Finally the seven foot pile of cloths remaining from the Vintage Garage is in bags awaiting their return to the Goodwill.
The remaining crap from my childhood and my parent’s life has been stuffed into the other half of my two car garage I call home. The plywood desk has been cut, the microwave plugged in, and the water cooler has been ordered.
The Lexicon Project, finally, has an office. Though still reeking urine from my dead cat, we finally have a space to create.

Granted things are not as bad as they read, remember I am a photographer, not a writer; written word always seems to read better there is a sense of desperation.
Though unfortunately I just realized this blog thing does not have a spell check; again, remember, I am a photographer not a writer.

From our office we are creating an educational outreach program that will work to educate children about community; what it is, what it means, who it represents; all through the use of photography. I believe the hard part in creating community based critical thinking skills is the divide between how people see their community and how they see their interaction within. It is my belief that photography has the power to empower people to interact with their vision of their community and envision a path to this end; though the task is never ending.

The Lexicon Project is beginning with the Castlewood community center in late June to place cameras in the hands of kids, after a bit of photographic education as well as community development skills they will be released to interact with themselves, their family and their community.
Early July the Lexicon Project will work the same curriculum, after a bit of review, with children at the Carnegie Center's Camp Carnegie.
At the close of Camp Carnagie the Project will focus its photographic outreach program, dubbed "operation phototivity," on children within the Hispanic community. With a grant from the Kentucky Arts Council the project will place cameras in the hands of the Hispanic community to allow one of our cities fastest growing minority populations to show us how they see our city and their place within. From here the goal is to create an educational curriculum with FCPS educator Jenny O'Neil that will mesh with the Kentucky Core Curriculum and eventually be entered into the standard high school educational curriculum.

Our government fells the complete right to gut creative educational programs when the wind blows south, while at the same time speaking to the constant creationist idea of critical thinking. What they always choose to ignore is that through creativity we find the strongest critics.

Hopefully the smell of cat urine will fade over time, or perhaps my hours in the office will find me accustom to the stench of urea. Irregardless my view is of the world, that is of course when the garage door is open, and all I see is beauty.