News –

The Home Stretch: 6 Days Left!

April 5, 2014Ayin EsLeave a comment

Alrighty Folks! Here we are at the final home stretch of this thing.

I am so unbelievably delighted that we’ve come this far already. Really – I couldn’t be happier to have reached my goal — and then some! I will even be able to pay the Kickstarter Fees now! So a HUGE thanks to all that have contributed so far. Thank you.

This will be the second to the last update – as far as the fundraising campaign leg goes. I will be sending out one more in a week from today – Saturday morning. That update will have a good deal of information about what comes next, because, officially, that’s when my project will start.

Yeah, I know. I don’t waste any time! I like to dive right into things. It’s because I can’t wait to get to work!

In the meantime: I am not finished fundraising!

There are SIX MORE DAYS to contribute! So, it’s time for me to get annoying!

I want you to reach deep, s p r e a d the word, tell your friends and family, share, share share on your social media networks, and call the Pope!

Please help me make this Kickstarter like one of those crazy, world-famous ones that break the glass ceiling in the last moments of its existence. Let’s at least try.

In return, I promise you very unique rewards, and a very thought-provoking, engaging (and pretty) solo exhibition next spring at Shulamit Gallery.

Thanks for reading.

Love,

Carol Es

AN EXODUS IN JOSHUA TREE

Kickstarter Funded! — Almost Officially!

March 28, 2014March 28, 2014Ayin EsLeave a comment

(Reposted from the Exodus Project Site)

We made it boys and girls!!!

Dan is even shouting most of the colors he can shout in! I think that means he’s happy. Well, I’m happy.

Today, thanks to Shula, the owner of Shulamit Gallery, we were able to push the funding over our goal. She pledged $2K because she rocks however!, not just thanks to her, but each and every contribution made so far! It’s just as difficult, if not more in some cases for others to pony up money — and do not think that eludes me, it does NOT! It was a LOT of work to get to that 67% mark!

But, I had no idea that I’d be coming back here less than a day later to make such an announcement, and we STILL have 14 days left to go!

Now I have to get to work. I have to write that 10 Commandments book, I have to find those old Joshua Tree postcards. I just have some work to do and I better start early, if I can, with no money in hand. We’ll see what I can get accomplished anyway.

Thank you, everyone! Thank you thank you thank you!

From a Distance

March 17, 2014March 17, 2014Ayin EsLeave a comment

So the past few days I’ve been on the fence – do I go to Tuscaloosa? Do I not?. I’m confused.

As it stands now, there’s quite a few people coming in to see my Aunt Susie at the hospice facility. It sounds like a wonderful place.

I don’t know, if you’re wondering why I haven’t been writing in my blog – especially since I have this great Kickstarter Campaign happening, it’s because I really don’t know what to say at the moment. It doesn’t mean I’m not excited about my project. I totally am! I’m just also dealing with this thing with my aunt too, and I don’t feel much like writing to anybody, if that makes sense.

You know when you just want to be alone with your thoughts? I’m usually so up for sharing mine, but just not right now. Not about what I’m feeling right now. Not tonight, in this moment.

Lately, I have been just diving, no, burying myself in tasks so I don’t have to think about it. I built this rock garden over the last week in my backyard:

It looks better from above:

Don’t be too impressed. I had help:

But between you and me – and don’t tell her this – she really wasn’t much help at all. In fact, there were times she even managed to slow down the entire operation! The job took about a week. Good thing I wasn’t on it every day. It was just something I was doing to calm my nerves, and it super worked. I just don’t have the room in my yard to keep building rock gardens.

Whatever the case, when I was finished with this one, I felt very accomplished, even though I kept chipping away at this thing in my pajamas, so please excuse how frumpily floppy I appear here.

I’ve also been building the ExodusJoshuaTree.com website, but I can’t show that to you yet. It’s pretty simple and straight forward, and really not much to it (now that I’m finally coding it), but it just took a long time to design it. I got picky, then not so picky, got some opinions, got a little sad, tried again, liked it better, started hating it, started over again, changed it a lot, then changed it a little, started seeing monkeys… You know. The usual.

So, I’m still tweaking it a little …I think.

My Kickstarter is 36% funded with about 25 days to go! Pretty good, eh? Although, I was getting pledges like mad the first couple days, and now, none the last couple days. NONE! Not even a pledge for a postcard. What’s up? What do I need to do?

First of all, I probably need to post MUCH better pictures of myself. Okay, okay, I will! I promise! I will look around for some and I will find some fashion shots that will blow your socks off. Will that do it? I’ll try it.

Almost Didn’t

March 13, 2014March 13, 2014Ayin EsLeave a comment

I almost didn’t launch my Kickstarter last night. I was actually fixin’ to launch earlier in the day.

I went out to lunch with Ellie Blankfort. Always filled with such joy and learning for me when I see her. What can you say about a friend that leaves you feeling more and more healed every time?

When I got home, there were a bunch of messages on my voice mail – never a good sign since I usually have none. And they all came from Alabama where my Aunt Susie lives. My Aunt Susie, whom, last I checked, was in full remission after five rounds of chemo for stage 4 breast cancer. It was some kind of miracle.

I’ve probably mentioned this story about how my brother and I went out to see her days after we received this news and, what we thought was going to be a trip of “goodbyes,” wound up being a trip about celebration. We were able to see her and my cousin Lisa – eight and a half months pregnant – her husband, and my little 2nd cousin Damon.

But not just six weeks after we left, Lisa overdosed and died, leaving her brand new baby boy, Samuel, her other son, Damon, her husband Tim, and my aunt (her mother), Susie, all in wake – not to mention my brother and I. It was a shock. Then again, it wasn’t.

Yesterday, the messages I received were even worse. Susie is in the hospital. The cancer has spread to her brain. No longer able to respond, I am the one to decide on life support. Also, the boys are in Child Protective Services and there is going to be a 72 hour hearing about their placement on Friday at 10:am. The kids will either be going to their other grandparents, or my brother’s family – and who can make a decision like this under such time constraints?! But a decision needs to be made or else they are going into foster care.

On top of that, I find out that Tim died last Thursday. No one knows how exactly, but we can all only guess.

By the time the night came, exhausted from crying and making about 1000 phone calls, I just pushed the “launch” button. Susie wouldn’t want me to hold up my work, and for who knows how long this can all drag on? The work was already done. The button just needed to be pressed and I can go back to making all my phone calls. Maybe it’s inappropriate, but I need the distraction in all honesty. She is the last of my immediate relatives (besides my brother).

So this morning we are moving her to a hospice facility. She will be gone any day, any time, any moment. She has an older granddaughter that keeps coming to see her, but she says Susie is just sleeping peacefully, and there is no way my brother, nor I, can make it out to Tuscaloosa now. All I can do is place others around her and hope she knows I am putting all her interests in place.

The Kickstarter Campaign Has Begun!

March 12, 2014March 14, 2014Ayin Es1 Comment

I’ve done it! I have finally launched, my long-awaited Kickstarter campaign:

An Exodus in Joshua Tree – and – it is what it is.

It is not the greatest video on Earth, and in fact, it’s pretty crappy, but, I had a LOT of problems, like not being able to use my good camera (it’s broken), and just a whole bunch of other roadblocks in general, PLUS the fact that I don’t know how to make videos! I’m also obviously not a very good public speaker. It was really hard to put myself out there and you can hear every little vulnerability in my voice. I hate that I am so easily read sometimes. But… it is what it is.

Well, maybe now that it’s out there, everything I’ve been going on about will make a little more sense? I was going to have a bigger lead-up to this, like make it more like a story that would keep everyone on the edge of their seats, but I just couldn’t wait any longer to get this thing launched already. It’s not like I am submitting something for the Oscars, it’s just something to make people understand what my idea for this exhibition is. I hope I at least did that successfully.

PLEASE, pass it around. Fingers crossed. We’ll see what happens.