I added a page today: https://art4survival.science.blog/download-files/ I need help because I can only afford to print four flyers a day and people rip them down. Please download the posters and make some color prints. Hang them anywhere you see fit.
About activism – I know, from my experience, that outside the box thinking and outrageous ideas will almost certainly elicit the same response from most people. For some reason if you run a crazy idea by someone, they will quickly shoot it down. I don’t know why this is. Are they trying to be helpful and save me from wasting my time? Maybe people don’t realize that big changes in the world don’t always come from geniuses or people with status. Big changes can come from anyone, even me.
My first skateboard I got from my aunt in the 70’s. She used to skate down the hills at Mt. Tabor when she was young, I have no idea what year that might have been. Around 1980 I got a modern skateboard handed down from a friend, and since then it was what I decided to do with my life. The trouble was that there were no skateparks in Oregon, so we drove to Canada often, and skated there, when they would let us in the country. I began attending city meetings to try and get a park built, but every location was opposed strongly by the community. I saw professionally drawn plans, and there was a budget set aside, but nobody could figure out how to make it happen. In 1990 I had the idea to just get some concrete and start building one myself. The first few people I ran the idea by tried to talk me out of it, saying it would just be torn down. I was able to find a couple friends who got on board and we built the first feature under the Burnside bridge. This was a life lesson to me.
My activism now feels so much the same. People don’t believe in me or my ideas, why would they? Who am I but a common person who is not special, why should people listen to me? I’m a problem solver and I have vision. I have skills to pass on to people who want to learn, and I can build a Shopify store in a week. I have a network of houseless people across the city with access to unlimited discarded materials. I have screen printing equipment, a lot of letterpress type, a lot of walnut and other hard woods, paint, glue, woodworking tools etc… I’m willing to donate it all, but I can’t do it without a place. Please consider donating something. If six people donated $5 each I could at least get the online store built, which would be huge. http://www.gofundme.com/art4survival
Art4survival 