Free Idea Factory

I recently visited a friends used book store. I purchased a book about Alex Katz mostly because another artist I know, Henry Long, autographed it. I like Alex Katz’s work, but I am more amused by Henry’s signing a book that he did not contribute to producing.

The bookshop owner noted that most people hate other people writing in books. We both felt differently. There is a personal history to the hurried comments left in margins, inscriptions, etc. I often find these elements more intriguing than the book itself.

My friend told me of a book she had purchased. It contained a womans intimate details about her feelings during a divorce as it related to the content of the book.

There are often stories in other stories, and there are even stories about those stories. This idea, which I offer to you, is to go buy a used book with notes or comments in it. Get into the former readers head and develop a new body of work based on your reading, experience, and imagination. May you take with you a piece of someone else’s personal history and create a new piece of your own.

Get a box of chalk and travel to an area with a lot of pavement and sidewalks. Use the chalk to alter the naturally occurring cracks in the pavement. The fact that the weather will destroy your work can free you from worrying about archival materials and formality. The novel environment enables you to be open to new processes and perhaps increased creativity.

Variations:
-Figurative images
-Abstract images
-Straight lines, curved lines, contiguous lines, broken lines, etc.
-Incorporate text

Leaving the environment you are comfortable in creates a sense of disequilibrium and opens you up to learning new things, see Outdoor Leadership: Theory and Practice By Bruce Martin, Christine Cashel, Mark Wagstaff, Mary Breunig

This is an idea for a group blog/ e-journal journal called Photogenesis. The premise would be developing textual content from images. Rather than developing editorial copy and later adding supporting visual material, it would be the reverse. The image would be determined, then the content would be born out of the image.

The notion was born out of the idea of ekphrasis, a form of art that tries to relate to another medium by defining and describing its essence and form. This concept was developed through a discussion with a friend, Jim O’Conell of Resource Media, a branding and creative design studio.

Issue Variations:

-Based on random stock photo’s
-Based on found images
-Based on political ideology
-Based on history
-Based on sexist images
-Literary artists choose images, visual artists write the words 1/2 of issue, other 1/2 is the reverse
-Have psychoanalysts draw images and have children analyze them based on their images
-You get the idea… If you want more ideas, feel free to email me if you choose to take this project on.

Research all documented periods throughout art history (you’ll learn some great things along the way). Make an equal number of small boxes out of archival rag paper. Collaborate with artists whose work represents each period of art history. Have each artist examine the same theme, perhaps “art itself”. Give them all specific deadlines as artist’s are often otherwise occupied with other projects and ideas. Collect all work, document it, giving proper credit to all parties involved. Compile each work representing a specific period in art history on one large piece of firm board (mat board, wood, etc.)

Matt and frame nicely.

Lastly, write an essay about the project and submit to galleries to be considered for exhibition. Then make prints of the completed artwork to share with the world.