Kickstarter

After 11 days, "Postcards from Jerusalem" passed the $647 mark that will allow the funding to go through. Now it's just a question of how many more people get on board. So if you haven't yet shared this project, please do. If for nothing else to see how many Facebook "likes" it can get. Right now it's at over 80. 

All of your support is very appreciated and has made this happen. It's not a big project monetarily, but it's a big deal for me personally. Not just on an artistic/spiritual  level, but also on an economic level. As an artist struggling to make money, Kickstarter is allowing me a venue to share my work without having to either make it more "Marketable" aka "Dumb it down" for a general audience, or by having to make it more "Serious" aka "verbose it up" to galleries and grants. It's simply me trying to share my work in a bigger way that doesn't leave me completely strapped for cash. 

Right now I'm trying to make as many images to choose from as I can so that postcards can be printed before Passover, as everything including the printers will be shut down for a week. (They really like the holidays here, I just lost a few days to Purim due to mandatory costumed dancing in the streets and people watching. It's like a cross between Halloween and when Obama won the election.)  

I had a epic, full day a few days ago that involved 1) the police, arab teenagers, and some jewish ladies trying to catch stray cats to be fixed. It was a little microcosm of the tensions here. 2) the police, my pens and me finding out, after how many months, that pens aren't allowed at the Western Wall. I showed them my work and a cop looked at it and deciphered it out loud "that is the bridge, that is the Kotel, those are people, ok, good, you can go draw" Everyone's a critic. Which leads me to:  3) My work and about a dozen young Chasidim debating my work in Yiddish at 2 a.m., one of the most memorable moments I've had in my artistic career. I hope I see them again. That piece will make it as some kind of postcard. It's of many people praying for a very loved, sick rabbi, who turns 102 next month. If he dies, I will lose another day of drawing because I'll go to the funeral, or at least that neighborhood, as it might just be the biggest funeral ever in Israel. 

I've attached just the live-action animation part from my video, set at 2x speed. All the video was shot on an iPhone 3G so that is why it is so lo-fi. I made a friend in the Old City that took some really nice, high-quality video that I hope to be able to share with you soon.  

Thanks again, Ya'll!