I’ve been thinking and thinking about how to spend my George Bush rebate check when it arrives. First of all, I have to say I am in no way a fan of this pathetic bandaid of a solution to a major mess caused by our current president. George Bush is not buying my love, that’s for sure. And I’m not kidding myself – we’re all going to have to pay this money back and, in the future, it’s going to cost a lot more. We’re still going to need lots of roads and schools, which I am happy to pay for with my tax dollars, although maybe we’ll be a bit smarter next time before starting wars we can’t afford to pay for — and I am talking specifically about the next couple of months. Please God, keep Bush out of Iran.
Anyway, since we’ve all got this money coming and there’s nothing we can do about it – what is the best way to spend it? One friend of mine said that she was actually thinking about flushing it down the toilet, but I think she was joking. I originally was thinking that I’d buy Euros with the money, because they’re continuing to rise in value, while the dollar is still sinking. What are the rich buying with their American dollars? I checked it out and, apparently, the rich people have been buying gold for a couple of years now. Six hundred bucks won’t get me much gold, but this is, again, a sure sign that the American Dollar is tanking.
So THEN I look around me – in beautiful, artistically rich, and also, fairly inexpensive, Baltimore. And WOW! There’s so much good artwork around and so many amazing artists here in town. Why not take a gamble on a relatively inexpensive work by an artist who’s work you’ve been sweating for some time?
People grumble that art is so overpriced and expensive, but honestly – there’s always a print, a small work, or a work on paper that can be priced affordably. You can even just go direct to the artist’s studio if you want to. I honestly don’t care WHERE you go, but I do think that Baltimore’s art community needs an influx of funds, and this time without a ‘complements of Mayor Dixon’ sign attached. Don’t you???
Nobody’s getting rich here, but buying and selling artwork does create an exchange of energy, generates opportunities for artists to continue their work, and produces good kharma in the buyer. Plus, after the dollar sinks into worthlessness, you’ll still have your framed beauty on the wall, and hopefully, by now, the artist is famous and you can sell the piece for what it’s worth in Euros – or Chinese Yuan. 
