Do Good

Ok, here I am just laying it out here.  This is the story.  After umpteen dozen years of applying to the Winter Park Sidewalk Arts Festival, this year I was (finally) accepted.  I am still pretty sure someone miscounted something somewhere, but I am going anyway.

A few weeks ago I received an email from the show that said in addition to the wads of prize money they already have at this show, there will be one late addition.  The Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation is sponsoring an "Art of Philanthropy" purchase award in celebration of their 40th anniversary.  The award is $5000 and the chosen piece will be on permanent display at the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation in Winter Park.

Now, to put this into perspective, I don't think I have ever made a piece in hopes of going for a singular award, ever.  It is just too big of a long shot, and usually the prospectus just isn't a good fit.  But this one struck a chord right away.  Before I knew it I had images of some variation of Girl Scouts, or Campfire Girls, going through my head.  Collecting badges for acts of generosity, in spirit and otherwise.

So I started carving "badges" out of linoleum, "helping hands" and "good eggs" and such, and watching the piece come together.  What started out as a "Girl Scout" somehow developed the look of a heavily sponsored race car driver.  But I am good with that, sometimes philanthropy needs a little horsepower behind it.

So here she is, Scott will frame her this afternoon, and she will be heading South tomorrow.  What is likely to happen?  Well, nothing.  Here I am setting the bar sky high, telling the world that I am actually tossing my hat into the ring.  But truthfully, this is a show filled with bad-assed super talented folks.  I may well get a pat on the shoulder, and an "attagirl."  And I will have to suck it up, and tell y'all that I didn't win.  But I'm going to do it anyway.  If you follow me on Facebook, you will be the first to know, and I'll try to post a picture of the winning piece, mine or not. 

In the meantime, this weeks collection of (elle)ements are versions of her badges.  You can see them as I post them at www.elleements.blogspot.com

Fingers crossed.