A Letter From The White House
So, anyway, it isn’t every day you get a letter from The White House (unless you are penpals with the President, I guess!) so I was very surprised to come home yesterday and see a nice, white envelope with this in the top left hand corner:
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON, DC 20502
I had written a personal invitation to President Obama, asking for a pair of autographed pants to use as a collaboration piece featuring a multitude of famous folks for Black History Month next year. I knew it was a long-shot, but there was a slim chance that he’d actually read the invitation and feel like being immortalized with other great leaders like Nelson Mandela, etc. Here’s the reply I received:
Dear Mr. Donnelly:
Thank you for writing. President Obama is constantly moved by the generous spirit of the American people, and we appreciate your request.
While we cannot fulfill your request, we wish you the best in your endeavors and thank you for your interest. Americans wishing to apply for Federal funds are welcome to visit: www.Grants.gov.
Thank you again for contacting us. to share your story of serice, connect with volunteer opportunities, or find resources for community projects, please visit: www.Serve.gov.
Sincerely
Elizabeth H. Olson
Special Assisstant to the President and
Director of Presidential Correspondence
Another encouraging piece of memorabilia to add to the email from David Beckham’s team, and something to add to the growing story for Pants-4-Art. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it, or somebody would have done it already.
I’m inspired, motivated, and pushing forward like never before. The snowball is getting bigger, and all it takes is one celebrity to send in their pants and we are off to the races!
Thanks for the support, thanks for reading, please keep spreading the word…!
100 Facebook Likes…
“100 Facebook Likes before the end of May…!” That’s my goal… and I’d like all of you to help, if you can.
The “Pants-4-Art” project is gaining traction and weekly interest, but it’s hard going doing it all on my own. I’m over halfway… almost there! Please consider reblogging this – or any other of my posts – if you haven’t already liked my Facebook page, please do so.
I need your support, it’s for a great cause, and this is my time to give back to the world.
Thank you all for your support, encouragement, and input.
Have a wonderful week!
Big East Signs: “Pants-4-Art” Logo Revamped
A “HUGE” thank you goes out to my great friend and fellow artist, Jeff Bunce, at Big East Signs… a fine arts specialist, a ‘bespoke’ sign maker of the ‘old school’ variety… very affordable for the talent and professionalism you get…!
As you all know from earlier posts, I went through many transitions of the design phase to bring this logo together… All hand drawn… colored with Crayola pencils… and looking good, but (IMO) a little bit naff…! Jeff took my design, ‘vectored’ it (whatever that means?) and made sure that it was all 100% ready for copyright and trademark.
I think he has done a fantastic job. He says it’s nothing… but I’m so happy, I was very pleased with the end result. So…
A big thank you to Jeff, and Big East Signs:
Check out the REAL work he does at his website: BIG EAST SIGNS & GRAPHICS. His fine artwork is also well worth taking a look at. If ‘Buncy’ can’t do it, chances are you’re out of luck…!
Jeff, thank you so much for the last minute help with the logo, and I hope you are making a very speedy recovery!
Photo: “In The Shadow of the Twins”
Happy Tuesday to you all… In keeping with the “Pants-4-Art” theme, it was an overcast day today, and I caught a shadow on my pants… So, I played around with it a bit – a little bit of shadow theatre – and as I saw my two fingers cast this shadow… hey presto! I had to take the snapshot from my phone:
“In The Shadow of the Twins”
To be totally honest, prior to September 11, 2001, I had never even heard of the Twin Towers/ World Trade Center, but the events of that day are permanently etched upon my memory. I have a memorial sculpture planned for the “Pants-4-Art” project involving either Mayor Giuliani’s or Mayor Bloomberg’s pants (or both! Whomever’s I get first, basically!) which is totally haunting, reflective, inspirational, and empowering.
Thank you all for following, encouraging, inspiring, and supporting my efforts!
Pants-4-Art: Good News
Dear Anthony,
I would like to thank you for your interest in David Beckham’s charitable initiatives and for making us aware of the fantastic project you are working on for a collection of charities.
As you can imagine we get thousands of requests from around the world and it’s difficult for David to fulfill all of these. At the moment David’s charitable partners have a number of campaigns that will be appealing for awareness or public donations and it would be unfair on them to have another initiative out there at the same time, so in this particular instance we have to say no.
On behalf of David, I would like to pass on our very best wishes to everyone involved in this project and to wish you good luck as you continue in your honourable efforts.
Kindest Regards,
Alina Oustianyk
Why do I see this as good news? Well, firstly this is the only rejection I’ve had so far, and I’ve probably contacted over 100 famous people. I’ve had only three letters returned undeliverable, but I’m working on finding the right addresses for them. It means people are getting my correspondence and reading it. All great things take time, persistence, and PATIENCE. Everything is running to plan! A ‘no’ now doesn’t mean a ‘no’ next year.
Have a brilliant weekend, catch up with you all soon!
DARREN HARDY: Pants-4-Art – Hump Day
Happy (Darren Hardy) Hump Day to ya’ll!
THAT’S something Darren Hardy hasn’t thought of YET… “Darren Hardy Hump Day”… perhaps I’ll earn a pair of autographed pants from him for coming up with the idea…!? One little idea at a time… Consistency pays off…
“The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy, buy it and read it. As he says, not literally, BUT… Be PERSITENT… Be PATIENT… Be UNUSUAL… Do whatever you have to do to get results… or be noticed…
Darren Hardy doesn’t call it TARGETTING, but I do… I AM deliberatelly targetting him… Darren Hardy knows everybody… IF Darren Hardy talked to just a few of his friends… Bearing in mind this is for charity… And got a few pairs of autographed pants together… Perhaps the “Motivational Pants”…? What would that be worth for charity…?
WHAT WOULD I DO WITH DARREN’S PANTS…?
What COULD’T I DO with his pants…?
Potentially… as even a blank canvas, his pants have to be worth at least $100,000… No famous person has EVER seen their old pants being worth something… That’s the COMPOUND EFFECT…!
Darren, if you’re reading this… Here’s my address:
521 West Linden Street
Allentown
18101
PHOTOS: A Quick Snap
It’s wonderful the small details people miss. This featured image is a snap shot of the view through the bus shelter roof I stand under on my way home. It’s actually a shame that my litte camera phone doesn’t pick up the grime on the plastic roof, but it still creates a great blulry effect of the tree.
There is a wonderful story that goes with this picture… It’s really cute. I took that first picture, and then this one:
It was the cracked earth that first struck my attention, and then I noticed the ‘building’ in the upper right corner, the windows… This was just a ‘happy snap’ I took… I liked the contrast of shade and color, the little sprout of grass, the barren, cracked dirt…
BUT… The real treat for the day was this story…
I took both those pictures, then this very nice Puerto Rican schoolgirl stood at the bus stop… We got chatting… Then this other young kid crossed the road carrying a red rose… I thought he was obviously going to give it to the young lady. He didn’t, he just joined us and stood in line. Naturally, I have to say something..
“Oh, I thought you came over to give me a rose!” Notioning the girl, I say, “You should give it to her, she’s very pretty…”
He smiles and laughs.
The bus arrives. We all board. I joke with the lady driver that it’s nice to be given flowers. She agrees and tells an anecdote about a Lesbian passenger that gave her flowers, once. We all sit in different seats.
When we get to his stop, he walks up to the schoolgirl and gives her the rose… Ahhhh…! how sweeet… He’d won it as a prize for something he did at school, and he gave it to her… how nice. What will happen with them, I don’t know…
Perhaps that was just a nice thing to do and observe… Did I have anything to do with it…? If we are all one, then yes I did, if it is all random chance and chaos… Who knows?
Either way, it was a wonderful thing to observe, and I thank both those spirits for participating in my observation…
There is only change… get used to it… You can’t…!
