I got an email from Stephanie Blythe telling me that fellow NIADA artist Lisa Lichtenfels needs all our help. In the same six weeks her husband passed away and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. As all artists know when you work freelance when you can’t work you don’t get paid.

Please help Lisa pay her cancer co-pays and stay current with her living expenses. You can go to this link to learn more about the medical gofundme for Lisa that a dear friend of mine (Connie Smith) has organized.

Lisa Lichtenfels is one of the kindest, funniest, most honest people I have ever met. I met her in 1993 in Chicago where she showed her work and gave an inspiring slideshow talk about where she lived and worked. It opened with her saying that she had been reading and seeing all about people who lived and worked in fabulous inspiring places including a recent magazine article about a person who lived in a castle. She opened the slideshow by saying “This is a picture of the fixed-up side of my house.” We roared with laughter — Lisa didn’t live in a fancy place or even a totally fixed up place; she lived in a house where, she proceeded to tell us, it took six months to evict a “sitting tenant” (a squatter). “This isn’t the house we wanted; this is the house we could afford.” Her dry wit, her personality, her art — there just isn’t anything at all that I don’t love about Lisa.

Later during the visiting artists critique my doll was criticized for having incorrect thumbs. I was told “look at your thumbs and sculpt what you see”, I held up my hand and said “I did.” The poor artist looked at my hand and flustered said “Look at someone else’s thumbs. Take photos.” Now I need to explain that my family has anatomically incorrect thumbs — they are strange looking. They work great but they’re a bit odd, sort of double jointed and the last joint sticks out away from the hand. Then during the general viewing of the visiting artists pieces I was talking to Lisa and explained about the freaky thumb thing and she looked at the dolls hand and my hand and said “I like that it has your thumbs.”

I know for certain that I am not the only person who feels so strongly about Lisa, as a person and an artist. I am hoping that you will be willing to help her, both financially and by spreading the word about her need.

Now for the photo portion of this post:

This is Lisa with Phobe; one of her life sized Ticket taker pieces. These were made for posh people who had a private theater in their houses and wanted a sculptural piece to sit outside as if ready to take the ticket stubs.

These three photos came from Lisa’s website. I hope she forgives me for copying them so I could share them. You can also find more info on this Facebook page. Also try doing a google image search.

Please help.

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