Thank You again to everyone for making this pledge drive a success. Many of you have already begun receiving your rewards, with the exception of the custom rewards like the birthday card, the desk lamp and the vibrating coffee cups. Those rewards are being made to order and I have been busy of the past several weeks builiding my next show which opens next week. The installation is called "Sticks, Straws, Sleeves, and Lids" and it will be on view from January 15-February 23 2010 at The University of South Carolina in Columbia South Carolina.
link here http://web.mac.com/mcmastergallery/McMaster_Gallery/On_Display.html
Starting next week from January 15- 22 I will be weaving stir sticks at Nurtureart in Brooklyn New York for the exhibition "Eternal Return" which is on view January 22-February 27.
link here http://www.nurtureart.org/
I want you to know that your contributions are going directly towards this exhibition in new york, as I will now need to ship my materials rather than check them on the plane due to new regulations. I also want you to know that in the coming days I will do my best to get the rest of the rewards out and for those of you who have not done so please fill in your address and requested info for your rewards, please do not assume I have your mailing address. attached are a few images of rewards and the installation in process, if you would like to see more extensive progress and track my work as it evolves over the year please follow my blog here
http://blog.jonathanbrilliant.com
thanks
jonathan

I cannot thank you all enough. With 13 days left on the pledge drive we have surpassed the initial goal i set for the drive. For those of you who are continuing to spread the word of the pledge drive through, twitter, facebook, email, and the like, keep it up. The time is winding down and pretty soon I will begin putting together the pledge rewards to send out. Please allow a minimum of 7-10 days for processing and packaging after the end of the pledge drive for gifts to be mailed and the money to clear the amazon account. At this time you will be contacted for mailing address, and t shirt size where applicable. For those of you in the Columbia and Charleston areas I may deliver prizes personally depending on my schedule with the USC install in Columbia in December. I hope that you all will help me start a new mini pledge drive campaign in these last two weeks by encouraging everyone you can to pledge $2 .Not only will this help drive the overall goal, those who do will be added to the mailing list and will have their names included in a future catalog that will include the names of all supporters. Again I can't say enough how much i appreciate everyone's continued support. I really did think that this wasn't going to work but all of you have happily proven me wrong. If there is anyone you are in contact with who is still having technical issues with the pledging system, please encourage them to lock their pledges in over the next 13 days. After this pledge drive I will not be offering any of the pledge rewards online and will only have a limited amount of the brillinat schwag available at openings over the course of 2010. Thanks again and I am really excited to see if we end the drive with 3333.33 in pledges.
My sincere gratitude and thanks to you all. You have really given me an extra moral boost and practical support as i head into the second half of My Have Sticks Will Travel World Tour.
now back to weaving,
jonathan
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

After the enthusiasm for the first couple $100 pledge reward drawings I added two more. It is hard to believe but thanks to your generous support we just passed our goal tonight. But let's not stop there in true npr fashion let's see if we can keep this going and maybe even reach $3300 in honor of my 33rd birthday. If you can just re-post this a couple more times it might happen. Either way I thank you all for your patronage and even those of you who generously opted for no reward i will still get you something special when the drive ends at the end of december. In the meantime keep spreading the word, and in just a couple days I will be beginning to work on site for "Sticks, Straws, Sleeves and Lida" My new installation opening at The university of South Carolina in Columbia, on view January 15-February 23 2010, In between that I will have a small stir stick installation opening at Nurtureart in Brooklyn as part of the group show Eternal Return which opens January 22. And thanks to this goal being met I will be adding more stops in 2010. Thank You it is truly the support and encouragement that i receive for this work that keeps me going and makes it so interesting.
Thank you and keep spreading the word
jonathan

Thank you so much to those of you who have pledged already. It gave me a great deal to be thankful for this past holiday week. Also The attached image is of The Morton Piece, a small installation I created in my brothers apartment while visiting him for Thanksgiving. The race is now really underway, and we have 22 days left and a little less than half of our total to raise in order to reach our goal. This translates into simply getting $55 a day worth of pledges. If you have passed my site and this pledge on to friends consider following up with them and seeing if they thought about pledging even 2, 3, or 5 dollars, or at the very least reposting this link anywhere you post links. every little bit helps reach the goal, and ultimately it is a win win, because if we don't make our goal no one gets their goodies. In many ways I am counting on everyone i reach to be my street team if you will and help spread the good word.If we don't make our goal I just wanted to remind everyone of upcoming shows and installations where you can catch my work in the coming year. It is going to be a hectic schedule but I will keep doing my best to make work for everyone to enjoy. Here is an upcoming schedule of all confirmed venues that will get woven stir stick installations. I am not including shows for other types of work as they are not directly affected by this pledge drive.

Sticks, Straws, Sleeves and Lids(Solo Exhibition) McMaster Gallery, University of South Carolina, Columbia SC On View January 15-February 23 2010 (Artist Reception January 26 6pm)

Eternal Return(group show curated by tyler wiston and Christine Spangler) Nurtureart, Brooklyn New York, Opening January 22 2010

March 1-11 2010, I will be a visiting artist at Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University, both of which are located in Arkadelphia Arkansas

March 26 2010 marks the opening of a solo show at The 18rabbit gallery in Ft Lauderdale FLA

April 2010 I will be headed to Los Cabos mexico to do an installation for the Pezgordo Gallery

Finally September- November 2010 I will be an artist in residence at The Mccoll Center in Charlotte NC

In case you missed it when it was first posted on the wreg website I re-posted my interview and appearance on the Memphis Morning news enjoy and keep spreading the word.
http://www.youtube.com/watch...

This has been amazing and I think we really might make it. I can't thank you all enough for the generous support. I will continue to add more pledge drive options,because, well I am having too much fun coming up with incentives for this pledge drive, must be indulging my inner npr fundraiser. Today I introduce a couple new pledge options. One is another unique casting of a grande coffee cup, since the cast venti went so fast. this grande is really special since it is the very cup i use as my incense holder in the studio. Another unique incentive i added is a cast aluminum coffee cup lid, also a great tool for meditation, or just simply a nice desktop sculpture for contemplation. Finally I have a nice fall harvest edition, featuring cast aluminum cornbread that would make the perfect holiday centerpiece or just complete a lovely desktop sculpture arrangement. Thank You and keep spreading the word about this we may actually make it happen.
yours
jonathan

Well I really appreciate the first 20 of you to pledge your financial and emotional support for my work, but I want to remind you who we are really doing this for. Attached are some pictures emailed to me today from the University of Memphis. It seems their "takedown" event for the installation was a huge success. While some of you may be familiar with how i make the work, you may be less familiar with the fact that I insist the work be destroyed and the materials redistributed in some form at the close of the exhibition(this fulfills my commitment to keeping this body of work site-specific so that you truly have to go to the gallery to see the work, and it cannot exist in any form other than documentation beyond the gallery space). The best case scenario is something like this where school children get a chance to be inspired and have access to the work while also getting a chance to use the materials for their own purposes. So enjoy the pics and please try and convince at least one other person to pledge just a little bit towards this work(i am adding new pledge incentives at all levels, and i will happily add a custom pledge incentive if you think it will guilt/motivate someone who is on the fence about pledging. I thank you again and remember this is all or nothing, if we don't make the pledge goal no one gets their pledge rewards and no money changes hand. But I never forget a favor and if we don't make it over the next 40 days I will do my best to reach out to the first group of you who pledged in some way(which by the way is amazing we have already mustered aprox 30% of the goal) We can always go over the goal of course, but first we need to reach the finish line before we start doing victory laps. Try and post this wherever you can reminding people that you really want your pledge reward and the only way this will happen is if we hit our mark. Thanks, and now I have to get back in the studio and work on some non-stir stick art for a show that opens next week. I will keep trying to update here and my regular blog http://blog.jonathanbrilliant.com as things move along on this work, because in forty days,I start back weaving sticks for the next show.
jonathan

If you pledge $3.33 in honor of my 33rd birthday I will send you a special limited edition birthday card. On the cover is an original drawing, and inside is the text "Happy Birthday from those who adore you", I will also throw in a signed stir stick, and a sticker. The cards will be printed with soy based inks on archival paper using a local mom&pop shop wedding invitation printer. They will be signed and numbered and include a standard invitation envelope. My way of saying happy birthday to you for saying happy birthday to me. Again I thank those of you who have already donated and ask you to please help me spread the word and reach my goal. If we work together and reach the goal we all win as you will all get the gifts promised for the levels pledged. so let's work together and make this happen. Thank you again for supporting me and my art.
jonathan

I want to thank everyone who has pledged so far and let you know that we are potentially on track to reach the stated fund raising goal(20% raised so far, if we can just average $50 a day or so from now until the end we will make it. so far we are way beyond that average so thank you). I also wanted to remind everybody that kickstarter is an all or nothing pledge drive so the goal must be met for this to get funding and for backers to get their rewards( This is why the $2 pledges are just as important as the $10, $30, $100 and so on. every little bit helps us edge closer to the goal). If ya'll don't mind please help spread the word about this on facebook, twitter, coffee shops, and dinner conversations. And now the real update. In honor of my 33rd birthday on November 9 I added a 33 dollar donation option. For anyone who pledges 33 dollars they will get one of 33 vibrating coffee cups just like the one depicted in the video. and the ones used in this installation back in July
http://www.jonathanbrilliant.com/vibrating.html
Thanks again to those who have pledged, it means a great deal to me and I hope we can see this through successfully
Jonathan