Joburg Child Welfare has a 100 Doors campaign, where celebrities, artists and other more ordinary folk donating their time and skills and are making artwork out of  old doors.  The doors will ultimately be sold in an auction in February 2011.  I took a few photos of completed doors a few months ago, when they were on display;  but today was different.  I was asked by Sarah to take photos of people actually painting the doors!

Today’s 100 Doors art jamming session was held at Artjamming at the Blu Bird Centre in Birnam. What a magnificent place!! It’s an art studio, right next to Col’Cacchios (such a win because you can order pizza and wine and have a feast while you paint); and you can go there for art lessons, or just to play around with paints.  All you need to do is pay for the canvas, and then the paint and studio time is free!! How awesome!! They also organise painting parties for kids, as well as for groups of adults.  I think I’m going to organise a girls night out there… with a bit of pizza, wine and art… what a cool evening out!

Anyhoo, back to the 100 Doors… 4 doors were started today, and everyone looked like they really enjoyed themselves.  The session started just after 3pm so that everyone’s kids could get involved.

Dee Blackie and her kids planned their door quite seriously… and the baobab tree was the inspiration


Brothers from Othandweni Children’s home in Soweto spent ages perfecting this intricate design. I went to Othandweni for a Christmas party last year for HelpPortrait project, and that’s how I got involved with Joburg Child Welfare, so it was great to see some of the kids.

Col’cacchios provided us with fabulous pizzas and drinks for the afternoon

Basetsana Khumalo also joined in the fun and painted a door

And the Artjamming team then started their own door

Alex Blackie joined the Blackie team to help with the painting, and look how gorgeous their door turned out!

If you are interesting in painting a door, or getting involved in any way, join the 100 Doors facebook event or contact Sarah on fundraising@jhbchildwelfare.co.za

My garden is looking really sad right now, and I got downright depressed walking around it this evening looking for things to photograph.  The huskies have destroyed it… do you know that they’ve even eaten and destroyed my cactus plants?!

I did manage to find one or two things that looked ok though…

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

I bought 3 beautiful Venus protea flowers from Woolies today… just so I could get my photo for the day   I adore proteas!! Not least because they last for weeks in vases!!

In fact, I could see these 3 photos printed in canvas and mounted on my wall… I really like all the deconstructed shapes

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

I had to leave the office early today to pick the kids up, and instead of taking them to my mom‘s house after we did homework, my mom joined us at the local park for a bit of a dog walk.   It was fun, and I think the walk was a fabulous idea for my mom, who has been feeling a little under the weather lately.

How cool is Connor’s new “soccer” shirt?! It was made by one of the mom’s at his school.

It’s a pity the view is so murky, but on a clear day you can see the entire Joburg skyline from that particular spot.

And thankfully, even though the municipality had cut the grass since my trip there on Monday, there were odd patches of beautiful long grasses that were just waiting for me and my camera

See the full set of 2010 photo-a-day photos on my Project 365 Flickr Set.

I popped out of the office at lunchtime today to take photos of the 100 Doors of Hope that are being displayed at Hyde Park Shopping Centre this week.

The 100 Doors of Hope is a fundraising initiative for Johannesburg Child Welfare

100 doors and a 100 people raising money for Jo’burg Child Welfare.

JCW has tasked 100 people consisting of artists, musicians, celebrities, authors, comedians, photographers, cartoonists and graphic designers to each take an old door and turn it into a piece of art.

These doors will be auctioned in September to raise much needed funds for Jo’burg Child Welfare.

Wow, I was blown away by them.  The designs are awesome, and the stories that the doors tell are just so so powerful.  I definitely have my favourites, which ones are yours?

LOVED the dress in this door by Abigail Betz

A very powerful story by Bevan and Justine Cullinan

Loved the detail around the door by Des and Dawn Lindberg


Very cool design by Evolver

One of the things I noticed right away was the way that each artist treated the door handle… and this one was the fanciest and definitely had the most detail. The back of this door by photographer Graeme Williams was also very detailed.

Just love this one by John Vlismas

Oh and you know how I love graffiti… so this door by Rasty just spoke to me

Loved the story behind this door by Senzo Shabangu

I would love to see more of the doors as they’re completed. You can follow the progress of the doors by joining the event on Facebook