Friday, March 17, 2023
Leaving Donegal, Ireland
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Leprechaun On a Shelf?: Having Fun During COVID-19
Health and Safety Considerations for gathering:
1) No indoor activities
2) No sharing bathrooms
3) Wash hands before and after gathering. Don't touch your face.
4) Bring your own food, snacks, drinks, and utensils.
5) Do not attend if you have asthma, heart disease, diabetes, overweight, have/survived cancer, or 50+ year old.
6) Do not attend if you have or have had Coronavirus or showing symptoms (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html).
7) Wear a mask and practice social distancing (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social-distancing.html)
8) Limit attendance. Check local health department for guidelines and restrictions.
9) Talk with everyone about comfort levels. Expect and allow non-participation and last minute cancellations.
Mike Kraus was born on the industrial shoreline of Muskegon, Michigan. After earning his Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he attended Grand Valley State University for his graduate degree. From there, he gained varied experiences from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Art Institute of Chicago, Hauenstein Center For Presidential Studies, Lollypop Farm Humane Society, and the Children's Memorial Foundation. And every place he worked, he had his sketchbook with him and found ways to be actively creative. In 2014, Kraus became a full-time artist by establishing Mike Kraus Art. Since then, he has sold hundreds of paintings that are displayed in nearly every state and dozens of countries. Currently, Kraus lives in Rochester, New York with his beautiful wife and goofy dog.
For more information or custom order, please visit:
Store: MikeKrausArt.etsy.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MikeKrausArt
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/MikeKraus/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/mikekrausart
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mkraus
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MikeKrausBlog
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
New St. Patrick's Day Traditions: Having Fun During COVID-19
Health and Safety Considerations for gathering:
1) No indoor activities
2) No sharing bathrooms
3) Wash hands before and after gathering. Don't touch your face.
4) Bring your own food, snacks, drinks, and utensils.
5) Do not attend if you have asthma, heart disease, diabetes, overweight, have/survived cancer, or 50+ year old.
6) Do not attend if you have or have had Coronavirus or showing symptoms (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html).
7) Wear a mask and practice social distancing (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social-distancing.html)
8) Limit attendance. Check local health department for guidelines and restrictions.
9) Talk with everyone about comfort levels. Expect and allow non-participation and last minute cancellations.
Mike Kraus was born on the industrial shoreline of Muskegon, Michigan. After earning his Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he attended Grand Valley State University for his graduate degree. From there, he gained varied experiences from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Art Institute of Chicago, Hauenstein Center For Presidential Studies, Lollypop Farm Humane Society, and the Children's Memorial Foundation. And every place he worked, he had his sketchbook with him and found ways to be actively creative. In 2014, Kraus became a full-time artist by establishing Mike Kraus Art. Since then, he has sold hundreds of paintings that are displayed in nearly every state and dozens of countries. Currently, Kraus lives in Rochester, New York with his beautiful wife and goofy dog.
For more information or custom order, please visit:
Store: MikeKrausArt.etsy.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MikeKrausArt
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/MikeKraus/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/mikekrausart
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mkraus
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MikeKrausBlog
Monday, March 2, 2020
What Are Your Plans For Spring?
What are your plans for spring? For your home, now is the time to start thinking about the changes you'd like to make. Here are some ideas:
1) Make a design journal or Pinterest board - Save photos of rooms you admire. And take notes about the things you like about a space.
2) Make a priority list - Does that broken chair need to be replaced now? Are your relatives coming for a long-term stay?
3) Make a budget - Avoid stress by knowing what you can afford. This can also be useful for determining your true priorities.
4) Designing - Take your ideas from your design journal or Pinterest and put your best ideas together. (ie - The wall color from one, furniture from another, and your heirloom painting frames).
5) Make a Decision - Use painter's tape to see your space. Outline where you'd put the furniture, shelves, and artwork. Adjust what doesn't work and build around what you think is great.
6) Implement your plan - Go ahead and buy the paint, hire the carpenter, order the furniture, and commission the artist. Put it all together.
For more suggestions and ideas, please visit:
https://mikekraus.blogspot.com/p/how-to-use-original-artwork-in-your.html
Your Friend,
Mike Kraus
MikeKrausArt.etsy.com
Monday, July 29, 2019
On a Chicago Street Corner
201907065
Seeking religious and political freedoms from the Austrians, Czech immigrants moved to this muddy Chicago neighborhood. They opened a restaurant called "At the City of Plzeň", which inspired the Pilsen neighborhood's name. When banks refused to loan them money to build homes, they formed their own credit unions to finance the neo-Bohemian Baroque architecture that is treasured today.
In the 1950, the construction of the Stevenson Expressway forced Mexican immigrants from their homes to the Hull House Neighborhood. Soon after, they were forced from their homes again to make room for the University of Illinois Chicago campus. When the Latino community began to appear in Pilsen, they fought discrimination to have a place to live, to be members of churches, to open shops, and to have their children receive decent educations. So, when another Urban Renewal plan for Pilsen was discovered, they fought back to save the neighborhood they worked so hard to create.
These streets bear the scars of injustice and the hope for opportunity for all. Overcoming our prejudice to the cause of freedom is what gives us hope in America.
Mike Kraus was born on the industrial shoreline of Muskegon, Michigan. After earning his Fine Arts Degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he attended Grand Valley State University for his graduate degree. From there, he gained varied experiences from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Art Institute of Chicago, Hauenstein Center For Presidential Studies, Lollypop Farm Humane Society, and the Children's Memorial Foundation. And every place he worked, he had his sketchbook with him and found ways to be actively creative. In 2014, Kraus became a full-time artist by establishing Mike Kraus Art. Since then, he has sold hundreds of paintings that are displayed in nearly every state and dozens of countries. Currently, Kraus lives in Rochester, New York with his beautiful wife and goofy dog.
These are just a few of the 15,000 children imprisoned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and other United States Government Agencies and their for-profit contractors. They are being kept in concrete cells, deprived of basic necessities, and starving from hunger. The filth they are forced to live in has led to flu, lice, and respiratory outbreaks, that are purposefully being neglected. And guards punish these children for minor offences by taking away their blankets, mats, and forcing them to sleep directly on the concrete floor (Southern Poverty Law Center)
I am extremely disturbed that a country that has shown me and my family such kindness is so cruel to others. This is not about politics. This is about justice, kindness, and truth. These children and parents are fleeing Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala because government-supported gangs are violently attacking them (United Nations). After a dangerous journey, we deny them their rights to asylum (Amnesty International), we kidnap and lose their children (American Civil Liberties Union), cage and sexually assault kids (New York Times), and deny them due process and indefinite imprisonment at detention/internment/concentration camps (Los Angeles Times). We're allowing them to die in these terrible conditions (NBC News). And we arrest and try to imprison good, Christians who provide food and water to those in need (The Guardian).
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
On a Chicago Street Corner
201809114
Seeking religious and political freedoms from the Austrians, Czech immigrants moved to this muddy Chicago neighborhood. They opened a restaurant called "At the City of Plzeň", which inspired the Pilsen neighborhood's name. When banks refused to loan them money to build homes, they formed their own credit unions to finance the neo-Bohemian Baroque architecture that is treasured today.
In the 1950, the construction of the Stevenson Expressway forced Mexican immigrants from their homes to the Hull House Neighborhood. Soon after, they were forced from their homes again to make room for the University of Illinois Chicago campus. When the Latino community began to appear in Pilsen, they fought discrimination to have a place to live, to be members of churches, to open shops, and to have their children receive decent educations. So, when another Urban Renewal plan for Pilsen was discovered, they fought back to save the neighborhood they worked so hard to create.
These streets bear the scars of injustice and the hope for opportunity for all. Overcoming our prejudice to the cause of freedom is what gives us hope in America.
Monday, February 5, 2018
Leaving Donegal, Ireland
That all changed when the English exiled the Gaelic leaders from Ireland. The British made it illegal for Catholics to worship, vote, speak their language, and own property. With their farm stolen from them, English absentee landlords demanded high rents that they could never afford. The debt became so large that they were forced off their farm to become migrant farmers traveling through Ulster and Scotland. Their days consisted of walking barefoot to work and fighting wild dogs for food. And they'd watch each other die from malnutrition only to be buried in mass graves.
This group of religious/political refugees on the ship Eliza were not welcomed to America. They practiced the "foreign religion" of Catholicism that "pledged allegiance to the Pope." Fear was purposely spread that these Irish would bring crime to their cities and they were rapists. These Irish were coming to take away jobs and their many children would drain the welfare budgets with their diseases and laziness. So, when the boat docked in New Castle, Delaware, Frank and Anna were now afraid of their new home too.
Frank and Anna Duff were my 5th great-grandparents. They left the east coast to established a farm in the distant wilderness of Butler, Pennsylvania. Several generations worked the land and eventually became machinists in factories, firefighters, bridge builders, and soldiers in war and peace.
They only wanted a chance at a better life and I remember their story.