Shared Art with the Girl Scouts

For our shared arts project we chose to go to the Girl Scouts center in Spokane. We both love working with children so it seemed like the perfect place for us. Recycling is something that is important to both of us as well, so we thought why not take the lesson of recycling and turn it into a fun activity the Girl Scouts would hopefully enjoy. We found a “pattern” of the world online and an idea to repurpose puzzle pieces to fill it in. The Girl Scouts is an organization that offers activities and involvement for young girls, inspiring leadership, creativity, and life skills. To learn more about the Spokane Girl Scouts Center, visit http://www.gsewni.org/

Our experience with Girl Scouts was not what we were expecting, but ended up being one that was special and more personal than we would have thought. Going into the project we were expecting to have around thirty girls, but when we arrived we learned we actually only had four girls. This was a little bit of a shock, but it gave more room to get to know each of the girls better, making it a more intimate experience for us and hopefully for the girls as well. The project itself went smoothly and the girls seemed to enjoy it, creativity exploring options they could do with the puzzle pieces to decorate their world. Overall, our experience with the Girl Scouts ended up being a very special time to get to know these girls and we wouldn’t have changed that experience with them.

Martin French

http://www.martinfrench.com/

Many artists speak about how you should chase your dreams and make yourself unique. Most of them come across sounding very cliché and boring. However, with Martin French I felt a kind of inspiration that I haven’t had before when someone lectures me on my uniqueness.
Martin is a very accomplished artist who creates his work by hand painting, sketching, or drawing and then uses Photoshop to manipulate the individual pieces. Coming from a three-dimensional discipline, I have always had a hard time appreciating the graphic design world but when Martin started describing how he created his pieces it facilitated in bridging the gap between the two. He defines himself as an Illustrator and designer. He studied at Art Center and went through a rigorous education where he learned to discover is own unique style through a series of trials and errors. After graduating, Martin went on to work for Microsoft and Atari. He now has his own business and has created pieces of art for clients ranging from the usual run of the mill office to the New York Times. When asked how he creates his work, he said that he prefers to build from brokenness and take risks. He begins his process by rough sketches of what the wants and then he moves into the creation of the piece. Martin creates large swatches of paintings, sketches, and drawings and scans them into the computer. Each one of these echo the movement of what the final design is meant to look like. From this, he uses channels to manipulate the layering of the pieces and the saturation of the colors.
When I viewed his art, I felt particularly attracted to it because of how organic it felt. Usually when I think of graphic design or computer based art, I think of very clean organized shapes. However, because of the process that Martin took to create his pieces it gave a depth and fluidity that would be very difficult to mimic if the piece was made entirely on the computer. I would describe his art as kind of a cartoon grunge feel. It has strong colors and bold strokes that creates intense movement.
Despite Martin being an amazing artist, I felt most inspired by his encouragement to push my own art into the world. Often I feel like my ideas have been done before or the feeling that I am trying to communicate isn’t coming through. However, Martin really emphasized the uniqueness inside of everyone. One of the most memorable statements he said was “the uniqueness is inside you already if you mine deep enough, you can create something that people want”. This motivated me to not feel discouraged and continue to push the boundaries of my art.

Center Pointe: Shared Art Project

For our shared community art project, we worked with the disabled adults at Center Pointe. Our goal for this project was to create a stimulating artistic experience and teach them the basics of the voting process. Founded in 1953, Center Pointe is a safe haven for disabled adults in Spokane. The organization’s main goals are to create educational activities in a safe environment with the hope that they can overcome their social isolation, develop friendships, increase life-skills, and serve others. They cater to a wide range of disabilities and help them to establish a healthy lifestyle. This organization does not receive Federal, state or local funding, so the only way they keep their doors open is through donors and fund-raisers. To learn more about Center Pointe go to http://www.centerpointeactivities.com/index.html.

For the art project, we worked with the adults to create a chalk stencil piece. Overall, this project was a success and most enjoyed it. Everyone participating was very receptive and welcoming to us. From this experience, we gained a better understanding of working with disabled people as well as organizing a community art project. We gained a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses in this kind of situation. Despite long preparation, there were a few hurdles that we quickly overcame. For example, upon our arrival we were greeted by 50 excited people, rather than the anticipated 15. After a minor panic attack, we were able to regain our footing and continue with the project seamlessly. In addition to the surplus of participants, not all of the people had the ability to do the art project. We overcame this by lending our assistance and encouragement. Although there were some difficulties, we had an enjoyable, rewarding, and eye-opening experience.

Fragments by Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo from Lead Pencil Studio

This exhibit is located at SFCC Fine Art Gallery Building 6 SFCC Fine Arts Department
 Spokane Falls Community College
 3410 W. Fort Wright Drive
 Spokane. The show ran from October 26 - November 22, 2011 with the artists’ reception at 5pm, October 26^th.

The Fragments exhibit is an installation designed to get the viewer to understand how much of the world we don’t see. The work is entitled “The Boss’s Office” and is a 3 dimensional mixed media piece, designed to be viewed from the center. The work is a life-size replica of a convenience store manager’s office.

Included in the piece is a desk and chair with a phone and lamp, a typewriter next to the desk, a fullsize file cabinet, a microwave oven with a hotplate on a stand and commercial grade coffee maker and a step ladder. All the pieces in the work only have the front of them, the parts you would see if you were standing in the middle of the office. Viewers standing outside the office can see everything is hollow and painted a matte gray.

very detailed work has been handcrafted from polygon mesh and has been designed to illustrate what aspects of the world we see and what we don’t. It highlights the parts of everyday life our brains are forced to interpolate. The exhibit really makes you think about what is really there, what may be there and what are we missing?

Overall this unique installation gets the viewer’s creative juices flowing. In addition it allows room for viewers to find their own interpretations.

Shared Art Collage/Bookmark Project at Rockwood

The project we shared was making bookmarks from a collage of magazine photos or rubber stamps with wet ink on watercolor paper. The agency we shared at was the Rockwood Retirement Community at Hawthorne. Rockwood is an assisted living facility that houses residents safely in an independent style living or provides medical care for those residents requiring assistance. The participating residents were to choose the photos or the stamp and ink combinations used for the collages. The students were to assist the residents with all or any part of the project. The bookmarks were to be used as gifts for family and loved ones of the residents.

Really we just had a great time with this project in general, whether it was setting up and getting to know the staff at Rockwood, or actually hosting the activity with the residents. Most of the residents initially didn’t want to participate, and really were nervous and wanting to watch how the activity unfolded. But by the end of the event we had all of the residents that showed up happily participating with their peers, joking with the “youngin’s” and asking us about our future plans, or even just what movie we’d last seen. Even going into the project we weren’t sure if the residents would find the activity fun or entertaining, but by the end of the event any person watching would have scoffed at the question.

Art and community at Rockwood

Rockwood Senior Care Facility is an organization that houses senior citizens and gives medical care as needed. They help a great number of people and offer a wide variety of care. The facility contains personal rooms, apartments, and even duplexes to cover the diversity of needs for the seniors who reside there. It is our hope to bring a small level of artistic inspiration to the organization and foster creative thinking.

The strength for our project comes from the desire to assist the more artistically advanced seniors in order to rekindle former art skills and passions, rather than presenting a larger art project that appeals to the lowest common denominator. We plan to present the seniors picked by the organiztion with the water coloring project, this will allow those who wish to, create a painting with as much, or little level of effort as they prefer.We believe work fostered friendship by providing a comfortable and exciting environment. Talking with the seniors, we were able to learn about them, and each on had interesting stories to share. We connected with them on a personal level through the simple task of water-coloring and each one seemed delighted with our activity. Each got to keep their own and our artworks to remember the event and we could tell they were truly impacted by our time at Rockwood.

2011 Inland Crafts: Not Just Crafts But Art

Last week I attended the 2011 Inland Crafts on Friday November 11th. There were

many talented artist at this eventbut I chose to highlight four in particular. The first artist is Wendy ZupanBailey. She is a doll maker. She hand sculpts each doll out of polymer and
paper clay. The body of the doll is formed from wire and batting armature. Sheuses a variety of paints, such as, oil paints, water colors, and acrylics. Thedolls clothing are made out of vintage materials. Her dolls have a whimsicalold world feeling.These dolls are acombination of old world charm and whimsy of a story book character.

The next artist I chose to highlight was Louise Kodis. Ithought it was a big coincidence that I happened to be at a place that was showcasingher art. The day before I went to the Girl Scouts and they also had some of herartwork on display. Her artwork is a combination of brightly colored, shiny,glittering silks hanging from bamboo. They have a wide range of textures and
colors. The bright colors of her work are eye catching, but the way the silk hangs gracefully gives the work a serene feeling.

Another artist that I chose was Kim Groff-Harrington. This artist uses recycled items to make here art work. She uses vintage tins,bottles tops and wires them together to make her art work. She hand cuts and pounds the metal. Her art work is very feminine and quirky.

The finally artist that I highlighted was Cyndie E. Morgan. She is a former dancer and her art work is influences by dancing. This artist hand sculpts polymer and paints it with metallic paints. She uses rocks,feathers, wood, and wire to form the body of her sculptures. I have seen herwork before at other festivals. I enjoy her artwork because her pieces display
movement and grace. Her figures look as if they are suspended in mid dance. Her artwork reminds me of dancers striking graceful poses.

Women's Hearth - Shared Art

Women’s Hearth was founded in Spokane in 1991 and serves as a temporary safe haven for women of diverse backgrounds who are living on the streets. They have not only grown over the years in the amount of people they cater to, but have grown in the kind of care they provide for these women in need. The organization promotes growth of the body, mind, and spirit by offering aid and encouragement to reinforce health and well being. The staff at Women’s Hearth works diligently to “foster nurturing relationships, encourage self-determination, and advocate for change in systems that oppress women” (http://www.help4women.org/16/). The center provides an atmosphere of warmth and comfort by making showers, food, and hygiene products available to the women. There are also classes and activities that are easily accessible including 12 step programs and various events and speakers that encourage and support the women through their daily struggles. We came as guest artists to lead a workshop on Creative Expression. The women created journals that reflected their identity through collage, painting and mixed media.

Overall, we felt our project was successful. However, as with all community projects, we were presented with variables that were ultimately easy to resolve. For example, we had a hard time finding the building, so we arrived a few minutes late and felt rushed at first. In addition, the area we were going to use was initially covered with puzzles, so we had to find a way to move these while respecting the women’s’ space. After resolving these minor issues, the project ran smoothly. Even though we started out with one participant, about 10 women came throughout the morning. Once they were settled and we had given them instruction, we were able to sit with them at different tables and actually make our own journal beside them. There was a feeling of strong community and empathy among the women, and they welcomed us as friends immediately. I think that we were successful in being sensitive to the women’s needs. It was really encouraging to physically see how art can aid in bringing individuals together and letting them express their experiences.

Participant's Work in Progress

Participant's Final Work

Homage to Women Artists

The Homage to Women Artists Exhibit at the Chase Gallery featured shrines created by Palouse Women Artists that honor the women artists who have inspired them. The significant variety between the shrines and the medias, each shrine unique to itself, increased the intimacy of the exhibit, displaying personality of each artist, while the relatively small size of each shrine pulls the viewer in for a closer look into personal inspiration of each artist, making the exhibit even more intimate.

My favorite shrine was Patricia Wallace’s in honor of her grandma, Ruth Ann Gray. The shrine pops and grows with simple yet beautiful paper roses and a drawing of working hands. The vine pops off a collage in a quilted fashion of pictures and elegant cursive writing. Wallace says, “She filled the world with grace and love, and created beauty out of the simplest things. Her life’s work will trickle through the generations. And thus, I consider her a great artist and her life a masterpiece that continuously inspires.” This shrine originally grabbed my attention due to the visual appeal, but became increasingly more beautiful when I read the artist’s statement. The work is so personal and intimate that the viewer experiences the love and beautiful life of this woman throughout interacting with the shrine.

Even though this exhibit’s goal is to honor women artists, my favorite thing about this exhibit is how it’s intimate invitation into these artist’s lives inspires the community to be more open and personal throughout the opening of these women’s lives unto the community. If we were more open and personal, would that increasingly unite the community?

The Need-Want Exhibit

The Need-Want Exhibit at the MAC Museum featured a variety of artists as well as a variety of medias. All the work joins a larger conversation exploring the striking difference that has been lost between what is wanted and what is actually a necessity; a line which has almost become unknown in our society. I know I have to remind myself daily of this difference, and the Need-Want Exhibit offered itself not only as a reminder, but also proposed a collection of ideas and perspectives to ponder.

Small, but speaking loudly, Stephen Braun’s two raku sculptures caught my eye almost immediately. The first one, Why One World is Not Enough, explores the long term effects of consumption rates that need more than one world to support such high levels, while the character holds the Earth in his hands as it’s his own. Each of the worlds underneath the character are shown as dirty and trashed; the long term effect of our limitless consumption that knows no difference between needs and wants. The more humans live uncontrollably wanting more and more, the more and more we will destroy the Earth.

Braun’s other sculpture, The Hoarder, is a statement on how although the figure has amassed more resources than he could ever use in his lifetime, he continues to search for more, consequently burdening himself. Braun say’s,

“The want outweighs the need, deforming the figure.”

I love this statement. The key to happiness is not in the stuff we have; so much stuff may actually be the demise of true happiness. Could it be that if we live only with what we need to physically survive, we would be not only a less burdened, stressed, and unhappy society, but we would be personally freer? Are we bound by all the things that we don’t really need?

The entire Need-Want Exhibit opens questions up the community such as those pushing humanity to better itself and really question not only the effects of living wrapped up in wanting on the Earth, but also the effects of such a lifestyle to an individual’s personal well-being.

Saranac Art Gallery: Beautiful and Thought Provoking

This month at the Saranac Art Gallery works by the artists Lisa Nappa and Jen Erickson are on display. Each artists goes about their work with different goals, and methods, and each produces something that is beautiful and thought provoking.
Jen Erickson's work consists of varying sizes of canvases covered with a thin layer of clay and different shades of oil-based white paint.On this paint she draws small markings with a very fine mechanical pencil that has had its tip sharpened even more, so that she can make even smaller marks.She stated that after she got the materials for each of her projects ready, more often then not she would just draw, giving no mind to the final project but really just going with the flow. The diversity in her work is really what other see and take from it rather than each having a set meaning or purpose, people liken some of her work to markings resembling cells, sand , even etch-a-sketch lines. She herself states that for her, and her larger pieces of work, she really wonders what thoughts and memories would physically look like when decaying and likens her work to what she envisions would be "the decay of the human mind."
Her work really takes an abstract mind to really appreciate, at first you would see it would appear as nothing but dots, but given time, shapes and emotions begin to develop within the work. Not only personality, but the works themselves scream of the hard work put into making just one of the many pieces that contain thousands of dots and lines, and on her bigger piece probably closer to a hundred thousand dots.







Lisa Nappa however takes a completely different approach to art and how she creates it. With all of her pieces a single picture has been reformatted, cut, moved, rotated, and just about anything else you can think of in order to create very unique pieces of art. The picture is of a beautiful look at Lake Chelan, right here in Washington, which she has expanded and printed onto very thin plastic. These plastic pictures then have shapes cut out of them, many of them circles, where the circles are inverted or rotated and then put back in to the picture. Her motivation for using this particular photo for her work, she explained was because she wanted to invoke the feeling of "green", of healthy, of environment. The picture itself invokes this as the picture of Lake Chelan takes on a green color at the time of the photo. Her art also consisted of more than just the 2D but also ventures into the 3D, creating works like her Water Tower, which is a 4ft tall tower made of the picture of Lake Chelan folded into cylinders and then intertwined in a circle with layers upon layers.(See picture for better description) Another one of her works that takes an unusual twist consists of circular objects with small cut outs of the picture of Lake Chelan attached to them. Whats really odd about this work is that its almost like a complete reversal from the rest of her works that consist of square pictures with circles cut out of them, and now circles with square pictures placed on them. Even more interesting then the pieces themselves is the way these circles are arrange on the wall, invoking thoughts of almost a constellation of sorts made from all the pieces as one.
The pieces displayed by both of these artist are truly amazing, and nothing like you've ever seen before. Each piece is more though provoking than the last, making sure to keep you thinking throughout your visit. I highly recommend that if you have some free time any weekend in November you swing by the Saranac and check out this amazing gallery.