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YoLadies Feature | Linda McCall, OneLuckyRubberDucky
I found Australian artist Linda McCall on Twitter, and after checking out her site, knew that she had to be a YoLadies Featured Woman. Her art is absolutely amazing - stuff I'd love to hang in my home - but she's more than a great talent.
She donates 20% of the proceeds from her art sales to the charity of the patron's choice.
Her parents and her childhood, spent in the outback on an Aboriginal station, set the stage for her art and philanthropic adventures. Linda doesn't just contribute through art, she gives back through motorbike adventures, hot air ballooning, and all-around living her beliefs.
I sent Linda some questions - if you need some inspiration in this world of greedy bankers and hypocritical politicians, read on. Like all of our YoLadies, Linda is one hell of an inspiration.
K: How long have you been painting?
Linda: Art was my favourite subject at school, and I later took a couple of drawing lessons as a young adult. Only recently did I get back into it and started studying Art in Canberra last year under a well known local artist and teacher Margret Hatfield, experimenting with different mediums.??My passion for art took me off to art lectures at Australia's National Art Gallery and I subsequently became a member of the Gallery as I fell in love with the magic of colour and how artists express on canvas.
I really only started painting to further my passion for charity work. Originally my business Chee-ki (chee = Creating Healthy Equilibrium Easily - Ki = life force energy) was primarily aimed at the Shiatsu massage side of my business.
This year the website became more of a Gallery. I am passionate about all forms of art. I believe we are all artists from the life that we create for ourselves, we choose the colours and the things that influence us and we choose our canvas. It is a gallery we create and move through every day, anyone who says they don't have an artistic bone in their body just has not looked hard enough yet.
At the end of 2009 I moved to Eumundi in semi-rural Queensland and I began painting an impressionist style of dots. I wasn't planning to paint like this, it just came out that way, but it gives me a lot of joy and hope that it excites the peptides for healing in others too. Strangely enough Eumundi has a strong history of Aboriginal settlement as well.
It made me laugh because, it seem to be inspired from my early childhood of living out on an Aboriginal station in the outback in a place called Port Keats (aka Wadeye). My father spent 25 years in the Northern Territory building houses for the Catholic mission and my mother is a nurse, and when they retired they had a three day corroboree ceremony for them and they made the men of our family (my father Ainslie and my brother Glenn who is a Australian Army helicopter pilot) part of the Murrinh Ngarr tribe.
I have a fascination for travel, maps and history so that's where my painting "The Journey" came from. But all of my paintings tell a story of some part of my life and childhood. When my parents saw my paintings for the first time they were not surprised at all. They had a bit of a giggle because the stories are very funny and great memories. I know that I have a lifetime of work ahead just learning and evolving as an artist, and as a person. But I feel I have only touched the tip of the iceburg so to speak, so it's very exciting.
K: You donate a whopping 20% of your proceeds from art sales to charity - what inspired you to do that?
Linda: The decision to donate 20% of the sales proceeds of my paintings to charity was easy. It really was matter-a-fact. I like to give as I receive, and share the love a little! With the art work I create I really want the paintings to remind the buyer of the wonderful gift they have given to help the charity of their choice. So essentially you are giving a nice big lump sum to a charity you choose and you get to keep a gift to.
But the biggest inspiration came from my other venture, www.oneluckyrubberducky.com, which is a little Duck that travels the world raising money for charity. That is my Charity Duck who I rescued from the Thames in London. The idea is that he gets sponsored to travel around the world, and that sponsorship gets donated to charity.
Ducky is really a charity fundraising 'vehicle' and not a charity in itself at this stage but we'd like to grow the concept. We can see how other rubber ducks could get liberated from their humble lives in bathrooms around the world and also go on life saving journeys of their own. In the meantime Ducky continues to travel the world racking up frequent flier miles, adding to this photo collection and of course supporting charities around the world. Our aim is to get people around world really into Ducky fever and make a ducky love difference to those less fortunate. (If there are any computer developer volunteers out there we'd love some help building web applications for Facebook and our website.)
K: You motorbike a lot - is it mainly for fun or is there a charity aspect to that, as well?
Linda: Well both really. Our next adventure is planned for May 2010, when my partner and I hope to ride America starting in Sanfran up to Canada and Alaska in May and June. Mark is involved in tourism and loves adventure riding as well, so this is just for our fun really. But in Sept- October 2010, OneLuckyRubberDucky is planning a fundraising charity motorcycle ride around Australia to support a couple of charities including "Free to Shine" and "cure for life".
"Free to Shine" is a brand new charity about ending sex slavery in Cambodia that I has invited onto the action team of. The ride is 5 girls on motor bikes travelling right around Australia. We are inviting all motorcycle clubs and all motorcyclists and scooters around Australia (or from overseas) to ride with us on sections of our journey as we pass through the towns in support of our fundraising. We hope to get as much support as possible. ?But the journey does not end there, we plan to keep taking the Duck on motorbikes around the world, spreading the "LuckyDucky" love of fundraising and helping to raise money for charities.
I always say it's all about the fun factor!
I only ride BMW's because I was brought up on one as a child. To me it feels like home and they are lovely bikes for women. (In fact I am now the proud owner that family BMW, a 1975 R90S). Actually my Dad used to take me to kindergarten on this bike so it is very close to my heart. I will be riding the R90S on the OneLuckyRubberDucky fundraiser this year (unless someone in BMW reads this article and wants to donate a bike to charity).
In 2008, I rode a BMW F650GS twin with Mark on his F800GS through 9 countries in Europe from Germany to Croatia (the Croatian coastline is a must for motorcyclist), through Bosnia (got a little lost there), as well as over the Timmeljock Pass into Italy (another must for motorcyclist) and back through Switzerland . Photos are available on Mark Phillips' Site. Last year in 2009 I rode my old R90S 3,200 miles through Australia.
K: What's the hot air ballooning story?
Linda: A pilot friend of mine asked if I was interested in helping him inflate a hot air balloon back in 1998 when I lived in Hong Kong. From that moment on I was hooked! I started crewing for the Cathay Pacific hot air balloon and was invited to crew for the World Championships in Europe shortly afterwards and it just rolled on from there. Balloons just bring so much joy and makes people smile wherever we go in the world.
I am part of and all-girls team called the HE-B-GB's (hee-bee-gee-bees) standing for; Highly Elegant Bunch of Girl Balloonist's ( Quite the opposite really, there is nothing elegant about us especially in competition. It's crazy!). We mainly fly competition and I occasionally crew for the Australian champion, Paul Gibbs (Picture This Ballooning), who gives his time to charities every year by giving balloon rides to children's charities including kids with terminal illnesses.
We went to Wagga Wagga NSW (the largest inland city in Australia) last year to spend the weekend with this charity group and it was fabulous with the kid's big smiles and laughter. The kids had to get up with the birds so there were a few blurry eyes and not so much tweeting at that hour of the day, but once the balloon started inflating all were very much awake, bug eyed and bushy tailed.
It's just so wonderful to be a part of we all had a ball. That day we flew over 70 children, a big day for us all but so much fun.
My 2008 motorcycling trip coincided with the world hot air balloon championships in Austria and I've also been to the Waikato Balloon Fiesta in Hamilton NZ. ?I only decided to become a Balloon Pilot recently so I am currently a student pilot, still scary! I have also been lucky enough to fly as a student pilot under instruction in Albuquerque's huge balloon fiesta. You Americans really know how to make the wow factor, it was gob smacking. I have ballooned also in Africa and in the UK, and of course around Australia.
K: You have traveled extensively - has that contributed to your devotion to charity?
Linda: Definitely, travel is where it all began. Going to other countries, particularly developing ones, is confronting at times when you see people at your feet starving and an infrastructure that does not easily support humane living conditions. It can be heart wrenching and frustrating to take in, as you all know. However, from that comes an understanding of not only how other people of the world live but also of the opportunity that exists for their improvement.
Cultures fascinate me and makes you realise how amazing it is to have freedom of choice and the abundance of opportunity that a free democratic society can offer. In Australia we have space, we have beaches and we have sunshine.... with a bit of hard work there is endless opportunity .So that is why today we call our Island down under "the lucky country".
If helping those less fortunate than myself take advantage of their opportunities is something I can do to make the world a better place, then I will do what I can.
K: What is the biggest source of inspiration for you?
Linda: Humanity. What we are all capable of never ceases to amaze me. And Nature, our beautiful vast world and the gifts it holds for us all, if we choose to open our eyes and see its true essence.
Life is beautiful if you choose it - Live life with love laughter and passion, and success and abundance will flow to you with ease. Yo Woman, this is my gift to you.
Thanks so much Linda!
A feature article about Linda McCall, written by Kim Milata-Daniels, & appearing on YoLadies (May 10, 2010)