I had this idea for an experiment this morning, Blue, the young artist at Bishop Maginn High School, and her teacher Sue Silverstein, both liked it a lot.

People are e-mailing me to ask that I let them know if and when Blue paints their  Zodiac sign. I thought it might be a good idea to let people order their personal signs for $35, and $10 would go to help buy desperately needed school supplies for the Fall.

This strikes me as a great gift for kids of friends, we all live under our own sign, Blue is a star child, she watches the stars every night.

Principal Mike Tolan  says about half of the students who show up in September have no school supplies at all, their families have no money to purchase them. I’m launching a School Supplies fund for the school on their Amazon Wish List, and on the blog next week, and I thought this would be one way to get started.

Blue is excited, she’s coming to Sue’s art class almost every morning to paint, and has just taken a four-hour a day summer job with the City of Albany’s Summer Youth Program, she’ll be working in the afternoons, painting in the mornings.

As many of you know, the Zodiac Signs are Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer (the painting above, which is for sale), Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn.

Above, Maria, Sue Silverstein, Blue

So if you wish to have your sign painted for your or for a child or spouse or friend or relative and also help the school stock up on urgently needed school supplies, contact me, [email protected].

I’ll ask for a $35 payment up front, plus $6 shipping, Blue will get $25, the school’s school supplies fund will get $10.

I’ll forward your purchase to Blue, I’ll pick up the paintings and we’ll ship them out to you. I’m going to limit this to ten people at first, I don’t want to overwhelm Blue. If it really takes off, we can expand it as the summer progresses.

Blue’s art is quite popular now, I thank you for your support of her work and for this quite wonderful school, a refuge for the needy and the vulnerable.

You can visit the Bishop Maginn Amazon Wish List anytime here and support the school for as little as $10. It’s the first place I go every morning.