Art For a Cure: Art Work

Here are the prints that will be available in the auction. The auction store will be on eBay at stores.ebay.com/Art-For-a-Cure. Since these items will not be live until Sunday the 3rd, they do not show up in the store. In order to make sure you can see them and look at what is available before the auction, I have listed them all here. The outstanding few that are not yet listed should be up by the end of this Friday.

Please tell all your friends to come bid and by something as all proceeds will go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help fight cancer.

Thank you. And a special thank you to all the artists that have donated their work.

-Ryan

"Bird" Mix Media by Laura Buller	"Flame Hair" Mix Media by Laura Buller
"Kick" Watercolor by Laura Buller	"Tentacle Lady" Mixed Media by Laura Buller
"Hunters" Silkscreen by Josh Cochran	"Christmas" Digital by Cassandra Worthington
"Crocodile Tears" Watercolor on watercolor paper by Peter de Seve *Available only in the 11x14 size.	"Summer Getaway" Watercolor on watercolor paper by Peter de Seve *Available only in the 11x14 size.
"Tag Sale" Watercolor on watercolor paper by Peter de Seve *Available only in the 11x14 size.	"Toothbrush" Oil, Acrylic, Pastel by Justin Garrity
"Flower" Photo on metallic paper by Chris Hatch	"Fancy Lady" Ink by W. Ryan Hatch
"NYC" Mix Media by W. Ryan Hatch	"The South Lands" Digital by W. Ryan Hatch
"You!" Mix Media by Michael Hilliard	"Stop and Go" Marker by Michael Hilliard
"Frederick at the Fridge" Watercolor by David Hohn	"Red Riding Hood" Watercolor by David Hohn
"Blue" Mix Media by AJ Juson	"Women 1" Lithograph by YuChia Kao
"Women 2" Lithograph by YuChia Kao	"Houctopus" Digital by YuChia Kao
"Monster" Pen by YuChia Kao	"Cicada 1" Lithograph, Artist’s Proof ORIGINAL by YuChia Kao
"Orange" Lithograph, Artist’s Proof ORIGINAL by YuChia Kao	"Sister's Gold" Paint by Alex Miller
"Bike Ride" Digital by Norman Morana	"Fishing Day" Digital by Norman Morana
"The Flying Box" Mixed Media by Norman Morana	"Haunting" Digital by Norman Morana
"Refresh" Digital by Norman Morana	"Canyon" Photo by Kyle Morgan
"Flower" Photo by Kyle Morgan	"Dancer" Mix Media by Anna Owen
"Orange" Paint by Anna Owen	"Red" Watercolor by Anna Owen
"Baby Hayden" Digital Paint by Becky Steele	"Red" Acrylic by Becky Steele
"Bicycle" Watercolor and Digital by Lee White *Available only in the 11x14 size.	"Blue" Paint by Allyson Willsey
"Red" Paint by Allyson Willsey	Additional print(s) may still be coming in. Check back or just go to the eBay store on Sunday March 3rd. Thank you!

Art For a Cure Update

The donated prints are rolling in and I could not be more pleased! More information will come as I get the eBay page up but the dates for the auction will be March 3rd-9th. That starts in a week and a half and will run for one week. 

In the mean time, here are a few of the donated pieces. This first one is from Peter de Seve, title: "Crocodile Tears"


This is from Norman Morana, title: "Haunting"


This is from Anna Owen, title: "Dancer"

Art For A Cure!

Shortly after I started running with Team In Training, I was thinking about ideas for fundraising and thought I wanted to do an art sale in some form. But I did not know how to go about it, worrying about the logistics. The idea was tabled in hopes of figuring it out later. Well now is later. Three years later.

The idea had been ever present in my mind. One of those that always sits on the back burner and never lets you forget about it. Finally I gave in. I thought about how I could make it work. This is my result.

In a few short weeks, maybe less, I will get an eBay page set up for an art auction. I contacted a number of artists, mostly I knew from art school. Some were just wild shot's in the dark. No way these guys would even respond. I am quite pleased to say that some of the big time artists responded and are participating too. How cool is that?!

The eBay site will sell prints of original works by each artist. There will be only two prints available of each piece, and 8x10 and 11x14 inch print. The auction functions like normal, you may bid higher and higher to be the highest bidder before the closing date/time for the auction. Following the conclusion of the auction, I will ship the print(s) to the highest bidders with a charity donation receipt and a thank you. Your donation/purchase will be of course applied to the Team In Training account I am using this season to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Artists have already started sending in work for this and I am blown away by their response. If this works out as well as I think it is going to, this will become an anual event. Hopefully getting bigger every year.

Some of the big artists that have already committed and/or sent prints include Peter deSeve, Lee White, and Josh Cochran.

This image is one of mine and is from a children's book I am working on. Therefore, it will NOT be auctioned off at this time. But I wanted to give an idea of what might be in the auction. There is no theme, pieces are whatever the artist wishes to submit. When I get a full or final list of participating artists this year, I will post that as well.



For now, I would love for everyone to pass this along and help generate as much hype as possible.

Thank you very much,

-Ryan

Stupid Immune System!

Have you ever seen the movie Bubble Boy staring a young Jake Gyllenhaal? It's one of those fantastic "stupid-humor" movies like Bill and Ted's, Spinal Tap, Animal House, etc. As the introduction to his character, Jimmy Livingston [Gyllenhaal] tells the audience in first person narration, "I was born without any immunities."

I say that a lot.

Though I was not born without immunities, mine failed me in my early 30's. I like to think that has made me follow the advice of Thoreau "to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life," helping others do the same. Sometimes I am successful in doing that with humor [be that heavily steeped in sarcasm]. Other times, it just makes me weep. Oh well. You can't win them all and I am doing so much better than I was last year or the year before at this time.

That said, I went in to see my GP (general practitioner) the other day because I am now a justified hypochondriac with these symptoms.

- Severe fatigue.
- Headache.
- Sore throat, which sometimes can be very severe.
- Chills, followed by a fever.
- Muscle aches.

Can you guess what I have? They tested for Strep Throat, negative. They tested for Flu, negative. They did a blood draw. Aaannnd....? How the bajeebers does one get Mono at 37, having been married for 11+ years and neither of us making out with anyone but each other???

Turns out the virus can lay dormant for 18 months in a persons system. The most common and successful means of transfer is exchange of saliva. Maybe I took a drink for the wrong drinking fountain. Maybe that frozen pole I licked on a double-dog-dare was... wait a minute! That wasn't me. Well it looks like the world will never know. But we can surmise that if I was born with immunities, I would have been able to fight this off.

I am excited to get over this to see how much my running improves without the additional fatigue. :)

Powerful Conversations

Jack is now in First grade. Over the summer, one of his friends from Kindergarten, Matt [not his real name], had his dad diagnosed with terminal Myeloma. They said he would be gone before Christmas. The week before school started (three-four months early), his dad passed away. In September, Mandy texted me the conversation Jack relayed to her that day.

Jack: "Hi Matt."
Matt: "Hi Jack. My dad died."
Jack: "Yeah. I know. That's really sad."
Matt: "Yeah. Let's go play."


...I could not keep it together that day. I had to go home and hug my kids.

You want to know why I run with Team In Training? Why do I fundraise for them? I do it because I hope that some day, conversations like this never happen. That they are forgotten as modern medicine makes cancer not only completely treatable, even at very late stages, but preventable. Cancer should become a shadow of our past. Not our present and every day.

I run for Team In Training because my first team got me through chemo. My second season and team got me through more chemo. And now, I try to help motivate others to make it through their hard times, chemo or not.

That is why I run. Please donate and help end cancer. I set up a widget on the side of my blog here. You can donate directly to the LLS and Team In Training there, and get an instant email confirmation. Please.

I thank you with all my heart.

GO TEAM!!