In 1971, the Zenga family began with a honeymoon road trip across Canada. Today we’re a family of nine children and have grown to over 20 members. As we’ve grown, we’ve spread out, from Toronto to Waterloo while some of us have migrated west to Vancouver.

With a continued wanderlust and a desire to contribute to the needs of others, members of our family have bicycled across Africa, worked for the UN in Ghana, volunteered in Mother Teresa’s homes in India, given a TEDtalk, helped start a bicycle shop in Malawi, and cared for orphans in Romania. Throughout these adventures we aspire to live creatively and joyously; building crazy bicycles, hand painting our cars and making films. We led a community film project involving over 100 participants resulting in an award-winning documentary that’s played in community centres, living rooms and major film festivals around the world. We’ve hosted the Bicycle Film Festival and various art shows throughout Canada and held craft and bake sales in support of families in Rwanda. Collectively we’ve grown to become filmmakers, photographers, designers, musicians, skateboarders, engineers, teachers, and bicycle builders.

This year marks our parent’s 40th wedding anniversary. We are going to get together and travel as a family in a creative caravan to encourage active living, creative expression & homemade entertainment with others. Through hosting interactive film screenings, hands-on workshops, and art bike parades in the towns and cities we will be visiting, we want to combine our talents while inspiring others along the way.

It has always been our dream to do something big together as a family...

We eccentrify because the natural world is eccentric. The natural world is the greatest work of art. We are inspired by the brilliant colours, intricate patterns and astonishing designs displayed in everything from DNA strands to insects, from coral reefs to rain forests, and from sunsets to solar systems. Hundertwasser, the visionary Austrian artist proclaimed: “the straight line does not exist in nature.”

To eccentrify is to personally customize, decorate, and transform something; making it absolutely unique and mind-blowing. You can eccentrify an object, a situation, an activity, a moment in time, your life. This can mean creating your own entertainment, such as playing in a band, building a garden of whirligigs, organizing family celebrations, and hosting community film screenings. It is making something yourself instead of buying it, whether it be a gift, t-shirt, tree fort or a house. It is having the courage to be inspired by the vibrant colours and bold patterns of the natural world in the way you dress and decorate. It is learning the skills to build, repair, and customize your stuff. Riding a tall bike, skateboarding to work, or driving an art car...there are millions of ways to eccentrify, you are only limited by your imagination and your willingness to ignore the critics.

The Eccentrification Tour runs from August 19th – 29th, 2011 and we will be visiting Vancouver, Seattle and Portland. Visit our blog to see the full schedule. Like Peewee Herman and the Search for Animal Chin we are on a journey to discover eccentric characters and creative inspiration around us, and within ourselves. We are making a documentary film about our journey. If you would like to be involved, join our mailing list, and we will fill you in.

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GROW UP

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:21:00

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Join us this Saturday, August 20th for GROW UP, a one night only, special presentation of live music and video projections. Featuring Saintseneca, a folk quartet hailing from Columbus Ohio alongside multi-channel video projections by the Zenga Bros, with Eisenhauer, Dawna...Read more

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