I have since guarded very carefully against something similar occuring, but it does give me significant relief to hear someone utter the phrase "Just donate to X charity, I don't need a gift." Because helping out does my heart good and gives me a happy-high the way crack cocaine does for a Jersey addict.
You guys probably remember the call for Keyboard Cat Artwork to benefit a no-kill shelter in LA, for which I spent several hours crafting some mediocre trippy artwork. It was my hope it would be good enough to be auctioned off to help the cats out, but in the end it did its part by helping to bring attention to the whole thing and garner donations and views for the shelter. I consider that a success even if my Keyboard Cat is at the bottom of a landfill in LA as we speak. He done good.
I only this morning learned about The Penny Experiment, and immediately deemed it to be something that absolutely must succeed even if I have to get out and push by myself. (Incidentally, it was linked off the Hello Kitty Hell website, which I go to because I LIKE Hello Kitty and therefore enjoy the irony, so this is doubly awesome in a meta sort of way). The basic premise is that a penny picked up off the street could be warped in to one million meals for the homeless by use of sheer will power and creativity.
To that end, there was a call for artists, 100 of them, to create individual works of art using the number they were assigned and an image of a penny somewhere. The artwork is going to be auctioned off (or sold, I can't really tell which) to raise money for that goal.
Today is my last day at the job I've mostly enjoyed for the last 2 years, give or take. I am looking at a span of time in which I will not really be contributing to my household or society, and not helping the economy recover by being a good consumer, as I will have no money to do it with. It is a somewhat compromising place to be in, and I was thinking happily on the possibility of getting to focus on my homework, but really... not so very happily, that.
There are people who will be happy to have the stuff I make faces at on the bottom shelf of my pantry. I am warm, I am clothed and I am loved. I have my family and friends close by. And even in the midst of being jobless, I have the means to give back through my art. I volunteered to contribute some artwork to the cause and immediately had inspiration for it. There was a short time of nail-biting as I considered the possibility that they might have had a rush of people at the last minute and I'd missed a spot. But it was all wasted energy, for I received a message later telling me that I was to have spot #43, and welcome on board.
I am excited. I can't wait to help out with this, when I know for sure that it will be helping a cause out and bringing in money to help.
I may call on you guys to bid on mine, or bid on others that you like. The important thing is just to get attention for it and bring in funds. But remember that if I start showing you random art cards. Don't look at me funny when it happens. You've been warned.
Perhaps this is something I should do full time. I enjoy creating items for charity and donation. Maybe I should pick a project a month and just go all out for it. It would help curtail some of that creative energy that goes nuts if I don't make use of it. I have Mad Skillz in Weird Things (my skill tree reads like a Rorschach test), and they SHALL be utilized.
And on that note, I've just been told to leave early since it's dead. It has been real, SPX. I appreciate what you've let me do here.
"It's a magical world, Hobbes ol' buddy. Let's go exploring."
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