Art's art Show

My brother Art, who is an artist - in my family you got named for your occupation - guess I should have been a Gym teacher. He's been in town this week for the opening of his show of Prints at the University of Rhode Island. Yesterday was the official opening with a Panel Discussion on Political Art. If you can make it to the URI library, the show will saty up until April 28th. if not, see much of his work online www.arthazelwood.com.

The Opening was a huge success. Lots of students came to the event and the panel discussion. The show is called "Hubris Corpulentis". It depicts images about the Iraq war and the arrogance of of the West. He also has made an Iraqopoly board game that is a spoof on the famous board game with various aspects of the history of the Iraq war depicted. It is quite provacative. Art also showed a slide (see below) of a new tool being distributed nationally to call attention to the problem of homelessness. The chart depicts the cuts in federal money for housing from the 1970's to now, and then you can see the rise in numbers of homeless persons, who are depicted as the people growing larger along the bottom.

Every year I do a wedding in which the couple foregoes any gifts, instead they opt for people to make a donation to a local cause that will have an impact on some aspect of society. I've seen a range of options from Animal shelters to Save the Bay to Adoption causes to other causes. What a great way for people to add a dimension to their wedding - by making a gift of both money and awareness.

The art show made me decide to start donating a portion of my fee for weddings to a local homeless shelter and affordable housing project here in Rhode Island.