The Cupertino Courier

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Purple Leaves: Jordana Lilly displays a painting she created that her mother dubbed 'Purple Leaves.' The painting was bought at the auction by a family member.

Art for Darfur

Seventh-grader organizes auction to help refugees

By Mary Gottschalk

Jordana Lilly listens, absorbs and then she acts.

To anyone who knows Jordana, it's not a surprise that the 13-year-old organized an auction of more than 100 pieces of donated art to raise money for child refugees in Darfur.

"I know what's she capable of, so it's not surprising. Jordana's an incredible child," says Rabbi Dana Magat of Temple Emanu-El on University Avenue in San Jose.

It was Magat's talks on Darfur that first made Jordana aware of the plight of the displaced residents in eastern Sudan and the ongoing genocide there that has claimed more than 400,000 lives.

When it came time to do a community project as part of her bat mitzvah, the ceremony marking her 13th birthday, Jordana decided to focus on Darfur.

"My Torah portion was about freedom, and the people in Darfur are not free," Jordana said, adding, "I'm interested in art so I wanted to bring that in."

Art auctions are nothing new to the seventh-grader at Cupertino Middle School. She lives in Los Altos with her parents, Nancy Weintraub and Byron Lilly.

"When we'd go on vacation, if the children wanted spending money to buy trinkets, they would do an art auction," said Weintraub.

Jordana added, "I always liked art auctions. When I was little, we did many art auctions and I thought, 'What if we did a real art auction?' "

At the family auctions, Jordana says bids would start at 25 cents.

The bids were much higher at the Jan. 21 "Picture Peace--Art for Darfur" event.

Jordana allowed the artists to designate opening bids. She said the majority of the pieces were $20 minimum bids, but the artists could choose a higher or lower bid if they wanted.

The auction raised more than $8,000 for the "Save the Children Sudan Fund," which provides food, shelter, protection and sanitized water for the child refugees of Darfur.

The range of art up for bid was wide. There were oils and acrylics as well as prints, several pieces of ceramic art, jewelry and hand-knit scarves.

Many of the pieces depicted recognizable California landmarks, from Mendocino Creek and Big Basin to the Ainsley House in Campbell. Others were abstract.

A few were directly related to Judaism, including challah covers, an oil of "Old Jerusalem" and a photograph titled "Torah Breast Plate."

Jordana donated her own work--an acrylic painting titled "Purple Leaves" and two collaborations with Adrianna Efron, her friend and fellow seventh-grader.

The two worked together on the abstract pieces they titled "Aggression of a Teenage Soul" and "Fourth of July on the Road."

"We kind of brainstormed what we would want to make the painting about and decided to make it modern," Jordana said. "We switched off while painting."

In collecting art for the auction, Jordana said, "I asked anyone that I knew that was an artist or had friends who were artists and they spread the word. It was basically a chain reaction of people talking about my project."

Artist Rudy Marinacci initially heard about Jordana's auction from her grandmother, Marsha Lilly.

It's not unusual for Marinacci to be asked to donate one of his watercolors, acrylics or oils to a charity auction, but he noticed a difference with Jordana.

In the past, he said, it has not always been clear how the monies raised would be used and sometimes he wasn't even thanked for the donation.

"After talking to Jordana on the telephone, I was inspired and when I saw what they'd done with the web page, I was impressed," Marinacci said.

The watercolor Marinacci donated, titled "Veggies" and depicting a plate of carrots, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes and a green bell pepper, would sell for $200 to $300 at an art fair. He put a $40 minimum bid on the piece. It sold for $1,000.

Sunnyvale artist Edith Argabrite learned about the auction after showing some of her work to Magat.

"I brought my artwork to show the rabbi and the appointment receptionist said, 'You should call Jordana about her auction.' "

Jordana's father drove her to meet Argabrite, who described the whole experience as "a little bit magical."

Argabrite donated a number of her sketches of animals and humans, acrylic paintings and a fiber art wall hanging to the auction.

"I know what it's like to be poor and an emigrant and kicked out of your country," said Argabrite who was born in Czechoslovakia, but fled with her family to China and eventually the United States.

Argabrite said talking to Jordana and then donating to her auction "fulfilled a need in me. I've been frustrated because I'm not doing a lot for other people and I thought, well, this is for the children of Darfur. Maybe I would be doing a little, tiny bit and that made me feel good.

"Those kids are in such a horrendous situation. I know what that feels like."

While Argabrite called her, Jordana says she approached most artists by emails. "If they had something to donate, I'd call them or they would call me and we'd figure out how to pick it up. Most people said it was really cool and they wanted to donate."

Jordana says no one turned her down directly, but when artists didn't reply to her email she assumed they weren't interested.

Between the silent auction and live auction portions of the Jan. 21 event, Jordana invited Elissa Test to speak. Test is a coordinator of the Stanford chapter of Students Take Action Now for Darfur, which works to create awareness about, take political action on and raise funds to help end the genocide in Darfur.

"I wanted to make sure everyone knew what they were donating to and what Darfur is about," Jordana said.

Jordana's Girl Scout Troop 90 joined her at the auction, setting up a table for a bake sale outside Temple Emanu-El.

"It was a little extra thing to get some more money," she said.

Jordana's bat mitzvah took place Jan. 20, her 13th birthday and the day before the auction. Jordana wasn't worried, saying that having many relatives attending both the ceremony and the auction where they could bid was a plus.

Jordana is the second student at Temple Emanu-El to do a project on Darfur, Magat said.

For his bar mitzvah, the other student set up a booth on Yom Kippur to increase awareness about the crisis in Darfur among the congregation. He also encouraged people to wear the green wristbands reading, "Not On Our Watch--Save Darfur."

Magat said typical bar and bat mitzvah projects are "going to feed the homeless, cleaning up a park or a beach or helping animals. This project is really exceptional. To compare Jordana to other students would be unfair.

"This subject speaks to our hearts. It's overwhelming because Darfur is far away, and it feels like there is nothing we can do.

"We look at Jordana and if she can do something this big and make a difference, we ought to learn from her. We all have the same power and we, as Americans, can't maintain this ethnocentric line.

"We need to care for other people and know that every human being is equal to ourselves."