Art That Gives Back

Last month we had the honor of again participating in the MJM (Mack, Jack &
McConaughey) week of giving back. For many Austinites, myself included,
it’s a favorite week of spring. A bit of a marathon if you participate in all of
the events, it’s everything from rounds of golf to fashion shows (this year
being Oscar de la Renta), to incredible live music, and – the bell of the
(week’s) ball – the live auction. This year it broke a record in Austin and
raised, in this event alone, over twelve million dollars.

As a part of my company’s support for MJM, for two years now, I have
created a piece of custom art alongside the children this amazing
organization supports: The Rise School in Austin, The JKL Foundation, and
Dell Children’s, among others.

This year, however, was the first time KK art was a part of the
aforementioned very special, main auction night.

The piece began, months prior to the event, with the chosen color palette, an
oversized wooden canvas, and a couple of different ideas that I was between
for where the piece would end up. We then had individual foam panels cut
for the children to paint on. From age four to graduating high school, some
with disabilities, some sick, some healthy, some high risk, they painted their
hearts out with no rules or parameters.

It never ceases to amaze me how universal creativity is. And while the
youngest children are nearly edible, it is always the teens in the after school
programs that I am most enamored with. Many have domestic and
socioeconomic aspects of their lives that most of us can’t understand. And
they are always the ones, two years in a row now, that want to keep
painting, ask if they can do more than just one canvas. They cheer each
other on, unabashedly, in what the other is creating. It’s hard to fully put into
words.

After all of the panels were completed from an array of adolescents and
charismatic kids, I went to my studio to take their art and mine and make it
become one. From there the neon words were added – by in-house
employees who had never done it, mind you – and in the eleventh hour down
to the minutes. The completed piece was then combined with sending two
doctors as a part of HeartGift to Bolivia.

It went for $180,000.

I was in the audience as the bidding began, and to say my expectations were
low is an understatement. As it rapidly rose in price I tried to play it cool, intentionally slowing my breathing so those at my table couldn’t see my
heart pounding. Putting this art at this event had felt vulnerable all along. 
From the start to “sold!”, it was one of the cooler things I’ve experienced in a
while.

In total, we have donated $230,000 in custom art and I am thrilled to say that we
are just getting started.