power washer and um'...me

only picture as of now... & no, I don't usually wear dresses

to clean up lots but I was multi-tasking--i stopped by during my break from work. ;-)

the real labor photos are coming soon.

did you know... si'?

that poison ivy is shaped like a hand? I didn't. A gentleman cutting and pulling dead leaves and trees from the top of the wall on saturday found tons of it. 

as a writer I can't help put ponder on the metaphor of a hand that will poison you, leave you red, in pain, scarred, tortured...ah....a tannnngennnnnnt.  

I suppose I should make like michelle obama and try not to add to the militant black woman image flowing about & around the 'New Yorker', oh wait,... I mean the US of A. 

tickle; tickle.  ;-)

so, so, so

 the group of young people from the Nazerene church, led by Mindy Hancock, spent more than two hours on saturday preparing the lot and walls for our artist, Holly Swangstu,  and a group of young people to create artistic splendor.  

The group power washed just about all of the wall..., and I will say, I ventured upon the power washer for about 5 minutes....it's serious work.  The amount of mold and dirt that has caked itself, ingrown itself, manifested itself on that wall is ridiculous... and I never, ever use the word ridiculous. ;-)

as I mentioned above, one gentleman cut and pulled tons of trees and limbs from the top of the wall, which was a dire need, for Holly's portion of the mural will be on the top part of the wall. 

others picked up trash, pulled limbs from lower crevices, and broom-ed up broken glass. 

Mikey led the group, as he is--a rock star, 

but I, 

     and you, 

            already knew that...eh? 

si'. 

i will post pictures soon.

with a little help from friends...

'what would you do if i sang out of tune? would you stand up and walk out on me...lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song...and I'll try not to sing out of key'


Mikey and Wendy met with an artist on Wednesday and signed a contract with her. she will embark on an august endeavor to bring color to the wall!


we will meet with her and a nice sized group of youth on the first two saturdays in august... to hash out ideas~workshop style. the artist will in turn create a collobrative sense of artistic beauty and.... paint... create .... embellish on the empty white wall at 42nd and Mission Rd.


Holly Swangstu is our artist; she has an extensive amount of experience working with young adults on such projects. She graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute and is the director of the Leedy Voulkos Art Center in KC, MO. She is also a colleague and a friend of Joe Faus--the other artist involved with this project.


I will attach her resume and such on the side panel. please take a peek if you have time.


there will also be an opportunity to prep the wall/lot for Holly's endeavors on Saturday July 26th in the afternoon hours. thanks to my friend brian longfellow & and his friend and pastor mindy hancock, we have the commitment of 20 or so volunteers from the Trinity Church of the Nazarene in Rosedale


we will powerwash the wall, do a bit more garden prep, and hopefully pull out some excess weeds and trees. I will post an exact time in the next few days.


cheers, eh?
to change;
to friends.

sunday funday

it's sunday funday.

mikey and i have two meetings this week with artists. Joe and a new fella.

i have still not worked on the lowe's grant application. mikey figured that we should approach our garden efforts seperate from our mural efforts and lowe's has grant opportunties for such projects. it is my goal to rock out that application this week.

on a side note...

i had class on saturday in emporia. it was a course focused upon international children's literature, which was very interesting and now has my itching at the idea of a PHD is international literacy.... ah, can you imagine? ;-)

one thing that I found most interesting was the international digital library
based out of the University of Maryland. it is an amazing online collection of international children's books. the site was designed by children and is completely browsable without reading--symbols are used creating this 'univeral' accessibility. so a child from iran and a child from china can browse just the same, eh?

si'.

I will link the website below. I really enjoy the art work in books from Persia.

http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/SimpleSearchCategory

summer time flies and still things take time; as they should.

it's hard to believe it is nearly the middle of july...

and the walls at 42nd and mission road are still bare.

mikey and i went out and walked rosedale a bit yesterday

to pass out information regarding the project.

if i had one wish I'd wish for 2 more hours in this

24 hour spread we call days... for maybe...just maybe

there'd be a realm of color on the wall...

ah... hope paired with wishful thought

equates the dire need for change...

yet change should never be considered wishful, eh?

summer time may fly, but I am certain it will also tell...