Do what you can for those in need in Japan

In conjunction to my previous post on work within New Orleans and natural disaster's effect on a society, I ask everyone to help support Japan in their time of need after the horrific earthquake and tsunami on March 11th. The Red Cross as made it as easy as possible by simply texting "REDCROSS" to 90999 to directly donate $10 to Japan disaster relief or simply going to www.redcross.org and making a donation there. Anything you can give is important.

Other sites to visit in an effort to help are:
To contribute to the medical relief or text MED to 80888 from any mobile phone to give $10

The Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund at GlobalGiving.org works to provide donations to various relief organizations that promise to be working on immediate relief with the entire country.

Also visit, SaveTheChildren.org with their Children's Emergency Fund for disaster relief for the young people struggling.

Be sure to remember the animals as well at International Fund for Animal Welfare

More Sites: OperationUSA , MercyCorps , Doctors Without Borders , and Salvation Army

~~~At the very least, be sure to keep all of those effected by the earthquake and tsunami in your prayers and thoughts.

Emotion is the masterpiece of an artist's tools

This weekend the idea of extracting emotion from someone with writing or a photograph came into my head many times. Whether it was a photograph that I gifted someone and combined it with my writing or reading reports on the terrible wreckage of the tsunami in Japan and seeing the devastation it caused, the ability to make an effect on someone’s emotions is a powerful thing.

My goal as a writer and photographer (or “artist” if you consider it that) has always been to create an emotion out of my audience. Whether it is a smile, a surprise, a frown, or a tear, I take every emotion as a specific critique just as if a chef served their first dish of the evening and watched the customer’s reaction to the dish. Is it too spicy? Too sweet? Not enough flavor or a little more? All of these questions are how I improve my craft as anyone in a similar field would. And as they say, only a writer improves by reading other writers’ work and this also applies for artists. The more work you see, the more creative you can expand (or restrict) your work.