Bring our war $$$$ home

Five new drawings by William Hessian and a bunch more drawings by great artists in Maine.

The doors of the Hall of Flags in Augusta Maine burst open. I walk through the door, but I am not walking into the State House in Augusta alone. I've got a team! On one side I have artist Brian Reeves and artist/musician Monica Cooper, on the other side is dancer Bethany Louisos and in a backpack on her back is her daughter Dezzie. Our hands are overflowing with art supplies. As we march into the rotunda, we join an army of activists, protesters, artists.

It's not long before we are lost in the crowd of chants, yelling for Governor LePage to return the Labor Mural to its rightful place. "PUT IT BACK UP" "PUT IT BACK UP".

I race over the table of artists, who are drawing away. Al Chrichton and Paula Dougherty are pumping out brilliant works of art. The goal is to illustrate what to spend our war dollars on other than the war! This group of artists is like a family of creators, and we are surrounded by stacks of screen prints. Behind us are clotheslines filled with drawings and paintings. Kenny Cole is like a master puppeteer organizing everyone to make sure the chaos is controlled, all while drawing his own submissions. The crowd around us is slapping stickers on our shirts, singing songs, yelling for justice. Cameras buzz around us like droids collecting all the news. Reporters are trying to report. Artists are trying to paint. Protestors are trying to protest. Speakers are trying to speak.

The Punk Patriot enters with his own camera and plants himself in the middle of it all. The Raging Grannies are singing original songs. At the pedestal, I cannot see, but I can hear people like Natasha Mayers, Robert Shetterly, Bruce Ganon, Nicole Moreau and Lisa Savage and many others. The chants are literally rattling the office door of Governor LePAge and we chant "Bring our war dollars home!"

The draw-in and the Bring Our WAr $$$s Home was a huge success. Check out the gallery of art from the Draw-In on Flickr.

Draw-In 2: Call to Artists!

*time change Draw-In is at 11-3pm*

Here is the poster I created for the Maine Draw-In 2. We are invited all artists to come join us for a draw-in at the State House in Augusta Maine. I just love this event and I think everyone should come out and support it.

I am extremely excited to be apart of this. Please tell your friends. Pass on the link. Leave a comment and tell me how you found this link.

The best things I have found in Maine all exist on this poster. You should go to each one of these fantastic links/sponsors:

CODE PINK
www.codepink4peace.org/

The Union of Maine Visual Artists
www.UMVAonline.org

Bring Our War Dollars Home
www.bringourwardollarshome.org

Maine Draw-a-thon
www.mainedrawathon.blogspot.com

Draw A Thon Video and Additional Photos

A special thanks to everyone who took pictures, video and participated. The Maine Draw A Thon 3: Bring our war dollars home was a great event. I posted a very detailed report about my thought about the third Draw A Thon. This follow up post includes video and pictures posted from other members of the draw a thon effort.



The next phase of the draw-a-thon series will feature a mass production of images/posters. I cannot wait to continue the process. I am hoping to have some new designs cut and ready to be screen printed. Enjoy the photos. All of this media has been added to first Draw A Thon post.

Photos from the Draw A Thon

It is quite clear that Draw A Thon events are my favorite days of the month (if not the entire year). Luckily for me, Kenny Cole, Natasha Mayers, and the other artists have accepted me into their events with open arms here in Portland. Why do I love draw-a-thon events? First of all, I get an excuse to spend an entire day creating art with other talented artists, second of all lunch and breakfast is provided and usually consists of incredible food from Local Spouts (this time included the best roasted beet sandwhich I've ever eaten), third of all I get to interact with really inspiring people, and fourth all of the creation is in support of something I really believe in: BRING OUR WAR DOLLARS HOME.

There is a handful of younger artists like Oran Suta and Brian Reeves who I have really enjoyed getting to meet. Brian, like myself, is big into political controversies and every time I happen to be in earshot of him he is talking passionately about something I am also interested in.

I am also surrounded by a number of successful well-known artists like Robert Shetterly, Natasha Mayers and Kenny Cole. All whose work is incredibly inspirational to me since moving to Maine and discovering their work. I was fortunate to flip through a book of Natasha's work at the Draw A Thon and was simply blown away by her work. As we transformed the Portland Public Library into an art factory, we were surrounded by a gallery of Robert Shetterly's amazing portrait works. You can see a few in the background of the photos below, and they are simply fantastic. Kenny Cole is an artist who I look up to both for his visual work, and also for his ability to turn his ideas into larger events and spectacles.

Barbara Loring, a teacher and an artist that works both 2-d and digitally, has been a great person to meet for her diverse skills and ability to pass on her knoweldge. I expressed interest in kombucha last draw-a-thon and she brought a kombucha mother and a list of hand drawn instructions for me to this draw-a-thon. I am so excited! I got to speak with Al Crichton from Waterfall Arts, and we talked about my proposal to do an art hunt in Belfast, Maine. Nora Tryon helped run the screen printing process and made my first screen printing experience smooth and educational...she knows her stuff! And I cannot forget my collaborator for this Draw-A-Thon Laurie Proctor-Lefebvre, who also drew my portrait last draw-a-thon. Laurie has an inspirational passion for art and is a really fun person to create art with. We made some really neat screen prints together.

The more important thing about all of these inspirational people listed above is that beyond being talented; they are kind, funny, and great to be around. I also apologize to the people whose names I forget, like the gals from Code Pink and a handful of other talented people. I just love spending my time with these people.

Here are some photos of the event:

Working backwards, here was the end result of my screenprint/hand painted poster
I painted about 12 different posters in different ways
Brian Reeves working on his Toxic Waste poster
Barbara Loring (left) and Nicole pulling off a great print

Photos of photos were taken, to make sure we didnt miss anything
Nora and Laurie work on setting up the screenprint
Robert Shetterly drawing his composition
Barbara and her teammate cutting out positives for the relief block
Oran Suta exacto knifing his great 'money for solar power, not for fire power' design
How it looked to the Library goers
A room full of motivated and hard working artists = progress

Bring Our War Dollars Home (maine draw-a-thon 3)

One of the first times I went to Portland was to participate in the second Maine Draw-A-Thon event at Space Gallery. This Saturday the third Draw-A-Thon is taking place and am very excited to be a part of it.

Draw-A-Thon 3
sponsored by The Union of Maine Visual Artists (www.umvaonline.org)
around Martin Luther King’s Birthday
on Saturday, January 15, 2010, from 10am to 5pm
at the Portland Public Library

and we would like to invite you to come be a part of the event.



The draw-a-thon continues our visual protest to the money spent on the war in America. In past events dozens of artists drew their concepts of what the money SHOULD be spent on instead of war. The best of those ideas have been pooled into a pile for the 3rd event! At this event we will take those chosen images and we will begin reworking those designs for maximum effectiveness and the end goal of turning them into posters, logos and signs. The drawing above is my version of a drawing created by Kenny Cole.

I hope you can come check out the event and watch us refine images and turn them into stencils, screen prints and everything in between.

Check out the Maine Draw-A-Thon photostream on Flickr

Maine Draw-A-Thon #2

Yesterday, I spent my day inside Space Gallery drawing images pertaining to how we should spend the war dollars, instead of spending them on the war. This draw-a-thon was an incredible event from start to finish. It was very fitting that the event took place on Veterans Day and that there was a parade outside while the draw-a-thon was just beginning.



The event was connected to the installation and artwork by Kenny Cole. I was fortunate to get to speak with Kenny a lot during the day and I love what he is doing as an artist. His work is also incredible. Check out Kenny Cole's website. A big thanks for him for allowing the draw-a-thon to piggyback on his art show at Space gallery.

Amazing art was pouring out from all over the gallery as people streamed in and out to see what was going on. Local Sprouts provided a great lunch, including vegan options, and an extremely good butternut squash soup. Veterans were encouraged to stop by and have their portraits drawn, and many took advantage. I met some veterans, and got to speak to them about how they would spend the war money. They had some very good answers; housing, people, health to name a few.



Time flew by during the event, and when it was all over the wall of art started taking shape into a really impressive collection of works. The overflow art, since there were piles and piles of completed works, were taken to another location to be hung.



I personally want to thank Kenny Cole, Space Gallery, Local Sprouts, Code Pink, Pat Taub, Natasha Mayers, all Veterans, and everyone who participated in the event.

check out just a few of the great works:


PHOTOS
You can find hundreds of photos and scanned in images of all the artwork created on this momentous day at the Maine Draw a Thon photostream.

Portland Draw a Thon

On November 11th, Veteran's Day I will be participating in the Maine Draw a Thon. From 10am until 4pm at the Space Gallery I will be creating artwork based around the theme of "Let's Bring our War $$$ Home". The idea is to draw what we (America) should do with the billions of dollars we are spending on the war. I will be involved in three ways:

1. Drawing peoples portraits

2. Drawing what I think we should be spending war money on

3. Drawing what you (the viewer) thinks we should be spending money on

I love art activism, and the Maine Visual Artists and Maine Draw A Thon seem to be an awesome group to join forces with. Nothing like create art that has purpose. One of the two times I've been to Portland Maine was partially to visit Space Gallery and watch Deerhoof, one of my favorite bands. Little did I know that I have also sold art from this gallery, via their Art O Mat vending machine. A big bonus.

The event is also sponsored by Code Pink Maine, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, Maine Veterans For Peace. Artists: Kenny Cole, Corliss Chastain, Natasha Mayers, Brian Reeves, Robert Shetterly, and many more....

While I do not know many people from Portland yet, everyone is invited to come to the event:

Space Gallery
538 Congress Street
Portland, Maine

Veteran’s Day
November 11, 2010

Begins at 10 AM sharp
and runs until 4 PM

Artists interested in participating should contact Pat Taub by
October 30: click here for contact information

During this event you can also see the art show on display:
“The Hellfire Story”
an exhibition/installation by Kenny Cole exploring the history and deployment of the Hellfire Missile System.

To learn more about the Draw A Thon visit:
http://mainedrawathon.blogspot.com/