GREAT NEWS!!!!!! for the Walk with ME project!!!!!!! Alen Catolico, www.a-catolico.us has offered to design the Walk with ME books! What this means is an amazing collaboration, much like the walk Alen and I took for my project. Alen will be creating the book layout and type design (along with a million things I don't know about cause I am not a graphic designer), and while in Georgia, I will be speaking to his design through screenprinting, drawings, and annotations, that will layer this design. VERY EXCITING WORK!!!! if we can push towards $4250, I will have some money to PAY Alen for his time and effort. Even with that it is still a TOKEN of appreciation. Great last days of the project news!

The Project:

I was laying down and warm water was being sprayed all over my body. I am a single woman living in america. A place where people don't hug hello all the time, or hardly ever kiss eachother on the cheek, and don't think about grabbing someone's hand and walking down the street unless you are also sleeping with them. As this woman massaged my hand, all I wanted to do was hold her hand. Not out of romantic desire but a desire for connection. So I decided right then and there, I was going to hold hands with as many people as I could.Since then I have QUIT my job and am putting all my belongings in storage, and I am hitting the road.

For the past 4 months in Los Angeles, I have been scheduling walks with people to hold their hands. We walk for around 30 minutes. During this walk, we hold hands the entire time. During the walk we take a photos for documentation and when we are all done walking, with sweaty palms, we write down our observations of the experience of holding hands. This could be a drawing, a list, a page filled full from top to bottom with thoughts. All of these observations will be compiled into Artists' Books. Not just a copy of the words but an interpretation of what I and the walkers have learned. 

I now plan to hold hands with people on an East coast tour. Starting in Massachusetts on April 15, (soon!) and traveling down to Georgia. I hope to hold hands, hold vulnerability dance/performance workshops, and at Double Dutch Press in Athens, Georgia create a double volume set of artists' books.

What the funds go towards:

Bookmaking supplies: $1000  ~ $450 for 22" x 30" BFK paper, bookboard for $100, $50 for glue and thread, $400 for printing, embellishments, and other decorative color paper.

http://doubledutchpress.com

Labor: $1000 ~ Double Dutch Press is housing me, letting me use their studio, and helping me with design and production of the set up books. They deserve to get paid. :) At this rate I am paying them $12.50 for 80 hours of work. I hope to be able to pay them $1500 but that means I need to raise more than my bottom goal.

Travel: $1500 ~ $400-Flight from LAX to Boston, $30 Train to Gloucester, MA, $20 Bus to NYC, $20 Bus to DC, $120 Bus to Asheville, $72 to Durham, $100 Bus to possible South Carolina site, $103 Bus from South Carolina to Athens Georgia. $200 Inner City Travel for month and half on the road. $500 -Flight from Athens, Georgia to Minnesota in time for the birth of my first niece or nephew.

Note: The $250 added is to defray the chunk of money taken by my amazon Account to get this money. Any extra money goes to feeding me, adding more towns to the route,  and the purchase of a minature Dell Computer to take on the road with me.

Rewards:

Walk with ME Bracelet can be wore solo or with a partner

Colors will vary but this is the general idea of the Walk with ME bracelet.

The Walk with ME sticker collection will be a variation on a theme of the image at the bottom of this web page.

Video Credits: Thank you Nathan Gulick and Michele Jaquis for videography and holding hands in this Kickstarter! Without you it would have been impossible to film this video. Even better a beautiful camera was used and your talent infused the video.