I'd love to set up a booth at this year's Riot Fest to create a new piece, live, using only the trash folks give me on site. I'm imagining maps that get wrecked by the mud, cups that get crushed in the rush, clothes that get ripped in the pit, empty boxes from the beer tent... anything that would get tossed at the end of the night.
I'd like to engage with attendees, talking about ways they can help keep the park clean. The hope is that if they're looking for trash I could use in my piece, they'll be more aware of what's on the ground around them.
The first mixed-medium collage I made inside a shadow box was a custom birthday gift that featured a pineapple. When that fruity-goodness was delivered, I was commissioned to make another -- word of mouth at its finest. The second piece would be a Christmas gift featuring a parachuter.
Wonder Woman herself, Kristen Keane, recently proposed a lovely personal work for her sister's big birthday gift this year. She wanted a relatively small piece that would work hanging or sitting on a desk. Something lively, but not overly flashy. Something featuring a pineapple. *Figure out how to insert cute emoji here.*
Each year, I put together a calendar featuring work I created that year. Each month's feature is made entirely of found objects (my trash). In order to make up for slacking January to August this year, I created each of 2017's features in September. Yep. Knocked out 12 originals in less than four weeks, which means I'll never have an excuse not to complete this project again. In the words of Emeril, BAM.
With the commonality and popularity of computers and smartphones, handwriting seems to be a skill that's disappearing. Outside of a post it or the occasional thank-you note, how often do you practice your handwriting? I remember just missing a 4.0 in middle school because of my handwriting grade. My handwriting grade. These days, they aren't even teaching cursive in school. Thankfully, there are a lot of Instagram accounts out there reminding us exactly how cool some proper handwriting can be.
In the fall of 2009, I started collaging one-of-a-kind postcards using nothing but my everyday garbage. I would take the junk mail from my P.O. box, glue more stuff to it, and drop it back in the mail. Sometimes, the postcards would survive USPS, arriving exactly as I'd sent them. Sometimes, they'd show up missing pieces (I never marked them as hand-sort. The machines didn't really like my work.) Sometimes, they straight up disappeared.
Two pups? Awesome. Two faces? Hmm... There's a reason that's the last section of piece I finish, literally circling in from the border. Mess that part up and that's it; even pets carry their personality in their eyes. I've never had the pleasure of meeting these two little boys, but they've got enough personality to go around.
I really enjoy being part of the gifting process, so when I finished Moose, I wrapped him up and proudly delivered him for gifting at Christmas. Turns out, the fella he was ordered for was overseas for the holiday. His fiancé has planned to show him the portrait via Skype. When it was time for the big reveal, the recipient was not alone at the other end of the video chat.
In the fall of 2014, I was honored with an invitation to participate in an artist lock-in. What's a lock-in? Well, at the Yellow Springs Arts Council, this is an annual event where three artists are locked in the council's gallery for 72 hours and tasked with creating a one-of-a-kind show.
Here we are, mid-September, whether we like it or not. While it's incredibly obvious, I'd like to say that 2020 has not gone as planned.
For those of you that are actually flipping the pages of your 2020 TrashCal, September features the piece I made live at Riot Fest 2019. Those three days were some of the most professionally and creatively challenging moments of my artistic career. Even on the final day, I wasn't sure that all the pieces were going to fall into place. I was often hungry and dodging bees. I was often too tired to stand. I was often grinning like a total idiot.
Truly, I lived out a dream. If this year had gone as planned, I'd be back there -- literally right now -- living out this dream for the second time in so many years.