Laser Eagles is a program of dynamic facilitation for people with disabilities, enabling them to fully express themselves visually through art.The Laser Eagles would like to acknowledge and thank the following former and current trackers:
Pei-Wen Chou
Marc Cengiz
Amanda Ruppert
Jennifer Marr
Michael Skubic
Junko Takahashi
Sarah Teital
Lillian Knutson
Kamarra Robinson
Adam Potts
Other Volunteers
The Laser Eagles Art Guild is a multi-faceted group that requires the dedication and passion from our staff and volunteers in order to be sustainable. Other major roles are in the areas of fundraising and grant writing, and program coordination. Below you will find a description of each role to help you better understand specific roles.
Fundraising and Grant Writing – If you are interested in a fundraising role, we would love to have you on our fundraising and grant writing team. The Laser Eagles would not operate without funding sources. Roles for fundraising would include attending various charitable events to help promote Laser Eagles, selling art or greeting cards and assisting in the organization of fundraisers. Grant writing roles would include helping to write grant material with specific deadlines and requirements in mind.
Program Assistants – These assistants would help in the set up and cleanup at our weekly sessions, and would assist the Master Tracker in various tasks during the session. This may include moving tables and chairs to make them accessible for our artists, washing paintbrushes and cups, and unloading/reloading paint supplies. Assistants are required to arrive at the session about half an hour before artists are scheduled to arrive, and stay half an hour later.
Art Coordinator/Master Tracker (Etobicoke) - Victoria Mongrain
Victoria has been the Laser Eagles Master Tracker since May 2011. As a professional artist, Victoria's role is to ensure that the relationship between the tracker and artist is nurtured and the communication is clear for the artist to express his or her artistic vision. She is also responsible for training all trackers that come on board with us and help them to understand each artist's way of painting.Victoria is a self taught artist born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Growing up in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, she currently resides in Mississauga, Ontario. The experience of her traveling as a child has given her a distinct view on society and an open mind to varied cultures, styles and change.
From an early age, Tori watched her mother paint and since then was tremendously fascinated with shapes, color and texture. Growing up in an artful and multicultural environment, she was given freedom to pursue her creative interests with passion and joy. At the age of 13, she won an award from the Royal Canadian Legion for a Remembrance Day poster she created.
Continuing to grow and develop her skills, she experimented in painting, graphic design, fashion design, make-up artistry, costume design, and other creative outlets. She then found that her call to be a painter was too strong to ignore. Being inspired by cultures, connectivity and consciousness, her photographic interpretative paintings reveal an energy from deep within the object. On the flipside, her emotional paintings exude passion and a strong influence from Canadian First Nations as well as African artists.
Tori Mongrain’s artwork can be found in
public and private locations across North America. She is currently being featured at Harlem Restaurant in Toronto, in a series of work called "Nostalgic Soul".
To learn more about Victoria and to view her work, please visit www.torimongrain.com
Master Tracker (Yonge/Eglinton) - Amber (Ander) Negrazis
At a very young age, Amber Negrazis (aka Ander) had the privilege to learn from and work with a dedicated community of artists in Northern Ontario who facilitated conversations about issues that affected people’s everyday lives. The Not for Profit community arts organization, Myths and Mirrors, used mural-making, giant puppetry, fire-breathing, stilt-walking, street theatre, and zine-making to encourage participatory democratic interaction and inspire hope.
Amber moved to Toronto to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, where she strove to remain rooted in and retain her commitment to creative inquiry and collaborative methodologies. Enrolling in an interdisciplinary degree allowed her to write a thesis and create a portfolio describing and demonstrating how translating theory into visual narrative can make learning more access/able to people with learning disabilities.
Amber continues to write on the subject of and develop interdisciplinary methodologies such as those pertaining to art as a form of research, and research as a form of pedagogy. Her visual work and writing can be found in the pages of Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action (issue 12), and NEST(issue 10). She is a member of the advisory board of Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action, and currently works in Toronto as a learning disabilities tutor.
To become a volunteer at the Laser Eagles Art Guild, please fill out the following application and fax to 416-538-7166, attention to Kimberly Fu.
If you prefer to send electronically, please email us at thelasereagles@gmail.com to request a .doc format application.
Orientations are held every Tuesday afternoon from 12:30 pm to 3:00 pm at the session you prefer to be at (Yonge/Eglinton or Etobicoke). To schedule a time to come in and meet with us, please indicate in your email along with the application.
We look forward to meeting you!
