The Pay it Forward Arts Fund (PIFAF) is a gift of artist Barbara Salsberg Mathews and her husband Bruce Mathews. The award helps local artists, in any discipline, fund art projects that “pay it forward” and benefit the community.

As I write this note, the first snow is layering the outside world with what looks, from here, quite a bit like magic. I’m struck by how something so familiar - I have seen many decades’ worth of first snows! - can also bring a jolt of surprise and of transformation, every time. So it is with the work of Art Not Shame.

I was both excited and anxious/nervous about beginning the eight week journey that would be “Fuck Perfect”. Excited because of how much I believe in the ethic & mandate of Art Not Shame and loved the idea of a deep-dive into perfectionism and exploring how to begin freeing ourselves from its tentacles. Anxious because facilitating such a workshop would be challenging in the most ideal of circumstances and we were going to try to do it online over Zoom! Whoa!

I first connected with Michelle Peek, of Art not Shame, through a mentorship program hosted by the Guelph Arts Council (GAC). I felt an immediate connection; our weeks flew by during our time together with meaningful conversations about art, community, equity, well-being, and the intersection of it all. I left our conversations feeling inspired - thinking critically about our current society, the role of the arts, and my place in it all. Despite the GAC program ending, the mentorship and friendship continued.