Cabbagetown Tornado Relief Show

If you want a piece of my artwork and don't want to wait on the list, make your way to Doo Gallery.

Atlanta Georgia's DooGallery is having an Earth Day Recycled Art Show to promote recycling and help Cabbagetown tornado victims.

All artwork has been created from recycled material and/or Atlanta tornado debris.

Help save the planet while assisting families who really need help!

The artwork will be sold in a silent auction. Many opening bids are $10.

All profits from the show will help the Cabbagetown families and promote recycling in Atlanta -- 100% of door donations go to Atlanta tornado victims

$10 door donation & free beer for everyone over 21

Doors open at Noon on Sunday, April 20, 2008

Activities include:
1:00pm - 1:30pm We Tap the Keg and say hello!
1:30pm - 2:45pm DJ Press Play
3:00pm - 3:45pm Night Moves Gold
4:00pm - 4:45pm Your Uncle Bill Who Went Crazy
5:00pm - 5:45pm Charles Flemming

Click here for directions

Here & there

Here & there 3/11/08

A victory for butt-painters everywhere

ART FOR POSTERITY

The ACLU of Virginia has wrested $65,000 from the Chesterfield County School Board, which last year fired art teacher Stephen Murmer, gently explains the group's press release, for "creating paintings rendered by transferring paint from his body onto canvasses." The ACLU is too demure to specify Mr. Murmer's genre. He coats his posterior and private parts with paint, does his thing, and puts it on the Web.
In this case, the community's traditional expectations of proper teacher conduct met glorious let-'er-rip individualism and finished second. Alas for Chesterfield, the lesson is as clear as a check for 65 G's: Whereas once, teachers could be fired for a hint of indecency, today they are free to show their arses both figuratively and literally.

MURMER SETTLES WITH CHESTERFIELD, CBS 6, March 7, 2008

Fired Art Teacher Wins $65,000 Settlement from Chesterfield County School Board, March 7, 2008 ACLU says First Amendment Rights Vindicated

Chesterfield County, VA — The ACLU of Virginia today announced that it has reached an agreement with the Chesterfield County School Board in the case of former Monacan High School art teacher Stephen Murmer. Murmer was fired in January 2007 for creating paintings rendered by transferring paint from his body onto canvasses. The paintings were produced at Murmer’s own expense and during his private time away from work.
"I am glad the School Board saw fit to pay Mr. Murmer about two years’ salary to compensate him for the harm he suffered,” said ACLU of Virginia cooperating attorney Tim Schulte. “I only wish that the students at Monacan High would also be compensated for the loss of an exemplary teacher who was brave enough to stand on principle."
“Our founders recognized that even controversial speech should be protected in a democracy,” said ACLU of Virginia Legal Director Rebecca K. Glenberg. “The fact that some administrators were offended by Stephen Murmer’s speech did not give them the right to fire him.”
“The government has limited power to interfere with our private affairs, especially when those affairs are perfectly legal and protected by the Constitution,” said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis. “ Chesterfield made a mistake when it fired Mr. Murmer for conduct completely unrelated to his ability to be an effective teacher.”
“I am pleased with this settlement,” said Stephen Murmer. “I hope my case will cause schools to think twice before they fire a teacher for expressing himself outside the classroom. This settlement represents a vindication of me and the First Amendment.”
Murmer is represented by ACLU cooperating attorneys Tim Schulte and Blackwell Shelley of Shelley and Schulte, P.C. in Richmond, and ACLU of Virginia Legal Director Rebecca K. Glenberg.
A copy of the original complaint filed in U.S District Court in Richmond in October 2007 is available online at http://www.acluva.org/docket/pleadings/murmer_complaint.pdf
Contacts: Tim Schulte, 804/644-9700 Kent Willis or Rebecca K. Glenberg, 804/644-8022

Chesterfield school board settles lawsuit with former art teacher

From NBC12 News

The Chesterfield County school system says it is settling a lawsuit brought forth by a former art teacher.