Children's Healing Art Project Announces First International Bacon Boy Day of Art & Bacon Festival, September 5-7 at Art in the Pearl

Portland, Oregon based Children’s Healing Art Project (CHAP), announces the First Annual International Bacon Boy Day of Art & Bacon Festival September 5-7. CHAP brings the healing power of art to children and their families in crisis, and celebrates kids for their artistic talents rather than their disease, diagnosis or disability. CHAP works with more than 10,000 children a year in and out of Portland hospitals.

PORTLAND, OR – September 3, 2009 (PressReleasePivot) — CHAP, the Children’s Healing Art Project, will host its First Annual International Bacon Boy Day of Art & Bacon Festival as part of Art in the Pearl during Labor Day weekend, September 5-7. The event, located in the NW Park blocks of downtown Portland, Oregon, will celebrate Bacon Boy, a cartoon superhero created by 10 year-old Austin Winters during his fight with leukemia at Portland’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. Austin lost his battle with cancer on September 18, 2008, and the First Annual International Bacon Boy Day of Art & Bacon Festival was created to celebrate this courageous young man’s life and creative vision.

Inspired by Frank Etxaniz, the founder of the Children Healing Art Project, to create a character to draw, Austin drew Bacon Boy to fight the evil Fry Guy and his minions, Knife and Fork. Bacon Boy shoots bacon bits from one hand and grease from the other, and has “meat vision” that lets him propel sausages and corn dogs out of his eye sockets. Austin’s superhero has since inspired many other children who are battling cancer to create their own superheros and is testament to the ability of children to bravely face life’s most difficult situations using creativity. See video of Bacon Boy on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnfTwVBP-TU

After Bacon Boy won a children’s art contest, glassblowers at the Tacoma Museum of Glass transformed it into a glass sculpture that is now a permanent part of their collection of kids’ art. The character has since spurred iron-on images, t-shirts, and animations, sales of which support the Austin Winters Fund and CHAP. ( http://www.chap.name )

Participants at the festival will see a 10-foot recycled gold-leafed Bacon Boy sculpture, a Nepalese Bacon Boy rug as well as other Bacon Boy inspired art. They can buy Bacon Boy vs. Fry Guy T-shirts, help paint the CHAPmobile and leave their creative mark on a Columbia Sportswear coat. Oregon Culinary Institute will provide a BLT Bar including pork and “facon” to be enjoyed as the classic BLT or in the CHAPwich, arugula, bacon/facon, peach chutney, paper-thin honey-dipped deep-fried jalapeno slices on a Pearl Bakery cibatta roll. Cupcake Jones has created special Bacon Boy cupcakes and Voodoo Doughnuts will provide their Bacon Maple Bars. An event flier can be found at http://www.chap.name/pdf/BaconBoyDay.pdf

About Children’s Healing Art Project (CHAP)
CHAP brings the healing power of art to children and their families in crisis, and helps each child be seen for their artistic talents rather than their disease, diagnosis or disability. CHAP works with more than 10,000 children a year in and out of Portland hospitals. All proceeds from the three-day event will go to support art programming in the children’s hospitals in Portland, Oregon, and in CHAP’s satellite arts programming in Argentina and Nepal. Please visit http://www.chap.name for more information.

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