Stewardship and Snow Showers

Our first frost happened two nights ago, on the very evening we had the opening for the Art in Maine show at the Art Foundation in the Harbor. "Snow Showers," the painting above, was juried in, and though it won no prizes, I am very pleased with its presence in the show. Several people have asked for giclees of it, so I will make 3-4, and see if I can sell them.
It is painted directly onto raw linen, and has a very textural, 3-D feel to it, which Dan Corey has called regal. I like that, and hope that because the paint is embedded in the fabric, that it will hold its tone and color for a long time.
Non-profit institutions, like art, have the same preservation issues - if you don't find enough money, you soon run out of creative material and/or helpful efforts. Tom Dewey, at our local congregational church, has challenged members of the church to multiply our "talents", as in the "parable of the talents," by handing out envelopes filled either with a heart candy, $10 or $20. The challenge is to multiply whatever is in the envelope, or, of course, you can bury it.
I got an envelope with a $20 in it. I have put it into a peanut butter jar with a hole in the top, and am collecting money to begin an emergency fund at the local food pantry. In one short week I gathered over $176, so now I have put $100 in one jar, and am working on getting the remaining $24 for the second jar, and will just keep going until the Sunday in November when we have to bring it all back in and report.
I am learning some interesting lessons while I do this. At a community gathering recently, I got out my jar at the end of the meal and went around asking people to "empty your pockets to fill a belly." I got a fair amount of money and was content to sit back down and eat dessert, when the fellow next to me started asking me about how we handled "freeloaders" at the Pantry. I was a bit offended, not really knowing any freeloaders who were receiving  food at our pantry. So I gave him a cocky reply about not getting many homeless men at the pantry. He gave me a look, knocked on his glass, stood up and announced to the crowd that I had not made $100 quite yet, and we needed to do that before anyone went home. Amazingly enough, people came flocking over and coughed up even more money, such that we made $135 or so dollars in just that one night.
I remain amazed and very grateful to the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club for their generosity.