Back a few weeks ago, I was lamenting about the man-made flood waters heading my way.
There were worst-case-scenario maps, media blitzes, road closures, town meetings, angry residents & politicians…
My family, my land, and my home were spared.
Many of my neighbors were not.
The water is still everywhere.
People are still homeless.
How do you send your child to a normal school day when you are a refugee in your own backyard?
The masses that have been affected need help, they need to have a voice, a home, their lives back.
I sincerely hope that they will not be forgotten as the waters recede.
yarnchick 
Hi Lisa Victoria, how are you? My name is Mike Maimone, I’m an accountant-turned-musician living in Chicago, originally from Cleveland. I sing and play keyboards in a band called Mutts, and have been scouring the internet to find a poignant photo for our upcoming album cover.
The title is “Pray for Rain,” because a theme throughout many of the songs is how our nation is getting swept up in political, spiritual, economic and recently quite literal flooding – and the solutions from many leaders just create more divisive tides. In my songs there is definite hope – I don’t believe in harping and complaining without offering some kind of upside. But for the album cover I wanted to work with an artist such as yourself, who can help us visually send the message that something just isn’t working, and we need to get together to make some solutions or we’ll just keep getting swept away.
When I saw your photo of the barn, with it’s reflection in the flood water, my heart melted. It’s so well done, and such a mix of emotions comes out of it. Then I read the story about how it happened, and it’s absolutely perfect… it gets at the heart of this major theme. And as if that wasn’t enough to make me fall in love with your photo, I read your “About Me” and I couldn’t believe some of the things we have in common. I went to school for accounting, and was an auditor in Cleveland at KPMG for a year. Then, coming home late from work in the winter, I spun out on I-90 and nearly collided head-on with a semi. I took it as a little shove in the right direction from the heavens, and since then have been making music full-time. I had to get a much smaller apartment, but I’m happy with the decision. So I’m in the same boat; a mild-mannered accountant-type, who also has an insatiable need for artistic expression. I’m looking forward to experiencing more of your own expressions on your site!
As far as our music, here are our current releases:
http://download.muttsmusic.com
I can send you an early edition of the album for you to preview the music that your amazing photograph will hopefully represent. I think it’s important that you hear it first. Please get in touch with me at my email or 440|813|5376 to get a link, or I can mail you a CD. It’s not entirely done so I don’t want to post a link in a public website just yet!
In return, of course we will give you all the proper credits and direct our listeners to your blog. We could pay you as well, but we are a broke band so it wouldn’t be much, sorry!
We can definitely throw ideas back and forth, but I was hoping we might use a portion of the photo for the cover, and then include an insert/booklet that would fold out and show the entire photo. It’d be essentially a 10″ x 15″ poster with your photo on one side and lyrics on the other. I also really want to reprint your story along with the photo credits, and perhaps a link to the post? It all works so well together, it would be an honor to have your art collaborate with our art. Also, if you’re cool with all of this, perhaps we could use another photo for the back cover? I also really like Flood 5, with the old truck and the cart. We would most likely zoom in on the truck and it’s reflection, and put the track list on the water.
Sorry for the extremely long comment. I just wanted to get all of the information out there for you to consider. I hope to hear from you!
Thanks so much.
Mike Maimone
http://muttsmusic.com
http://facebook.com/wearemutts
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Your blog is so inspiring and REAL! The pictures of the flood show a “forgotten need” those missing within the picture. So many people are being affected. Thank you for sharing your pictures and thoughts!!!
And thank you for this Blog!
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