A few months ago I was asked if I would like to post some of my artwork for sale under the banner of the Gallery Kos group. One of the paintings I sold was of a virtual meeting place first envisioned on the little blue satellite of Daily Kos known as Street Prophets. It was called St. Gracie's. Saint Gracie's was a place where cookies and comfort were free to all. Eventually Street Prophets founder pastordan left to lend his voice to other forums including his own pulpit in rural Wisconsin. St. Gracie's was boarded up for a time until the recipe loving Prophets thought to revive it for the cover of the second Street Prophet's Cookbook. Please step over the decoratively whorled orange hairball for another look at the painting I created for the cover of the cookbook and a chance to get your own archival quality print of the original. I'm in a nostalgic mood--
Yeah, it's awkward for me to post this diary but back in that Gallery Kos diary a few people mentioned that they would be interested in having a print of St. Gracie's. A couple of those people have already confirmed their interest via kosmail. I thought perhaps there might be a few more of you out there. And I also wanted a place to direct people for more information about the prints themselves and how someone might go about ordering one. I've been working with the wonderful owner of
Art Imaging to produce superb, archival quality prints of St. Gracie's. I'm asking $50 per print including shipping to any address on this planet. The picture is reproduced at the full size of the original-- which is 50 x 30cm, using a 12 color printing process with lightfast inks on acid-free, rag watercolor paper. I was amazed at the work done at Art Imaging. If you're interested
please contact me via a kosmail message or mention your interest in purchasing a print in the comments and I'll contact you. The original artwork has been sold and I sent it off to its new owner yesterday.
I'm also figuring that in the spirit of community represented by St. Gracie's some portion of the proceeds from the sale of these prints will find its way back into the coffers of projects related to Daily Kos. I'm thinking about finally being able to give my support to Bill in Portland Maine's "Cheers & Jeers" and sending some love to Sara R and her wonderful quilting projects. Anyway... thanks. I create stuff-- it's part of this artistic temperament thing I'm trying to live with. Dealing with financial necessity makes me nauseous.
The actual St. Gracie's diaries on Street Prophets are from the earliest days of the site. I wasn't around the interwebs in those days. But the idea of a virtual meeting place grew and by the time I joined the Prophets there was a whole street worth of shops, fortune telling parlors, tea rooms, coffee houses, and at the far end-- there was even a place for the lycanthropes to conduct their experiments. After the event known as DK4 happened the satellite sites were informed that they would be swept away into the great orange ocean. A lot of shops on the Street closed and boarded over their windows prepared for the worst. So, looking at this picture reminds me of a time when I was a fresh-faced recruit to the ranks of the Street Prophets lycanthopes-- a time when Pastor Dan was adamantly refusing to let me get anywhere near the key to the liquor cabinet.
Ah well, thanks for reading. I hope some old, blue Prophets will drop by and share some of their favorite memories. I know you're out there. Maybe we can reopen a few of the shops; say 'no' to the big orange box, revitalize the downtown...