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My free artwork give away in December 2011 was sponsored by Stephanie Bunting. As I sit here on the morning of New Year’s Eve, the holiday rush has passed and the world begins to slow down. I picked up my book of paintings and paged through it once again. Yes, this is one of the greatest gifts I have ever received. As I read the letter of the sponsorship from my dear friend, Stephanie, Goddess O’ the Groove, I can’t help but smile. A tear rolls down my cheek, not from sadness, but from an overwhelming feeling of joy. That smile and tear happens every time I look at this letter and the happy face on the child that received your painting in my honor. This has truly touched my heart in a special way. I believe one of the greatest gifts is to love and be loved. “The Smile Boston Project” does just that – brings loving smiles to people of all cultures all around the world. Thank you, Bren and Stephanie, for this wonderful gift. You have touched my heart in a special way and gained yet another fan of your work! Forever smiling with love and joy in my heart – Diane Message from Stephanie (The awesome person who sponsered my Dec. 2011 art give away. Stephanie found one of my paintings in Jacksonville, FL in 2010) I am so happy that you enjoyed your sponshorship Diane and Bren well you know I think you are such a special person. I heard from Goddess O art and Design and she as well loved this and was honored and said she is going to look high and low for her own painting. Susan who you also heard from was so touched and said it made such a difference in her perspective this Christmas with both her children gone. The Lake goddess story was pretty funny because she thinks it pushed her man to propose since the package from Boston was an unknown male. LOL Bren I can't thank you enough. My own package that you sent me brought me to tears several times I love that you thought of me and got how much that mother's story meant to me personally. I haven't heard from the other goddesses yet but I know this is such a busy time and from the responses I have gotten I know they were well recieved. Abundance of blessings to you and all that comes around you! Happiest New Year Love, Stephanie
U.K. Postercard feedback 8.2011: Thanks for the postercard. Hope you enjoyed your stay the Headlandview. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.
5_2011 (Painting Contest Winner) I found one of your unicorn postcards! I was very happy to see it by chance while I was waiting for for my boyfriend to get his hair cut (at la Flamme). It definitely brought a smile to my face during exam period, and I'm really glad that I guess I won one of your painting. Cheers, Catherine >>>
I received 2 of your paintings while in costa rica---@a coffee plantation- i am a single momma and your paintings were a blessing to our family of three--THANK YOU!!!! Jeanne from Costa Rica
12.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Florida R you the guy that left the painting at the Jacksonville Landing? I smile at random people cuz that is what I do but to have a reason to do it more with ART as the prize (reward) I have been twinkling since If this is you please let me know. I want you to know how totally this made my day! Either way artist or just mistaken me PEACE and abundant blessings to you and all that comes around you-Goddess o the Groove 12.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Florida Thank you so, so much for sharing your art with me. I absolutely love my new little fellow! I'm going to name him Nerb, he looks like a Nerb, don't ya think? (that's Bren backwards!) I'm going to find a special place to hang him in my home and remember the optimism he portrays. Nanci
11.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series Salt Lake City, UT "I got one of your paintings today in SLC ... I love it!! Thank you so much!! :)." Ame 11.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series Salt Lake City, UT I found this painting while waiting for the bus yesterday and I have been smiling ever since. Thank you. Marcus 11.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series Salt Lake City, UT Found a painting earlier today in downtown SLC. It made my whole day... Thank you so much! I love this idea!!
11.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Chicago, IL and Series Grand Rapids, MI Hi! My 15 yr old son went to ArtPrize with his grandma and picked up your painting at Ah Nab Wine Park! Cool that a teenager grabbed it huh? Proud of this kid, and find you pretty impressive too! Jeanne
10.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series Grand Rapids, MI My son was very excited to find this painting on our walk home from school. We found it on a bench inside a covered bus stop... thank you for all you are doing! We hope you are enjoying your time in our town! (We just moved from the Twin Cities area and are so excited to experience Art Prize later this month!) 10.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series Grand Rapids, MI Thanks for the painting. The group of gals I was with got a real kick out of it. We had been out for lunch at Ramonas Table and took in a few of the shops. Such a neat area. I will enjoy the painting. Thanks again. Linda
10.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series New Orleans, LA HI, I BOOKED A TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS AND WAS FEELING SAD, NOT HAVING ANYONE TO HANG WITH THAT DAY SO I WALKED DOWN ROYAL STREET TO VIEW THE ART. YOUR SMILE NOTE HIT ME AND I WAS SHINING MY TEETH THE REST OF THE DAY.ITS TRUE SMILE AND THE WORLD SMILES WITH YOU. I BROUGHT THE ART BACK TO CHICAGOLAND AREA WITH ME AND IT CHEERFULY WILL HANG IN MY KITCHEN. IM IN THE ENVIORNMEBTAL HEALTH FIELD AND A PART TIME ARTIST FOR FRIENDS, HERES A PIC OF WHAT IM PAINTING NOW. I MUST GET A T-SHIRT NOW. THANKS, LEE
8.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series, Stoughton, MA Hi Bren. I was blessed to find one of your inspirations done by the kids in Stoughton Schools. I happened to be pulling weeds and watering flowers at Trinity Church and there at the front door was the cutest picture of a "yellow alien with antenna, a green bow tie and braces. Cracked me up when I first saw it. What a wonderful idea to make people smile and laugh - I laughed out loud on the steps, there, all by myself. I am a happy go lucky person anyway and am so glad it was me. I intend to pass the picture on to someone who has been very down lately. I know it will make her smile, too! You have inspired me to go ahead with an idea I have had for quite sometime, to do the same to some anonymous person - a pay it forward kind of joy. I do a lot of pastoral care with the mentally challenged and the elderly, so your idea is right up my alley. Thanks for the smile. Minna
7.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series Dear Bren. I am currently going through a very difficult period in my life, and I wanted to share a little happiness with someone. I thought it would be appropriate to write to someone who had affected my life and let them know that their efforts had been so very appreciated. There was a young man who found one of your paintings. I would like to tell you how he happened upon your painting and how it has helped both him and me. We met in college and started dating. We would often take day trips into the Boston/Cambridge area, head to the Garage, and every time he would see your paintings in the stairwell he would tell me how very badly he wanted one. I planned on getting him one of them when I had the money to. He's told me before that I did end up getting him one. On the day he found your giggling green character, we had a tremendous argument (about who-knows-what now). Our relationship had been rocky for quite some time. You see, I've been a victim of relationship abuse and sexual assault, and I'm not the most easy person to date or befriend. Between my fears and distrust of men, he had himself quite a time trying to make me feel that I can love and trust someone without getting hurt. He loved me and he tried and I would fight his efforts with every bit of my being. Your painting arrived at just the right time, he was about to give up. He didn't know what he could do to prove to me that love even truly existed let alone that I could be safe in a relationship. For me that day, I was dying inside, fighting my instincts to run away from him and instead calling him and texting him trying to apologize for our fight and ask him to come back and speak with me, but he had turned off his phone. I thought I lost him when he had just finally started to break down my walls and get me to open up to him emotionally. Shortly after I decided to stop trying, he called, "You know those paintings at the Garage I always say I want? Yeah, well, I got one for free. And I'm sorry too." I asked what was going on and he explained that when he felt most hopeless, he saw a piece of paper that told him everything would be all right, and that it was attached to a free painting. He said that it gave him hope that the world wasn't all bad and that he could get through "this" whatever it was, and we would be happy together. He told me that the doctors would find out what was wrong with his mother, and that he would do fine in school that semester, find a job, and everything would work out as it should, maybe we could even move into an apartment together. He told me he would rush back to see me. In that moment I felt blessed, like the sky had opened up and placed a miracle in my lap and all my insecurities went away. I was okay with him being out for the rest of the day, I wasn't afraid that he was abandoning me, I wasn't afraid that he didn't really care. That was the first time I was able to say "No, it's okay. Enjoy yourself!" to him and really mean it. The first thing I saw when I walked through the door of his apartment later that night was his body with bright yellow and green and jarring black strewn in the most pleasant way across a canvas that comprised his head. Pulling the painting away, he smiled and handed me the note you had written. We sat in his room and decided where to hang it. It took us hours to finally decide. When we did, he gave me the honor of putting it up. I gently slipped the note between the back of the canvas and the frame and hung it. Since that day, I have gotten better, grown incredibly, and can love openly. When I'm feeling hopeless or lost, or like the world is falling in on me, he will take your painting and place it in my hands. He tells me to turn it over and I read your note again and can't help but feel better knowing that some things actually do happen for a reason and it will be okay. Today, before he and I left my house with his suitcases, he handed me your painting. Today, before he and I left for the airport, he gave me the painting that makes me smile for no reason whenever I see it. Today, before the person I love moved back to his home state, he handed me an amazing sign that everything was going to be all right and we would make it through this. Now sitting here in Massachusetts is a bit more bearable being able to see that painting smiling back at me when he’s 2000 miles away. As horribly difficult as this is he has a job lined up, a place to live, he's going to be taking care of his mother after heart surgery and she's doing well, and our relationship is great and makes me so happy. Everything really is okay. Besides, he says he'll visit in February. Thank you so much for giving such a wonderful gift to us. From a Boston Painting Recipient
6.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series Feedback. Hey Bren. Have you ever seen a rainbow after a long rain? Have you ever found a four leaf clover in garden of weeds? What about seeing a falling star driving at night desperately trying to stay awake? Or searching through five minutes of static, before you find your favorite song on the radio? How did it feel? Did it make you feel lucky and happy? Did you get that warm and fuzzy feeling in your soul? Those "warm fuzzies" are the feelings that artist Bren Bataclan makes one feel after finding one of his paintings. I had first heard of Bren's artwork in 2008. I was newly engaged and I felt like I was on top of the world. I had big dreams, big goals, and a bright, happy future ahead of me. I contacted Bren after reading about him in the newspaper on my way to work one morning. I told him that I wanted to buy one of his paintings. I loved his mission of making people smile, especially since he lived and worked near my home city of Boston. I imagined his art hanging in my new house--my first piece of original artwork. However, my goals of saving for a house, a wedding, and a new future, put buying one of his paintings on hold. I remained in touch with him and followed his story. He would often invite me to his gallery or other shows to which I declined. In 2009, my wedding was cancelled. It was three months before what I thought was going to be the happiest and best day of my life. My future had unexpectedly changed in just one single day. The house my fiancé and me had picked out together was put back on the market. Gifts were returned, my bridal shower cancelled, my dress alterations stopped, and the wedding band that I was going to give my soul mate was put back in the store's case--my life and my future felt "cancelled". I was left in a state of shock. I felt a deep feeling of sadness and hopelessness. It was a feeling unlike any other that I had felt before--I had lost my happiness. All of us experience losses in our life. Some of our losses are greater than others. Some losses affect us more than others by the way we are able to cope with them and by what type of support network is available to us during that time. It is inevitable that we will all experience the death of a loved one, the loss of a lover, the loss of our health. Sometimes losses can come unexpectedly--a fire, an accident, or a flood. A feeling so sad, so unlucky, and so unfair. These are often the hardest to cope with. For a long time I wallowed in my sadness and my seeming misfortune. There was nothing that any best friend, co-worker, or family member could say or do to make me feel better. No favorite song, no rainbow, no chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, no big comfy therapist chair, alcoholic beverage, or quick fix pill, that could change the way my loss had hurt me. It was like I had no feelings at all--like my happy personality had been stolen. I started going to Bren's website and I read the stories about how his artwork had cheered complete strangers up when they were having a bad day. Stories about how people had overcome their losses by his simple message, "everything will be alright". There were stories about cancer survivors, people who had lost their jobs, and people who had positively changed their minds when faced with desperation. Slowly, my outlook on my own life changed. I started to think about all the bad things that could have happened in my life and how lucky I was that they did not. I thought about all the positive and good people in my life, about random acts of kindness, and about the power of a smile. I gave myself the will to be able to refrain from abusing drugs and alcohol. Instead, I chose to think about my life more positively because of the stories and articles I read that related to his project. Bren's paintings and mission have taught me how to turn bad experiences into positive ones no matter how small or large. He has taught me to believe in luck. His project has reminded me to respect people regardless of their color, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. Bren has reinstilled in me the power of the "golden rule"--to treat others how you wish to be treated. He has taught me how simple acts of kindness, caring, empathy, and compassion can change your own life as well as the people you randomly encounter on a daily basis. I believe that no one on this planet deserves to experience pain or suffering, especially when it seems undeserved or unfair. However, sometimes we must experience, see, and feel the bad, to appreciate and feel the good. We must deal and cope with our lot in life whether it is by choice or fate. Because without bad luck there is no good luck. One has to experience the rain, the weeds, the darkness, and the static, before one finds the real and true happiness that life has to offer. Thank you for giving me my "warm fuzzies" back Bren!" From a Boston Painting Recipient
4.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series (Arlington, MA) I was thrilled to find not one, but two of your paintings. Typically, I would have let the second one go to someone else such that the project would spread but as my wife is expecting twins this summer, the two, not-quite-identical but very close characters seemed a bit of an omen that I simply couldn’t pass up. My three-year-old son has taken to calling his unborn brothers Chico and Shadow. The new paintings will find their way into their nursery, waiting for the kids to follow. We’ll name them with something a bit more socially acceptable but your paintings will forever be known as Chico and Shadow. I’d like to thank you not only for works I now have but for all the ones you’ve spread elsewhere. I was raised with original art in my bedroom and I love the fact that other kids now have a chance at the same. Keep it up! -MH
3.2010 Everything Will Be Alright Series (Belize) I picked up a painting left in the Belize City airport! When I saw it I thought it looked somewhat familiar. After checking your site, I realized that it's because I've seen your stuff here and there in Boston, where I was returning to. Funny, that. Thanks so much for the smile. It helped a bit, at the thought of leaving Belize for boston. Enjoy the trip, Matty
12.2009 Everything Will Be Alright Series (Raleigh, NC) Mr. Bataclan, My name is Brooke Marshall and I, along with my 4th grade class, was the recipient of your beautiful painting today in Raleigh just outside of the Museum of History. I just wanted to tell you thank you again. My class and I were so honored to be able to take a piece of your artwork back to class with us. It is really going to brighten up the room, and look absolutely beautiful on our shelf. Now thanks to you, I will have this piece of artwork for years to come that I can have on display and tell the children the story that goes along with it. I looked at your website, and what you do is amazing. We need more people in this world like you! Thank you again so very much, Brooke >>> 12.2009 Everything Will Be Alright Series (Raleigh, NC) Hello Bren,I was the surprised and delighted finder of one of your paintings in Raleigh, North Carolina! I am so thrilled as it is adorable! Thanks for what you do. I know you must make a lot of people happy. Regards, Katy >>>
11.2009: Everything Will Be Alright Series (North Hollywood, CA) >>>
10.2009: Everything Will Be Alright Series (Boston) I just wanted to let you know that your painting turned an incredibly bad week around. thanks bren! 10.2009: Everything Will Be Alright Series (Boston) I got one of your paintings at Harvard College. It made my day. Rediet
6.2009: Everything Will Be Alright Series: Hi, I found one of your paintings on the steps of my university. I was walking up the steps before I had to attend a trial in which I was being wrongly accused of some rather grievous charges. I felt like everything around me was just falling apart, nothing was going even close to ok. I had come very close to committing suicide several times in the weeks leading up to the trial, but thanks to the suicide hot line, I'm still here. I was early to my trial, so I was walking up the stairs to get a drink from Starbucks when I came across your painting. It was like something or someone was smiling down at me (and that means a lot because I'm an atheist). Finding that picture gave me the strength to carry on that day and during the next few days while I was waiting for the decision. Everything did indeed work out. I was cleared and I got some of the best grades I've ever gotten in my life that semester. I now proudly display your picture in my room (at school and at home now that's it summer). I've told this story to so many people since then, so I thought you should know too. Thank you so much, you have no idea how you have touched my life. I will never forget you or your painting. Anonymous6.2009: Everything Will Be Alright Series: Thank you so much for your generous and selfless project! My son found one of your paintings and the story was covered in one of your recent publications. You, indirectly, lit up the light in the hearts of so many people!! My son has been missing since 2006 after the sudden death of his father and my husband. He was very close to his Dad as a son and artist; losing his father was a devastating blow to his life. But I can relax in the knowledge that he's on his life's journey, on the West Coast and pursuing his passion as an artist. Art heals! And, I know his heart is healing thanks to your project!! Your message of "everything is going to be alright", is so profound for a young man who has been suffering a personal loss for several years. Thank you, again. Anonymous
6.2009: Everything Will Be Alright Series (Las Vegas): hi! I got the painting from you at the Venetian, I brought it to Calgary, Canada, and am giving it to the most happy most smiling 21m boy :) Annonymous
This little painting is almost as cute as the artist Kimmi >>>
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9.2009: Everything Will Be Alright Series (Philippines) 
03.2009: Everything Will Be Alright Series (San Francisco): Thanks so much again for the painting. My hope to be a part of smile project began following my reading of the piece the San Francisco ran in December. I thought what you were doing is just the sort of thing this country needs to turn around: A sense of community and embracing the power of sharing. Besides the characters are so cute I wanted to find one. Soon after I followed @smileproject on twitter hoping that I would have an edge in this artistic easter egg hunt. February 11 was my big break. I was on hold with the credit card company (oh so much anxiety) when I received the feed that Smile Project was visiting the Serramonte Mall. 15 mins away, so I twittered back that I'd be there in a half. I picked up Michelle in San Bruno and we drove over, strategizing the search. We drove around outside and decided that Bren would most likely be in the mall. My first thought was to be near the recently closed Mervin's. We were both nervous and excited. That all turned to a sort of let down as I updated twitter on my iphone and realized I may have been too late. We had one place left to search-- the food court. I see a man with a canvas sitting nearby. I ask him and he points to a camera crew. I explained how I was following on twitter and really was hoping to meet a successful artist. He says they have one more painting to drop off. Seconds later I am meeting Bren, getting a cool painting (that matches my jacket) and being interviewed by a Philippine TV crew. I have not seen the interview, but I felt so lucky that Wednesday evening. As I move forward in my job search, I know "everything will be all right" Cristalle 
03.2009: Everything Will Be Alright Series (San Francisco)