102506
encounteredArt is a project that has been contemplated for some time. sharing art and images online via the web has been lovely and i will continue to do it, but sometimes one longs for a more tangible sharing. group projects are sometimes fun, but often frustrating, if all units do not work in cooperation. there are artist trading cards, a method of direct trade, but i found the “rules” a little too rigid. last year i initiated a rebelArtCard project, wherein i was happy to send small off-sized art to those who wished, almost 200 people! i did not expect “trade” or return, but instead wished for the receivers to send their own small art to a suggested (or *any*) other. the project did not unfold as i hoped it might. perhaps i was too vague.
found art projects are not new. the leaving of art, flyers, posters in unexpected places, or the use of alleys as a public “free” gallery (not always legal, ha ha!) is a form of guerilla art that has been around for quite a while. though i am doing nothing innovative, this is a beneficial personal project of release for me, resisting the dictate that i must only make art “to sell”. and a small mutiny against a world where monetary value reigns, generosity without gain is questioned and where adherence to the status quo is preferable to unique exploration.
my work contains no direct political or social message. however, i might hope that those who encounter and keep the work may contemplate and wonder. giggle, too! the fragmented images and messages seem ludicrous, upon superficial viewing, but may whisper in a language nearly forgotten. one from a time of childhood or beyond, where magical thought and an innocent strangeness prevailed and anything might be possible. perhaps these small messages may reach beyond the fragmented images and messages received from the media of today’s desperate world, which are also ludicrous (but dangerous), into a layer of self where exists an ancient morality and a delight in individuality and free thought. where anything might be possible.
pondering is a good beginning.