We are warriors...

Dear Readers,

Last week when I wrote, my project was 24% funded. Exciting developments in my fundraising campaign have happened since then. I am happy to report that I crossed over the 25% funding mark and my project was suddenly eligible for matching funds! The matching funds come from Artists2Artists, a nationwide match fund for artist projects in all disciplines. The Artists2Artists fund was created by artists, for artists. They have a 1-to-1 dollar match once a project is at least 25% funded and no more than 99% funded. They can give up 5% of the project goal. This is really helping move the project right along and gain momentum. I am now 32% funded! I want to thank everyone that got me to the 25% mark and enabled the matching funds to come into play. The last five donations have been doubled! I hope more people will take advantage of having their donations matched, it is a great way to make a huge impact even if you have little to give. I am appreciative of every dollar. I hope that folks who donate will take advantage of the perks that I am offering as well. I don't take your donations lightly and I do want to give you something in return. 

This week, I want to tell you a little about the history of my project and how it came to be. I had been aware of USA Projects for a while and a dear patron had mentioned them to me as well. I joined the site soon after that conversation, about a year ago. Late this summer, I logged back in and made some updates to my simple profile on the site and soon after I received an email asking me to submit a project! I remember being excited and scared. Creating a project seemed daunting and a big task that I wanted to get right. As I thought and thought about what I wanted to do, USA Projects kept following up and saying they were looking forward to working with me. Finally, with a lot of encouragement from my friends, I just decided to go for it!

From their website, "USA Projects is open to artists who have been recognized for the caliber and impact of their work by receiving an award, grant, fellowship or residency. Participating artists have been vetted by United States Artists and other esteemed organizations across the country." You can see why I would be excited to work with them! Once it was decided, I had paper work to fill out and a project to fine tune, a budget to create and perks and gifts to think about for my potential supporters. It was a long process. Then there was a phone interview and discussion of my ideas with Zack at USA projects. I remember feeling really positive after the phone call. I felt like he understood my scope and idea and what I wanted to accomplish. It felt so good to be supported in that way and walked through the process. Next up was creating my video to explain to potential donors what I was hoping to achieve. I was encouraged to keep it simple, short and to the point. It seemed like it would be easy enough to do as I am very passionate when I speak about art. It took me over a week just to create a 3 minute clip! I was so relieved when they thought it worked perfectly and complimented me on getting my project ready to go, and then bam! it went online and was out there for the world to see!

I love the new crowd-sourcing fundraising platforms and I have given to several artists, actors and musicians projects and it is great to feel part of something bigger than yourself and to know that you are helping an artist realize their dreams. Artists of all genres give so much to our communities, to the content of the Internet, to our lives and they work for free most of the time or close to it. I think it is so important to support these folks. I know I might be biased as I am one of those folks. 

I am so grateful for every dollar that has been donated to my campaign, because I know it is tight out there. I set a big goal and I know $13,750 is a lot of money. It takes money to create the art I want to create, to live and work, travel, research and have two exhibitions, one here and one abroad. I hope that everyone knows that I am very frugal and will spend every dollar wisely and try to get the most out of it and make sure that everyone is given their gifts on time and thanked appropriately. I know that I stand on the shoulders of giants and I have such a wonderful network of friends, family, fellow artists and supporters. I have mentioned it before but I do feel that I am part of a global network of artists and that we are all in this together. Thanks for every tweet, follow, facebook like and share. This is a grassroots effort. Only time will tell if I succeed in funding this project, 36 days to be exact...Please consider giving and joining me on this adventure! Thank you.

In other news, I have been making small works on paper for the two holiday exhibitions. Join me here on December 1&2 and then join me here on December 6&8. I really enjoyed created 20 new small works that combine my love of vintage paper, this time in the form of a 1947 world atlas, sewing (I used the stitch rather than pencil) and white paint! You know how I love the white paint...

Until next week, keep fighting. The world needs your art, your big ideas and mostly we need you to live your dreams.