Artsy Opportunities

Yes! The Winsor and Newton acrylics purchased on eBay arrived. I had to check them out. The white is a bit stiff, some colors have separation, but all in all, I think they are quite usable for being an old set of their discontinued paints. Now I’m waiting on FedEx to bring my Blick order, which includes some 5×5 gessoboard to use as ground for this year’s donations.

I found the call for entry in my email box. It’s actually a request for 5×5 inch original art donations for an annual FIVE SQUARED art show and sale at the Davis Family YMCA in Boardman, Ohio.  Here is the CallForArtFiveSquaredArtDonationForm (pdf flyer), if you are also interested in donating. All skill levels are accepted, they even do kiddie art, so it’s all cool.

I know my skills are lacking, out of practice for sure as I haven’t painted in years (as if watercolor under-paintings for colored pencil drawings don’t count). Figure it can’t be worst than my last donations.

I went with a Valentine theme with kids in mind in 2015, since it is a kid friendly event. (My grandsons like monsters, why the peace sign dude.) Last year, I did not donate anything… too soon after a health crisis. I also bailed from the YWCA’s women’s art committee since I wasn’t up to attending meetings or anything. It’s time to start doing things again, get back into my art again, take care of me again.

That’s why I’m going to BLANK – A Community Participation at The SOAP Gallery in downtown Youngstown on Friday night. That should be fun… it is exactly what the name suggests: a community paint event – NOT a paint and sip – and anyone in the community can participate, regardless of skill level.  Or, I should say 50 people can participate as they have 50 blank canvases hung on the walls. There is a small fee to reserve a canvas and you can BYOB. I’ve already reserved mine and fully intend to go with a blank mind… no preconceived notion of what to paint.

There is a link to this and other fun events happening at The SOAP Gallery on their Facebook page. All 50 paintings will be on exhibit through the month of November. If you are local, go see it… if not, await the documentation. The results of 50 people, from amateurs to professional artists, painting 50 canvases in the same space at the same time, all start to finish on one night, should prove to be quite interesting.

Thanks for reading!

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Political Circus

The political circus was in town on Tuesday, drawing a crowd of ye 7,200 adoring fans to a rah-rah ego stroking campaign rally for the Republican POTUS, otherwise known as the Liar in Chief.

Yes, I live in Youngstown and I am NOT one of his adoring fans. In fact, I personally do NOT know ANYONE who lives within the city limits of Youngstown, Ohio, who is a fan.

Correction: I think one of the shopkeepers that I talk to downtown is a Republican, so odds are that he voted for Trump, but doesn’t talk about it.

I do know a guy who lives in Boardman who voted for him… so did some friends and family down in Columbiana County, mostly small town or rural folks who believed half the propaganda nonsense they read online about Hillary involved with child pornography and killing off her husband’s lovers.

Yes, some votes were influenced by REALLY FAKE news… their votes for Donald Trump were more or less just votes AGAINST Hillary Clinton. Some didn’t even like Trump, but voted “for the party, not the man” claiming that who the man is doesn’t really matter. I wrote about that in Political Fish.

And, to be straight up honest about it, there are a LOT of quietly racist people in rural Ohio who voted for Trump because they wanted a white man in the White House, any white man would do… except Bernie Sanders, if that makes sense at all. Those are the ones who cheer the loudest as Trump strives to undo Obama’s legacy.

Sure, he does have some supporters who so actually like him… but, just my opinion and observations… the reason why Trump keeps bringing up the election, Obama, and Hillary in his tweets and speeches (which seems to baffle most of us because the election was so last year) is to maintain the support from people who voted for him even though they did not like him… he has to keep those voters engaged.

I went downtown for awhile… passed out some free buttons, but did not stick around for the protest (my legs won’t let me) and made it back home before the main event.

 

 

FRIDAY NOTE:

Reading the full text of Bill Browder’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary today put the investigation into Russia’s meddling in our election into perspective. It’s some deep shit… explains the reasons for the Magnitsky Sanctions. Trump may call the investigation a political witch hunt, but reading Browder’s statement makes it blatantly obvious as to why Putin wanted Trump to become POTUS; he’s got major money on the line… Trump was (maybe still is) Putin’s best chance at getting sanctions lifted.

Questions remain… was Trump aware of the reasons for the Magnitsky Sanctions? Or, is he extremely naive or just downright stupid? Did he cut a deal with Putin, one billionaire to another, accept Putin’s meddling with a promise to lift the Obama era sanctions? Was a promise given, or just implied?

Trump’s pen will tell… will he sign or veto new sanctions on Russia?

Bamboozled

It looks like fishing poles sprouted up in the yard next door. The bamboo plants are now over 7 foot tall.

We are waiting to see how long it takes the city to do something about it. They cut the grass, bill the owner, but have yet to come by this year.

I was told by a neighbor that I would have first dibs to buy that house from the city for back taxes being that I live right next door, but I don’t have the cash to make an offer.

I was like ahhh… so I looked it up on the auditor’s website and, sure enough, the owner is listed as “address unknown” and the city tacks 600 a year onto his unpaid tax bill to maintain the yard.

So, to sound a bit like Mr. Rogers… who wants to be my neighbor?

There is a very good possibility that the city would consider an offer as low as 5,000 considering the back taxes are racking up to about five grand with the yard maintenance fees and all. I told the kids about it, but they don’t want to live that close to mama.

It could be a nice little house… 3 bedroom ranch, full basement, nice size yard, decent garage. Roof looks fine, newer style windows, siding needs washed and painted. And, it is located in a racially diverse South side neighborhood, near St. Matthias on a quiet little street of mostly owner occupied homes, within a half block walk to the nearest WRTA bus route.

I’m not a Realtor, have nothing to gain if someone buys it…. except a new neighbor who will hopefully keep that bamboo under control. I’ve read that it will eventually die off if you keep it cut down due to lack of photosynthesis (sunshine on leaves) but who knows? I just don’t want it spreading to my yard.

Thanks for reading!