Intro (potential text for kickstarter project page)
Call it a religion if you like. Or call it a scientific description of how our living planet works. Or call it a metaphor, a story that inspires us to be our best selves, working together to make a better world. Because we are the world: taken together, you and I, the rest of humanity, and the millions of other species who call this planet home, we form the body of Gaia, the living Earth.
And no one has yet created an image of Gaia more evocative and inspiring than the Millennial Gaia statue by Oberon Zell, which personifies her as a mother goddess figure with an accurate rendition of Earth as her pregnant belly. The rest of the statue is covered with elegant renditions of animals and plants whose interwoven evolutionary story tells us how the present glorious diversity of life came to be.
Originally produced as a seven-inch-high seated figure, we are proud to announce that the Millennial Gaia statue will soon be available in limited quantities as a human-sized monument for outdoor use—and you can help make it happen!
If you agree that the story of Gaia is a sacred story that needs to be spread far and wide, as an alternative to the dominant narrative of hyper-individualism and consumer culture that sees our planet as merely a storehouse of natural resources for human use, please join us in bringing this spectacular rendition of Mother Earth to life.
This Kickstarter campaign has three main goals:
- Prime the pump. Currently, our partners at Devera Publishing, the producers of these statues, say the demand for the garden statue is too low to justify the initial outlay to create the first batch. Once the first batch has been created, continuing to make garden statues on demand becomes possible. So, until the first batch is created there will be no new garden sized statues available for purchase.
- Scale out. We want to take something that we know works (the Millennial Gaia Statue) and increase its impact. We are hoping to see lots of these statues installed in front of homes and businesses facing the sidewalk to provide provocations and reminders that we are of nature rather than apart from nature.
- Scale up. This kickstarter is a first step toward creating a larger than life version of the Gaia statue for public display in a city park in Portland, Oregon. This kickstarter will raise awareness for our effort and possible raise funds to help us move in that direction.
Reward levels for kickstarter:
- $ 1 ... A: Thanks
- $ 5 ... B: Earth marble plus A
- $ 20 ... C: Gaia bumper sticker (need to look into this further … may need to design one ourselves) plus A
- $ 25 ... D: We’ll write an article on Gaia Wiki on a topic of your choice (as long as it’s appropriate) plus B
- $ 30 ... E: Gaia poster plus B
- $ 50 ... G: Your name will be engraved on the base of the first big garden statue produced through this Kickstarter plus B
- $ 60 ... H: Gaia 6" plaque plus B, C
- $ 80 ... I: Gaia 7" Alter Statue plus B, C
- $ 100 ... J: Gaia 7" Alter Statue (Bronze) plus B, C
- $ 250 ... K: We’ll do a presentation about Gaia at a venue of your choice plus D, I
- $ 500 ... L: Gaia 4' Garden Statue plus I? (might be too cheap due to shipping costs...could have the backer be responsible for shipping, but they'd be unpleasantly surprised)
- $ 500 ... M: Your organization will get to help decide where to put the first big statues (in the Portland area only?) plus L
- $1000 ... N: Small Acknowledgment on Gaia Garden Statue mold (all 4-foot statues will have this) plus L
Free shipping of all prizes to the Continental US. Additional shipping charges will apply for other locations.