Guess Whose Back?

aka return of the 5149 Facebook

I fought social media long and hard. Mentally it was fantastic. Financially as an artist, it was rough (no sales, zero to little traffic even to the web shop, and not one rescue took me up on sending them free artwork).

I very, very, very much enjoyed not being on it. No scrolling. No stress. No algorithms. No constant contact. No need for content….

Don’t get me wrong. I did miss being able to interact with my followers. I missed seeing pictures of dogs. And I missed the ease of helping boxer rescues. Because when I have a Facebook, I can just tell a rescue I’m helping, post, boom, done. No one has to do anything at the rescue. I do the work.

All that other stuff, particularly the politics…..didn’t miss it one bit. A close friend told me I was hiding my head in the sand. I don’t look at it that way. I am aware of what’s going on in the world. But I personally can only control what is in my small world. Say what you want on that. But right now, my focus is on my autistic son’s needs and being able to pay for his therapies/ our bills/mortgage etc. I have never been interested in mixing politics and art. I won’t argue that point. I help rescues. I make colorful art. That is who I am.

So if you want to follow us on Instagram, we are @5149andahalf.art

Our Facebook is 5149 & ½ Art

Now that we are back on social media, we are better able to help rescues. Which I have said before, gives me a sense of purpose that I have lost since leaving 911 dispatching and coaching. I have learned I am someone who needs to contribute positively to the world and my community. I don’t know any other way to live without those things.

So here we back to helping boxer fundraising. And to start we are helping R & R Boxer Rescue. Which is where Management is from originally when we adopted her in November of 2023.

We donated a custom hand painted tile to their recent auction. While the auction did well, they have a LOT of medical expenses coming up. I have always loved this rescue for how often they take on seriously neglected dogs, ailing seniors and the ones labeled rescue only at the shelters. Giving them the care and attention they need and finding those dogs forever homes. To try and help them out more, I am offering something special on our Facebook page. For a direct donation to R&R via paypal or venmo, you can get a custom painting of your boxer dog from me.

· For a $150 donation, you can get a 6x8 custom pastel

· For a $100 donation, you can get a 4x4 custom tile

I put the links to paypal/venmo on the facebook post. But you can also find them on the webpage for R&R Boxer Rescue.

Limit of ten spots each before I have to cut off this fundraiser due to only so much time in a day to work. Also, you will have to cover the shipping (which will be like $5 in the US).

In the meantime, Management has been doing a little water therapy since the weather has gotten so warm here. It is harder getting her out on walks. Nothing drives me nuts more than people walking their dogs when it’s 90 degrees out.

As for the Intern, he is finally finished with school. If you have been following a while now you know that my son absolutely hated going to school. Initially it was separation anxiety and we were doing pretty good using various tactics like routines and photographs to get him acclimated to time away from mom. That seemed to work well for a time being. Until something happened. We are not sure what, as he cannot communicate that to us. But his apprehension turned to terror and fear. He would have panic attacks the night before school and the mornings were just tears and begging me not to take him.

To top it off, his teacher moved out of state (he loved his teacher). And the district has told us to change schools (to one closer to us). However after a tour that can basically be described as “we don’t know what we are actually doing, special education is new to us”, and finding out the class size is approaching over twenty kids, I am looking at homeschooling.

To try and support this future endeavor and just continue to be able to provide for him without doing a traditional 9-5 job with its steady paycheck, I have opened a second shop. Where I am selling off my personal collection of vintage toys, collectibles and what not. Including a bunch of designer toys I have picked over the years from my times vending at Designer Con and NYC Comic Con. You can check out the shop at Blue Boxer Collectibles. Fairly early in getting items in there but I will continue to add many things over the next few months for sure.

I apologize for this newsletter being so “businessy” and future newsletters will go back to being about dogs, artwork and the adventures of the Intern.