Hello fine humans,

This week has been wild. My partner is a public school teacher and they have been on strike since Monday. There hasn’t been a teacher strike for the past 47 years. There is always a threat of it because public school teachers are treated so poorly. The job is difficult and you have to go in with empathy, compassion and a strong bladder. I volunteer at her school when I can moving furniture, setting up and breaking down offices and classrooms. I do whatever they ask with the time they have me.

So, of course, I went each day to the picket lines, the actions and marches afterwards. It is very invigorating to be yelling and chanting all day. It felt good to be a part of something asking for specific goals and resolutions. It felt like practice for something bigger down the road.

This morning we woke up ready to hit the picket lines again only to hear that they reached a tentative agreement. We will see what the devil is in the details but for today, we tentatively celebrate.

All this to say I have not done much drawing or painting this week. I did get a lot of inspiration. I made a quick sketch in the photo above of how my brain feels after all this.

I have some art news as well! Last Friday I finished my two letters for the silent auction for the Live Art Walls fundraiser. There will be two openings. One in Oakland and then in San Francisco. The starting bids for the letters is $50 each and the silent auction runs through Feb.

My letters were v and E. I named them Victory and ENOUGH. I posted them on the Cara App. You can see them in the link below. I choose to post in the Cara App because they don’t allow AI and you don’t have to join Cara to view the work. I don’t have a lot of followers there YET but I am doing my best to step away from Facebook and Instagram. Please take a look to see how my letters turned out!

Until next time, take good care of each other.

Zoe

Latest Read: Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli. This is an important one but sad. Buy at your local bookstore or even better, check it out from your local library!

Art Date: LOVE LETTERS Fundraiser for Live Art Walls Silent auction : 70 + artists!

1st opening Sat - Feb 14, 3-7pm Big Door Gallery 2716 MacArthur Blvd Oakland CA

2nd opening Sat - Feb 21, 4-9pm APE 3386 18th Street San Francisco CA

Inspiration: Hands up! Hands down! Public School teachers are forever inspiring.

Shout Out: The folks in the twin cities keep showing us all how to be there for our neighbors.

This is #10 of Zoe Ani’s Tidbits & Tangents. You can subscribe or view the archives online.