This that and some other things

It's been a while since I dropped by here to say hello. It's been a busy, strange and good time.
There's a lot happening here with me and my art. Some interesting turns of events for my art and in the city and throughout the nation as well. So hold on tight for the roller coaster ride you'll be going through here. Hopefully there will be some thoughtful statements that will get some folks thinking about things.

First, my art, since that is what the blog should be about. We've had over 600 hits so far on "Escape", between the Youtube posting and the link on my site. Keep passing it around--I really appreciate it. Considering all that is ugly going on in this world, think of it as passing on a little positive energy to help negate that ugliness. I appreciate your support sending it along! I was bold enough to send this to Howard and Judi Behrens to check out and they were very nice in responding to my message. Howard Behrens is one of my favorite artists, so any compliment from Howard and Judi is always appreciated and treasured!!

I've been accepted to participate in the Evendale Fine Art Exhibit which was juried by nationally known artist Michael McGuire. This was really exciting and I think they heard me two houses away when I opened the letter to learn my work was accepted!! What a confidence boost it was and I'm honored to be a part of this. I'm glad to also volunteer to help with set up and tear down of the show. I'm looking forward to meeting Martha Carmody and many other artists that will be participating in the show. The show starts on May 4th with a opening reception that will have Bernice Robinson (cellist) and Douglas Webb (harpist) will be accompanying the open. The reception starts at 6:00 pm and goes until 9:30 pm on the 4th. Looking forward to meeting new friends and seeing old friends at this show.

I'll be heading outside to start back into painting plein air again this summer with Chuck Marshall. Chuck is an inspiration and it's always nice to get his critiques and reminders on what I 'm doing.

Probably the bad news should be mentioned here as well. The studios are not going to happen--at least the ones at the 1 Floor Up building. The building owner has decided to sell and doesn't want to put anymore money into developing the building. The building is listed with ReMax. After spending 40 hours on developing a business plan and discussing what we could do with Steve and other artists, this was a sobering blow. We hosted one final First Friday event before pulling the plug on these. It was nice to see our core supporters stopping by to check us out and provide comfort and support at this time.

This isn't all bad news mind you....thanks to my friends at Rumford Productions. Deborah and Don Rumford have offered some space in their office building to hold art shows for the group that was involved in the First Friday events. After discussing this with the artists, we've decided to take them up on the offer, but with some changes. Looking back on the show with the limited display space and artist participating, we didn't have a high turn over on the paintings. Jeff did a great job of having new pottery. We've decided that maybe we would serve ourselves better by doing a quarterly show. There's more space at Rumfords Productions and it is located in the first block that has been "targeted" for attention on the revitalization of the downtown. I'm very thankful to Deborah and Don-their kindness is great and naturally I enjoy their perspective and friendship. They are really really good people!!! While we won't be doing studios, I keep hearing rumors of other studios being built. I wish anyone who is going into this venture the best of luck. For me, this ended up being a good thing. It caused me to step back and think about where I was going, how much support we really have here in Middletown (in regards to the city and general public) and made me focus on what I should be doing. You'll see the result of that thinking over the remaining year. Hopefully, fate will allow me to keep posting good news and less of the bad news!

Now for some thoughts on the city and some recent changes. Two surprise "announcements" were made this past week. One was, of course, the "Citizen Comments" agenda item being removed from the televised portion of the public meeting. The change is that an open forum will happen from 5:00 to 6:00 on the Tuesday City Counsel is meeting in conference room 2C.

Now here's where it almost gets hilarious. Enter the usual suspects and biggest abusers of this privelege (it's a privelege folks---it has nothing to do with Free Speech--more on that in a minute.) saying that the city is trying to hide something and keep their citizens quiet. No--that's not what is going on. They are trying to take control of a city who is in desperate need of real leadership. They are trying to keep the meetings from being hi-jacked by citizens who feel it is their mission in life to constantly drag in the negativity of any situation and infuse paranoia into the uninformed good people of this city. We have some major problems here and it is not going to get better by calling for everyone's resignation! My motto has always been, "if you aren't willing to be part of the solution, then don't get involved." Pointing out the so called bad things in Middletown doesn't help unless you have a solution--and resignation of everyone isn't the answer. It's an easy way out.

I'm actually glad that the counsel and new interim city manager have done this. It does not take away anyone's free speech rights. You can still talk with them in conference room 2c. You can still write emails. You can still call them on the phone. You can still voice your opinions to them anytime you see them--including making arrangements to meet with them personally. This does not preclude you from writing to the newspapers, starting a website, or a blog (now there's a thought! ;-) where you can list your issues (hopefully with solutions that can be employed) and get community involvement to your issues. Instead of making the city counsel meetings the "As Middletown Turns" soap opera, some work might just get done. Take a look around and listen to what those outside this community like of us who live here. It isn't pleasant and yes you should care about this image--especially if you ever want it to succeed or sell your property.

The second surprise announcement is that our current Mayor announced he will not be running for our first directly elected Mayor. Now mind you--we will still be a city manager form of government so the only real change here is that a candidate has to say he is running for mayor, get elected and after elected will control the agenda, kiss a lot of babies, attend as many events to represent the counsel and city as possible, and provide direction (based on full city counsel votes etc.) to the city manager--you get the idea--it will still be a ceremonial post.
My concern here is that people will actually think with a directly elected Mayor that all of the sudden we have a Mayoral form of government. Nope--not unless we change the city charter.
The only change is that the people get to put in place their mayor--where before council appointed the mayor at a retreat. Maybe it will solve the intercouncil bickering...but I doubt that. As I stated before, we need real leaders to get us through this time. And I'm not just talking about council. It seems most people here are just more interested in electing a person that they can make a scapegoat. If that's true, no wonder some folks aren't interested in running for mayor.

And while we are on the subject of elections and leaders, I can't say I'm impressed with the field of possible candidates for President. And we are over a year away from the election and I'm already sick of the media coverage. I like England's election process--six weeks--that's all you get to get your message acrossed. I could go for a six week election process here. What we need both here in Middletown and in this nation are visionaries. This is yet another crossroads and we need people who can see beyond the tasks of today to make sure that we are on the right path to leverage tomorrow.

Well--I think I've rambled enough. Let's keep faith that we find those visionaries and they change the path we are currently on to one more positive and inspiring.