art for a cause: reading and literacy

back in the day when i had a kinder heart… or um, at least more time, i would create pieces or series to sell to raise money for causes i was passionate about.  things like cervical cancer, schools for chiapas dot org, general art groups for under privileged youth, etc.  i also often donated a piece or three per year to various auctions for good causes (mostly art teaching, autism/aspergers, school or child related).  other than a few things on the altered bits site where 50% of the sale went to this or that, i haven’t done this much in the past couple of years and feel mean.  i by no means have a lot, but we’re not quite starving just yet so i wish to help where i can in this lovely world of ours.

to feel like a better contributor to the world, i have just created and added a new big huge super high resolution digital collage pack of 10 pages (over 40 images), of all old papers, grungy book pages, postcards, letters and text of various sorts to altered bits’ collage sheets page.  50% of the proceeds will go to ethiopia reads, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing books to children who may not otherwise be able to experience reading them.  a couple of months ago i had purchased some gorgeous  handmade brass beads from an amazing ethiopian man who came to the west coast, US to sell his beads and charms, and i sold some  on my site — 50% going to ethiopia reads as reading and literacy for children is a huge passion of mine, second only to art.  or maybe they are tied.  anyway, altered bits was able to provide several storybooks to young ethiopian children.  the organization is amazing and they have a donkey with a mobile library on her back, traveling from village to village to pass out books (some to keep, some to borrow).  check out their site to read about it.

ethiopia reads was recently featured on CNN, which i did not know until after i had donated to them.  upon donating to them i learned that the feature helped them to receive a huge amount of donated books — around 60k.  this is two HUGE freight containers of books, and it costs about $13,800 to ship each container.  now they are struggling to raise enough to GET the books to these children, and that is why i created this lovely little (er, HUGE) digital collage pack.  i want to help, if even only a little teeny bit.

the digital collage pack is HUGE — super high resolution print quality images (300 dpi) as transparent PNGs.  the zip is 120MB+ large and is housed on a file sharing site that i would have to send an invitation link to for you to download.  a bit of a hassle but VERY much worth it for the gorgeous imagery and great cause.  print out to use in collages or art pieces or use in digital art as you please.  or make me print them and mail them to you.

i have a few other good cause reading and literacy things in the works so check back soon if you’re interested.  or check back even if you aren’t ’cause that’s not all i’m about.  😉  will have pulpy stuff to post soon as i have two books, for example.