Inspiration from inspiration: 29th Annual Mayor's Art Awards Celebration

Positive-thought provoking. Awe-inspiring. Inspirational. Like a town crier calling for an approaching circus. But the circus you marvel at as a kid, not the media-circus connotation I carry now as a 32 year-old man.

And while the margin between the two is a country song waiting to happen, I was treated to nothing short of these feelings last night at the 29th Annual Mayor's Arts Awards Celebration from the Bellingham Arts Commission (http://www.cob.org/government/public/boards-commissions/arts/index.aspx).

20 artists were recognized last night in Bellingham, for Bellingham, on behalf of Bellingham. And these people are really the champions of this hamlet, giving back through their respective arts, each with a positive attitude, interaction with kids from age 2 to 92, or just immense creativity. The ability to recognize the moments you were in awe of someone was almost tangible, from the teacher who worked with children who said her art was an unsigned one, but multiplied over and over,making it better than any signature, to the writer who reiterated his account of how the old Fairhaven Hotel was dismantled into dump trucks and dumped along Boulevard Park. Each awardee represented the army of creative minds behind them, and in their brief moments in the spotlight, shone back with the talent that brought them to that podium in the first place.

In the true spirit of their art, the Dream Science Circus, who inspires through interaction, teaching confidence building, trust, and creativity through performance art, gave an acceptance fitting to their cause, as the one partner, climbed atop the others shoulders, and gave thanks back to Bellingham, when it was our appreciation they were there to accept.

And that was the underlying theme; even when Ben Mann was accepting his award for teaching art to students in the same classroom in Silver Beach where he "first brought his purple crayons", despite the Bellingham Repertory Dance Company's award for bringing performance level dance to our 72,000 plus town, as well as the opportunity to participate, they were still giving. They were giving thanks, genuine, well-thought out, and heart-spoken thanks to a place that isn't the biggest star on most maps, but might have the biggest heart.

And when the Poetry Night at Fantasia's spokesman spoke of the ingenuity, passion, honesty, and raw talent of their group, he qualified it for me forever when he made mention that the median age is 22. He boasted that he had hope for the future based on this group of young people, a rare statement in these or any times, really.

Grant Donnellan accepted his award, and posed a question for Bellingham to think about the next time that music's budget is on the chopping block: How many of us listened to music today, in some form or another? And in the same day, how many of us used complex mathematics? This doesn't discount the need for math is schools; but shows that music is so much more than extra-curricular.

A recipient brought a card from a student, that when opened read, "Thank you, with all our art!' And that's what Bellingham continually does, is thank itself through the local artists who grant us permission into their grey matter, to a creativity that we might be too busy to harness ourselves sometimes, but definitely need to appreciate.

Grey could be the predominant color in Bellingham. At points in February, there's no refuting that. But there are folks in this town who are doing their best to splash some accent color through carving, juggling, painting, teaching the piano, restoring the Whatcom Centennial Story Pole, dance, or poetry.

No amount of skillful invention can ever replace the essential element of imagination, said a man name Edward Hopper. It's Bellingham's continual combination of the two that keeps me here.