A Place for Randy

She's Come Undun.  That's the song I chose for the title to this painting. It represents the chaos of being one of the first baby boomers , a topic I've been chronicling in journals and blog posts for five decades.  

In the effort to make sense of all this change, I have spent an inordinate amount of time online, reading other writers, innovators, and bloggers. I've watched and participated in all the major changes in online community, from aol, compuserve and prodigy, to Mindspring, then Salon.com, then RadioUserland and finally Facebook and Twitter. At each juncture I think we've finally made this idea of virtual community work, then find that it's not as apparent to those around me in the deep south, where admittedly there's more to community than being online.

And yet that's where we really need to build community the most. So this year, I'm heading up to St. Louis, the week of July 10th, to participate in the annual Netroots Nation convention, which is a large national gathering of activists like me. At the end of June, I was notified that I had been awarded scholarship to attend.  I have transportation to the event.  I'll be bringing along some art work to sell.  And finally - I want to represent Alabama - because no one else is, to my knowledge.  To make this work, though, I need a solid base of funding for lodging and expenses.  That's the purpose of this go fund me ask.

While at the NN16 convention, I'll have the opportunity to finally meet many people in real life who I've been interacing with online over the years.  Many have actually read some of my own writing and attempted to understand my creative outpourings when I felt the universe could relate to the chaotic life I've lived."

I am hoping some of you can help me get there. I've lived on a shoestring for so long that it will take assistance for me to make the trip, and I promise to share as much of it as I'm able, both while I'm there and when I return.

So here's what I plan to do. I have a few paintings I think you might like. I'm going to print them in two sizes, standard letter size and a larger 11x 17 and I'll send as many out before I leave as I possibly can to those who wish to support my trip. 

One of the paintings I'm offering prints of is called Baker's Boys.  





The painting depicts a puppet on a string being manipulated by another doll. It's meant to symbolize the Bush administration's war in Iraq, but also meant to symbolize how power corrupts and how helpless all the rest of us are watching it happen. I painted it ten years ago. It has taken that long for people to really understand what it means.

The small print I'll send out for $20 and the larger one for $40.  

The other one is a painting I offered for sale at the very first Yearly Kos, again using dolls to depict the outcome of a war that is destroying the children of the world as well as their hope for a future.  

Thanks.