Last weekend I was downstairs looking for something in storage when I found these empty frames I had bought a couple years ago. They are small, cheap, IKEA frames, and I had bought a bunch of them, not knowing how I would use them. Well, all these years later, I see them down there and that was all it took. I think to myself - pencil drawings of posed arms, watercolored and framed with striping ribbon. A lot of my ideas come to me like this “aha! moment” but frequently I’m at a time or place where I can’t immediately drop everything and start working on my idea. Usually I will write and sketch out my idea, but often, by the time I can get to it, the magic is gone and I’ve already moved on to another “aha! moment”. Well, this weekend I was able to drop everything and work on my idea and these were the resulting pieces, the last of which will be used for Found Art Tuesday.
I could really see these pieces being something I would have done intaglio prints of, but I also like the idea of them being individual handmade illustrations. It makes them more precious.
Tomorrow I’ll post more about where I leave the found art piece. Matt thought of the idea, and I’m excited about it.
Today I released my Found Art Tuesday piece into the world. You can see the painting in yesterday’s post here. This is actually a big step for me because I actually left it in my own city, which has always been a fear of mine. I was able to do this by doing it in a more secretive manner. I put it in a geocache that was near the art building at NIU. For this painting I was combining a couple projects in one, Found Art Tuesday and Geocaching. Have you heard of Geocaching? It is a world wide treasure hunt and so much fun. You visit the website and then use a GPS to find coordinates to caches that are hidden around all of us all the time. My hopes are to set up my own cache sometime soon that will be themed for artwork. Sometimes geocaches have booty inside, and if you take something you must leave something behind. Most of the time these treasures are just kid junk like happy meal toys, etc. I want to create a geocache that is filled with original pieces of artwork, for artists to trade.
I know I mentioned it yesterday, but I would like to mention it again. Found Art Tuesday has a new flickr group and I’d love for everyone to join in. It is so much fun. The thing that really appeals to me about found art is the idea of shaking things up. People don’t expect to find artwork for free out in the world. Imagine how most people are just living their lives on autopilot and coming across a piece of artwork makes you snap out of it a bit. Sometimes people are so caught up in this way of life that they don’t even notice it or if they do they pass it up anyway, or that they are too afraid to step out of their bounds of comfort and take a bit of risk and take it. Read Rosa’s experience of this weeks found art piece here.
Okay, so I’ve created the above piece for Found Art Tuesday today, but I haven’t had time to leave it behind and be found. I’ll do that tomorrow. The theme was Kindness. Check back tomorrow to see where I leave it. I’d also like to mention that Found Art Tuesday now has a flickr group. Everyone is welcome to join and have fun leaving artwork behind. The more the merrier, I’d be so happy to see what artwork you might leave behind for others.
And here is today’s Polaroid Week picture. Matt enjoying a slurpee.
