The first Light League event was hosted by Drew Olanoff to benefit Alex's Lemonade, a foundation committed to finding cures for childhood cancer. I painted a Twitter bird in orange (Drew's favorite color) and then put donators' Twitter handles onto the canvas in a graffiti art style.

We raised over a grand in donations. Our goal was $999 (Drew loves the number 9) and we surpassed that!! The support of our friends and the community was astounding! We had approx 300 viewers of the live webcast, with people sharing pictures and comments on Twitter and Facebook.

I want to thankyou all for your support, suggestions, ideas and help getting the word out there! We hope to share more unknown or small foundations to the world, with the use of art and the web.  

5 LIVE ART EVENT TIPS FOR ARTISTS:

I learned a few things about creating a community sponsored piece:

#1. Bring a big sharpie! I realized painting names was a bit more difficult and time-consuming, plus limiting in creative ways. I know now I can add names in there differently each time and do more with the names.

#2. Take breaks! We need a breather when a piece this large takes approximately 3 hours and I stand the whole time! And eat food! ha.

#3. Listen to suggestions and be open to creative ideas from the community. I love that I can get input from you guys on how the piece should go or what to add. It makes it something more personal. You are a part of the painting. You are a part of the art. 

#4. Remember to make a list and check it twice. When you're heading to a fundraiser location, you may forget your canvas, like I DID. 

#5. Prepare your canvas ahead of time. Have some layers or base color on there already so we aren't dealing with the messy stuff and we can get onto the piece in it's detail.