ inches (6cm X 9cm). Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc), paper media (in the form of collage, paper cuts, found objects, etc). They can include quotes or positive words, poetry, etc. rather or in addition to art work. 

Form for submitting with the card can be found here. 

Then mail your card to

Be A Voice Arts

PO Box 22

Hickory NC 28603

Michelle asks that you include a $5 contribution with each card for the Speak UP Project: "Through the SPEAK UP project, your donation will make a difference in the life of a victim, and may mean the difference in her becoming a survivor.  Promotion of BAVA's traveling exhibit, 'How Do You Paint the Portrait of Domestic Violence', will also be made possible through your donation by mailing publications to domestic violence agencies and organizations." 

This would be a great creative project to do on your own, with a group of sisters or friends, or with your collegiate or alumnae Alpha Chi Omega chapter!