Winning Art Gets Billboard Treatment with Fine Art America and Pixels

I created the above a collage of the 6 images I submitted.
I am not cheating, I promise! I pay for two accounts - one for the "individual" Heather J. Kirk
and one my company Abundant Eight Creative

Each image that gets at least 250 votes
will become a contest finalist.

UPDATE - I did not get enough votes, but still, 150 is a HECK OF A LOT. THANKS TO ALL who voted and all who tried! Heather

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five winning images will appear on billboards throughout Los Angeles!

WHY VOTE FOR ME?

Reason #1:
A portion of my sales always goes to support non-profits somehow related to the location or content of the photo sold.

Reason #2:
My best preparatory efforts met up with TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!
(see after pictures if you actually care about technical difficulties...
OR IF YOU HAVE THEM... then find out what to do to fix them :) )

Vote and Share Please!

I'm seeking 250 votes for each image to be considered as featured art on Billboards in Los Angeles! I am told Facebook is the easiest way to create an account. Then come back to this post to use the 6 SPECIFIC LINKS BELOW. Otherwise you will never find m art!
Blessings! Heather

1) https://fineartamerica.com/contests/billboard-contest.html?tab=vote&artworkid=27522326

2) https://fineartamerica.com/contests/billboard-contest.html?tab=vote&artworkid=12588739

3) https://fineartamerica.com/contests/billboard-contest.html?tab=vote&artworkid=27510063

4) https://fineartamerica.com/contests/billboard-contest.html?tab=vote&artworkid=17052354

5) https://fineartamerica.com/contests/billboard-contest.html?tab=vote&artworkid=18340725

6) https://fineartamerica.com/contests/billboard-contest.html?tab=vote&artworkid=18918423

Kirkjufell and Foss and Midnight Sun and Sky

The first image in the group is of Kirkjufall in Iceland. I HOPE you will vote for all, but it you choose only one, I ma trying to stack votes on the first in the list.

Kirkjufell and Foss and Midnight Sun and Sky by Heather Kirk and AEC - Abundant Eight Creative

This was taken in #Iceland during the #summersolstice in the #LandoftheMidnightSun . Made famous by #GameofThrones in which it is called #ArrowheadMountain. The actual name is #Kirkjufell which means #ChurchMountain, and I like to pretend was named after me, #HeatherKirk 


It is located more specifically in the #SnæfellsnesPeninsula near the town of #Grundarfjörður (Here's those words hashtagged without the squished up and funky letters, lol! #SnaefellsnesPeninsula #Grundarfjorour )

Lifeguard Call Box Boomer's Beach La Jolla Cove California

Lily Over Los Angeles

White Mare Gallops #1 - Panoramic Brighter

Bali Typical Offerings #1

Sunset in Golden Tones Torrey Pines Natural Preserves #1

...

Be blessed My Purposeful People!
Heather Wearable Art - Heather J Kirk's VIDA Collection: http://shopvida.com/collections/heather-j-kirk and
https://artofwhere.com/artists/heatherjkirk Art by Heather J. Kirk http://heather-kirk.pixels.com and
http://AEC.pixels.com Literature by Heather J. Kirk
http://www.photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books.html

Some of the links here are ads that blogger or google places. Some are official affiliate links. Those actually from ME I vouch for with my personal experience . The others... not so much, lol!


The following is amazing (from ME)!

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Why even bother to vote? Because...

I seriously considered leaving some of the elections positions blank on my ballot - thinking that I didn't want to be held accountable for choosing either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton as our next president.

But beyond being a cop-out, I remembered that an Election Volunteer in Florida was caught filling in her own choice when opening early ballots with no vote. I realized I HAD to choose.

There is not a way to avoid responsibility for voting, because NOT CHOOSING was literally allowing some random person to choose for me instead - whether it is an unethical elections volunteer or someone else who voted when I did not.

I remembered living in Mexico and having as a hostess someone who counted ballots during their elections. Mexico requires citizens to vote, at least they did then in order to get certain privileges. But they also allowed for write in candidates - or people did it anyway. "For decades," she explained "Su mama came in first place, Mickey Mouse came in second place, then the incumbent party's candidate came in third. but the first two were never announced." I suddenly understand!

I am not suggesting you vote for a Disney character or someone's mother, but I am suggesting there are other choices...though a third party candidate or a write-in likely is a throw away vote.


So I will choose based not on the person on the presidential line of the ballot, or even for the political party, but for who I would like to be nominating the next three Supreme Court Judges, and therefore likely affecting our country's future not for four years, but for decades.

"All a person's ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD." Proverbs 16:2

Why do I place this verse on this blog post? Because making good choices are NOT always easy. And not choosing IS choosing. So in every difficult situation, pray, seek what is right, and be accountable to no one but God. That, indeed, may even be harder than knowing who to vote for in this election, but we are held to a higher standard and a higher power than the President of the United States...One who is not limited in how He is able to acts...not even by the winner of an election. 



Be Blessed My Purposeful People, Heather J. Kirk
Wearable Art - Heather J Kirk's VIDA Collection: http://shopvida.com/collections/heather-j-kirk Art by Heather J. Kirk http://heather-kirk.pixels.com and http://AEC.pixels.com Literature by Heather J. Kirk http://www.photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books.html

Drive for Lyft and get a Bonus using this Code!
Bonus amount varies by city, but tends to be $50 -$100.
In Los Angeles LOTS more!

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How sex plays a role in this election (and probably not what you were thinking)

Part  II of my little "We DO get what we want" election series.
How sex plays a role in this election
(and probably not what you were thinking)

If  you read yesterday's post, you know what I think of the choices we have made as our party representatives for President, so I will just start with ... And finally (well not finally, but I've had enough) ...

Why are we surprised that there are some powerful men (including a presidential candidate and a candidate's husband)?:
1. Have a history of (or history of accusations of) objectifying women;
2. Would try to avoid talking about it; and
3. Have women in their lives who stand by them.

We are also oddly surprised that some women who have been objectified or used sexually:
1. Would not come forward right away;
2. Would only do so years later and in the safety of numbers;
3. Had even possibly hoped to get something out of it - whether defensively, like keeping their jobs, or actively in hopes of getting ahead.

Neither of these should be a surprise when our culture is shockingly full of women competing and begging for male attention, or attempting to get ahead in life using their sexuality - I mean that's what advertisements and pop culture (music videos, concerts, movies, TV, news stories)  try to teach us in necessary, isn't it?

Of course in real life many women (even most, go figure) actually get ahead by being smart, talented and educated, having connections, friends and determination. But at the same time, perhaps because of wanting a dream at all costs, or the economy making it hard to get a job, or single motherhood and costs of childcare, or inequitable pay for equal work, or pressure by a boss to give in or keep quiet, and many other reasons...some women may feel they need to do whatever it takes to get or keep a job.


Many women know that it means pretending not to notice a brush of a hand against a body part, or competing with coworkers for the bosses attention in ways that may put other women down.

And then whether they fit that stereotype or not - women who are groped or assaulted or even have sex because they feel it is required, or at least very helpful, to keep their jobs, fail to come forward for fear of being blamed or not being believed.

So again I say this is, at least in part, our own fault.

We apparently think it is okay to have Victoria Secret's fashion shows on TV, with commercials running during prime time family programs. We let our girls wear short shorts because they insist their friends are. We take or send them to concerts with women wearing hardly anything, or men simulating sex on stage. We tell our adult friends to suck it up at work or dress hotter or go ahead and have that affair with the boss - it will be worth it. And so on...

We say boys will be boys. Men don't call their friend's on their behavior because they don't want to be seen as wooses or 'homos" or disloyal to the "male race". We say our athletes, movie starts or musicians wouldn't "need" to pay or force women to have sex. We shut our eyes when we see women who are repeatedly 'walk into doorknobs". And so on... 

Why then are we surprised that we are all messed up sexually as a nation.

Oh, some of you think I've gone too far now... And why? Because I've stopped talking about the candidates and slipped into what we accept as acceptable...or do nothing about. Because I am saying that we explain away too often others behaviors by saying 'to each his own'.

So, if you want to get back to the candidates, fine. One is a wealthy powerful man who many women have come forward to say they were treated like a piece of meat or sexually assaulted. One's husband, as President of the United States, used his power and position to manipulate at least one young female intern, and paid off several lawsuits to keep other women quiet. And this candidate did not appear to hold him accountable. Or her own ambition was great enough to stick with him anyway.

So in my opinion, the lesser of two evils is a terrible way to choose, but at least one has not already played a role in defiling the Oval Room.

What women rightly long for is spiritual and moral initiative from a man, not spiritual and moral domination.- John Piper, Chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary

Blessings to My Purposeful People, Heather J. Kirk

Wearable Art - Heather J Kirk's VIDA Collection: http://shopvida.com/collections/heather-j-kirk
Art by Heather J. Kirk http://heather-kirk.pixels.com and http://AEC.pixels.com
Literature by Heather J. Kirk http://www.photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books.html

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If our nation has chosen what we admire then the only answer is to humble ourselves

If it's true that a nation can suffer the consequences for the things that we as a whole have done, we are getting what we deserve. Too many people I know feel they have not even "the lesser of two evils" as a choice for President, but no choice. And to be honest in other political positions as well. But WE DID CHOOSE, and we chose these. (Some may say they voted for someone else in the primary... then divided we fall.)

Let me say also that it is not just in the Presidential race that we have a lack of great choices, but it seems to be exaggerated there. We need to ask ourselves overall what have our votes (or the choice to not vote) brought us?

How true is this? "When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, But when a wicked person rules, people groan"Proverbs 29:2

In our Presidential candidates we chose pridefulness. We chose those who have had both great success and great failure (though the truth is a willingness to take chances and fail often comes along with anyone who has achieved much - still a President is not the place to be taking too many chances.) We chose people with lack of facial control - and negotiations and leading a nation requires that every thought that passes through one's mind does not show up in a laugh or a smirk. We have people who shirk responsibility. We have people whose staff or supporters keep getting in trouble, being fired, or leaving of their own accord.And when I just did a spellcheck on the word pridefullness because of a red line under it, the option it gave me was 'spitefulness,' and yes, we chose that too.


And if you disagree that you chose these qualities or people, then...if we have not gotten what we have chosen, then we have gotten what we have allowed.

IF you are still saying that YOU did not choose this, others did, then oddly you are part of the problem. The solution takes accepting the situation as it is and problem solving, deciding what to do about it, what to do differently now and next time. And we can only change what we feel we have some power over!


It is not just at the voter's booth ALONE that we are responsible. We must take the blame for our own actions, and yes, also for our nation's action as a very large group of individuals.  It is made up of a lot of "ME's". What have my (our) actions created in our families, in our communities? What have my (our) actions allowed to go on around us? Are we guilty of pride, deceitfulness, greed, putting our own needs above others needs, disrespecting others with our word and the looks we give, the way we roll our eyes. We often are very lenient on others guilty of the same sins as our own. And then we get what we get...in our own lives, and in our nation.

And if all else fails, we need to pray! As I write that I think that perhaps therein lies the problem - at least mine - we wait to pray until all else fails, and we have created a complete mess. 

So is there any hope? 


Only by humbling ourselves. Only by turning form the things we already know in our hearts are wrong, With humility and asking forgiveness we can obtain from God a goodness and mercy that we do not deserve but receive anyway out of love.


So late in the game, all we can count on is a MIRACLE - and I say that in full sincerity.  Maybe the miracle will be that neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton win the Presidency, but that, of course, is not likely. Yet the concept of miracles does not imply 'likelihood', it implies 'impossible without supernatural intervention'. But still, the miracle we may have to count on is to be surprised that God is able to work in our nation for our individual and national good through, or in spite of, whoever WE (yes we) vote in as 45th President of the United States.


"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14 

Who are "my people"? The verse implies God's people. but we are 'one nation under God" who have received favor for a long time. A perfect country? of course not, we are made up of people...but a humble nation chooses, and deserves, better than a prideful people!

Be Blessed My Purposeful People, Heather J. Kirk
 
Wearable Art - Heather J Kirk's VIDA Collection: http://shopvida.com/collections/heather-j-kirk
Art by Heather J. Kirk http://heather-kirk.pixels.com and http://AEC.pixels.com
Literature by Heather J. Kirk http://www.photographicartistry.citymax.com/Books.html

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