Art-A-Thon success!

What a great day in a quite busy place: the University of Maine's Student Union. This March Art-A-Thon was organized by Umaine students, Dan White, Caroline Robe and others through their Peace Action Maine chapter. There was a sumptuous spread of nosh-able goodies and a bottomless bowl of hummus, which by the end of the day was near finished. We had a fairly steady stream of students drop in for some between class art-making...many who were quite curious about our silk-screen rig and methodology. Nora Tryon kept things moving along so well we were able to design and cut a two-color stencil in one day! In addition to students we met faculty advisors, Ilze Petersons from the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine and even some interested individuals from the town of Orono proper. They even had a mini concert with two students on acoustic guitars hammering out some originals and favorites. Congrats to the UMaine gang!

We Drew!

It was a great time...I was happy to meet a bunch of new artists and we even got taped for Occupy TV! Our ability to photo silk-screen has not yet been perfected, so we cut up a stencil version of William Hessian's "Sheep No More". Thanks everyone for making this Draw-A-Thon a great success! (Click on "Flickr Images" in the links column)

Tune in tomorrow at 6:35 am! The Pulse Morning Show

I'll be gettin' interviewed by Pat LaMarche about our upcoming Draw-A-Thon. I heard Pat speak a few times and found her to be a true inspiration!...looking forward to this! larger image

Kenny

Come One, Come All!

Well, it's official! We are organizing another Draw-A-Thon...this time around it will be at Harlow Gallery in Hallowell, Maine. Our thematic approach this time around will be to take on the spirit of the OCCUPY! movement. In April the gallery will give us a month long exhibition slot where we will be able to show some of the work created at this Draw-A-Thon. We'll also conduct a Print-A-Thon during the exhibit to show the public how we do things. So what are you waiting for? Drop me or Natasha Mayers a line and let us know if you will be attending! Hope to see you there! Kenny (kenny@kennycole.com) Natasha(mayersnatasha@gmail.com)

It's On!

For those of you who are wondering: "What's a Draw-In?" I'll tell you...it's fun, easy and will get your artistic and political juices flowing! Basically we park ourselves in the rotunda of the State House (we have permission!) with a table, some signage and plenty of (dry) art materials. We then wait for the public to pass by (usually on their way to speak to legislators) and solicit from them any ideas they might have on how we could better spend the huge sums of money that go into war spending. It's actually a very easy task and you don't have to be proficient at rendering Abrams tanks as, for example if you created a drawing of flowers in a vase, you would be making a perfectly effective political statement about a better way to spend our war dollars. The other great thing about this action, we found from our last Draw-In, was that people are truly dis-armed when it comes to live artists! They get very excited to see their ideas visualized before them and be able to take their drawing away with them. For me as an artist, my favorite part is hanging out with other artists, making art and exchanging thoughts and ideas. It's a win/win in my book! So, will you come join us? I hope so! See you there.
Kenny Cole

A new look for Code Pink!

Codepink launched a redesign of the national website this week prominently featuring the BOW$H campaign and many photos and actions from Maine CODE PINK

Skowhegan permit at issue for peace walk

By Doug Harlow
Staff Writer
SKOWHEGAN -- One of the organizers of the Sunday vigils for peace in Skowhegan and a supporter of a planned peace march next month left Skowhegan selectmen with more questions than answers Tuesday night.
University students and Buddhist monks, along with local activists and members of Veterans for Peace, are scheduled to march across the state in November to draw attention to the affects of war and war spending on the economy, Mark Roman of Solon said Tuesday.
Veterans for Peace, in conjunction with Waterville Area Bridges for Peace and Justice, are set to walk through central Maine beginning Nov. 2 -- Election Day. The Maine Walk for Peace, Human Needs and Veterans Care is slated to start in Farmington, Roman said.
The questions raised Tuesday were if the vigils and the march will need permits in Skowhegan.
Selectmen Tuesday night were about to approve an application for Bridges for Peace to hold silent vigils on the Margaret Chase Smith Bridges each Sunday, when Roman stood to withdraw the group's application.
Roman said he objected to needing a permit for the Sunday vigils on the bridge, which he said have been happening every Sunday for the past eight years. He said it was a matter of free speech, not municipal ordinance.
He said his Sunday group does not block the sidewalk, does not solicit donations or initiate response from passersby.
"To me it's an issue of Skowhegan supporting free speech," he said.
Selectmen accepted Roman's application withdrawal, but wondered aloud what to do about the peace march, which under town ordinance might be considered a "parade or procession," but was not included in Roman's original application. Chairwoman Joy Mase added that she did not know what will happen this Sunday when the Bridges for Peace group assembles for its silent vigil at noon.
Town Manager John Doucette Jr. said town officials will discuss both matters this week.
"The peace walk is to put a spotlight on what the war economy is doing to our country and is a walk for human needs and veterans' care," Roman said of the peace march earlier in the day Tuesday.
He said there is a core group of 15-20 people who will march, along with a contingent of Buddhist monks, led by Rev. Gyoway Kato, and nuns from the Nipponzan Myohoji order, with headquarters in western Massachusetts.
"The peace walk will average 16 miles of actual walking each day," he said. "Because of the great distances between stops, occasional shuttling will be necessary. Some people will walk the entire distance and others will join the walk for an hour, or a day, or several days."
The nation currently is spending billions on the Afghanistan war, Roman said, reducing funds for education, health care, infrastructure and social spending. Citing published reports, Roman said there is suicide in the military, as well as soldiers suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and sexual trauma.
Roman said the peace walk also will concentrate on the environmental costs of war with oil fires, unexploded weapons, polluted rivers, contaminated soil, and damaged landscapes.
He said anyone who cares to join the march and the public gathers each day of the walk is encouraged to do so.
Waterville Area Bridges for Peace and Justice and its sister organization Code Pink have held vigils on bridges in Skowhegan, Waterville and other Maine locations since 2002.
Doucette said the group never applied for an assembly permit, but when he saw an announcement on the Veterans For Peace walk, he contacted Roman.
"I saw that and I said I want to make sure they're covered so they don't have a problem when they get to town," Doucette said. "We do have a parades and processions ordinance."
The walk each day:
* Farmington program on Nov. 2 to kick-off the peace walk
* Farmington to Skowhegan on Nov. 3
* Skowhegan to Waterville on Nov. 4
* Waterville to Bangor on Nov. 5
* Bangor to Belfast on Nov. 6
* Belfast to Rockland on Nov. 7
* Rockland to Bath on Nov. 8
* Bath to Freeport on Nov. 9
* Freeport to Portland on Nov. 10
* Veterans for Peace will participate in the Veterans Day parade on Nov. 11 in Portland.
Community potluck dinners are scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Skowhegan Community Center and at 6 p.m. the following day in Waterville at the United Methodist Church on Pleasant Street.
Doug Harlow -- 474-9534
dharlow@centralmaine.com

The stage is set!

Well, I just finished three days of installing my art at Space Gallery where we will be holding the Draw-A-Thon...it was great fun! I reserved a section of my wall drawing for our event...looking forward to meeting all who attend and am very excited to see some great drawings posted into my exhibit!

Went to the Mall

Hello Maine organizers,
Your ears must have been burning last weekend as Codepink launched their national version of the BOW$H campaign, holding up Maine as a shining example to follow and learn from.

Below is a compilation of resources sent by Janet Weil, my co-organizer in Pink. She is based in the SF Bay area but works nationally. I am at this moment working on uploading a video of Ann Wright's talk about the federal budget from a well-attended training workshop for BOW$H action that Janet, Mark & I conducted last Sunday.

For a report on the Oct 2 One Nation march, see my blog post "Went 2 the mall"here. More to come soon.
peace,
Lisa

BOW$H photos from One Nation


This book is a must-read, or at least a must-look-through, for BOW$H work:
The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
by Nobel Economics prizewinner Joseph Stieglitz and Linda Bilmes
(Ann talked about their testimony at the event last Thursday on Capitol Hill).

What to do back in your home communities?
Check out this report back from Lisa in Maine:
report
and from Janet in San Francisco:
report

Bring Our War Dollars Home...News

The Alliance for Peace and Justice is making headway in our "Bring Our War $$ Home" campaign. The city council of Northampton, MA just passed the resolution calling for no more funding for the war, bringing our troops home and using some of the war money to create jobs, support education and to also help support all the veterans of the wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq. We are pushing into more towns and cities here and hope to have more city/town endorsements soon.

One of the actions that is being born out our movement - we soon will have a picnic event in which military families, our alliance and the public will be invited. Our goal is to create an open dialogue with all groups.

Sherri Long

Image: sketch for wall drawing, Kenny Cole