My Fundraiser to support Recovery of HorseSpirit Arts Gallery

"Glacial River" This painting is a witness
 to the flood that survived.

The flood that occurred in Ellicott City on May 27, 2018 came less than two years after the flood in 2016. The town had rebuilt with businesses reopening between October 2016 through as recently as the last 2 or 3 months. Now the town is torn asunder again. It is so sad to see.  Sadly, one man died when helping with a rescue during the flood. My heart goes out to his family and friends.  

Many of you have asked the status of HorseSpirit Arts Gallery, where you know I have artwork along with 45+ other artists.  HorseSpirit is at the bottom of a steep hill of a historic mill town, Ellicott City.  They had water rise 6 to 7 feet on the first floor, resulting in 95% of the artwork on that floor destroyed. There was some leakage on the 2nd and 3rd floors, but I am not aware of any damage to artwork on those floors. 

I was very lucky with only one of my five paintings on the first floor floated away and one other that dipped 2" into the rising rain water. I got back the painting that has 2" of the bottom in water and was delighted that it was easy to clean. Although it had been gallery wrapped, I removed the stretcher bars, since they looked saturated in water, and removed the paper that wrapped around the sides. The surface of the painting was fine since it has several coats of acrylic varnish. One other painting got wet enough to require the mat and backboard be replaced, but the painting is fine. My other 20 framed paintings and bin work were on higher floors and survived without harm.  

Currently HorseSpirit Arts Gallery is closed. The wonderful owners have worked with the county and gotten access to their business a few times. They have removed all the artwork from the store and returned it to the 45+ artists. The owners are amazing people and have worked tirelessly to assess the damage, retrieve the art, and keep us well informed. The artists and many of their customers have reached out to them saying we will stay when they return. The owners have started to research a new location (outside the floodplain) to reopen their business.

Fundraiser
I've decided to place my paintings that were in HorseSpirit Arts Gallery in my online store on my website so I can sell theses paintings and provide the gallery owners their commission on my sales. My goal is to help offset costs the owners incur as a result of this flood. 

Here is how this is going to work.

1. To see the items in my online galleries go to my website and browse the nine galleries on the Art page: 

• Landscapes
• Street/City Scenes
• Seascapes
• Figure/Portrait
• Cyclists
• Birds/Animals
• Floral
• Still Life
• Transporation

2. When you purchase items that include "Supporting HorseSpirit Arts Gallery" in the description, I will donate the commission normally earned by the gallery to the wonderful, kind owners of the gallery. 

  
3. You can also ensure I provide the commission to the HorseSpirit owners on items you purchase that do NOT include "Supporting HorseSpirit Arts Gallery" in the description. All you have to do is add a note during Checkout in the Comments section, stating you are a HorseSpirit Customer. 

Be assured, I will absorb the transaction fee charged by the payment collection service on your purchase, it will not impact the commission paid to the HorseSpirit Arts Gallery owners.

Background on this recent flood and Old Ellicott City

Ellicott City and a few other towns in the area were extremely unlucky to have a cool front hit a warm front that hovered over the the cities. The water dumped from the sky at extremely high rates. I've heard varying reports with some as high as 10 - 12 inches of rainfall in a 2 hour period.   

Historic Ellicott City is nestled among 7 rolling hills with several small creeks and rivers converging on the town. Unfortunately, when water falls this fast it runs down the paved roads and flows into Main Street where many small businesses and homes exist.  Many of the homes are on floors above first story businesses, so those people's homes remained dry, although they were displaced from their homes because of street damage and the lack of electricity. 

In addition, many of the cars parked along Main Street were washed away by the high waters, crashing into each other and the buildings. The most astounding picture I saw that demonstrated the power of water, showed two cars standing on end leaning against a power pole and a building. The door out of the building required people to walk under the canopy made by the cars.

Everyone in this area is rooting for the best for the families and business owners of Old Ellicott City who are suffering through this ordeal. 

There are many efforts underway, trying to help all impacted by the flood. I'm hoping my fundraiser will help out HorseSpirit Arts Gallery in a significant way.

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Copyright April M Rimpo All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.