Saturday Is For Art

The top painting is from what I call The Envelope Collection. The painting was done on a black envelope 12" by 9" in acrylic paint. The painting in the middle is painted on wood 13" by 9" in oil. The title is Mother & Child: An American Icon '96. For this piece I took a piece of left over wood, known as a 2" by 10" and covered it first with either gesso or latex white paint. Since my grand parents are why I am an American, and because they were just like so many other immigrants that came to America in search of a better life, I decided to put each of their names on the painting with mine below with the date. The bottom painting was done as part of a poster for a fund raiser for a homeless shelter in downtown Dayton, Ohio. I was asked to volunteer for this project. The poster for the fund raiser looked like an envelope with all the info about the fund raiser on the front of the envelope. The bottom painting of the stamp became the postage stamp of the envelope (poster). The invitations that were mailed out appeared just as the poster. I am not a graphics designer, but when you're a non-profit, I guess any free art work is better than none. They liked the design so much they used it again in 1994 for the poster and the invitations. The perspective is looking down a street into the city and their are no houses. The painting was done in July 1993 when postage was just 29 cents. Postage is now 41 cents. I like to buy stamps as I enjoy the art work that goes into them, but I think when it gets to 50 cents to mail a letter or pay a bill, I will stop buying stamps and use another method. When I was a little boy, postage was 3 cents, then 4, then 5 and every so many years the postage went up. Why would anyone want to put their money in a savings account when they are losing purchasing power every year. Monetary policy in this country is slanted in the direction of people who know how to use debt and are able to borrow. Poor people can't borrow because you need a credit score to borrow. The working poor that put their money under the mattress or even in a savings account at a bank lose money every year and pay taxes on the interest which hardly keeps them even in purchasing power. There is no level playing field for the poor, just a lot of promises never kept. Then when red lining and other discriminatory practices were halted, the predators took over. And, now we have the sub-prime mortgage mess that we all are suffering because of.