Kucinich on the canvas:

http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1154939504141440.xml?octip&coll=2

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, former boy mayor, will soon be immortalized at Cleveland City Hall. Backers of a plan to correct a slight by adding his portrait to those of other mayors say he has finally found time to sit for artist Matthew Hunt. Supporters raised about $20,000 for the project.

The painting, said City Councilman Joe Cimperman, should be done and hung this fall. The artist wants to get a feel for Kucinich. He will also use photographs to help make a portrait that reflects the younger, mayoral Kucinich, though we weren't aware that he had aged


Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Righting a Wrong...someday...soon!

http://www.clevelandaflcio.org/2006/01/righting-wrongsomedaysoon.html

...Unlike other outgoing Cleveland Mayors, the Chamber of Commerce (aka Partnership) did not pay for a portrait for Dennis Kucinich when he came up short for re-election. Twenty years passed without any action. That is when then Mayor Jane Campbell, Councilman Joe Cimperman and I put together a committee to raise the funds to have a portrait painted of the boy-Mayor. Our main fundraiser was a $20 a ticket kielbasa dinner at St. Augustine Church, with the help of cultural-arts guru Tom Schorgl (Community Partnership for Arts and Culture) we convened a panel of visual artists to select an artist from Greater Cleveland. We entered into a contract with a talented artist named Matthew Hunt whose resume included (ironically) a portrait of former President Ronald Reagan that hung at his ranch. Everything was finally heading to "righting a wrong" as we described it then...the 2004 presidential race occurred and Congressman Dennis Kucinich became presidential candidate Kucinich.

The closest we came to having a sitting was when artist Matthew Hunt was 20 minutes away from flying out of Cleveland to meet Kucinich; the presidential candidate's schedule changed and a sitting did not occur. Since then, we have been focused on other issues and Kucinich has run for re-election, got married and worked on various community issues.

The good news is Councilman Cimperman and I met this morning to get the ball rolling again. We have $13,341.70 in the bank after paying out and advance of $7,500 to the artist. We just need the Congressman to sit once in his life. We know that Kucinich is not personally crazy about spending time on a portrait but also know that he realizes it is important for all those who continued to support him and now realize that saving the municipal electric company was important...

Comments:
Tell Congressman Kucinich that kids are depending on it. I have a twelve year old that is proud to say that his Congressman is the Peace Candidate. He brags about it in a predominately conservative area, partly because he had to endure me working the Gore campaign and partly because he spent the first 9 years of his life growing up in radical Oberlin...