Open Call for International Art Making Cooperative Participants

September 1st I leave for Angola, Africa to visit my friends Teague and Robert Meyer. I will be researching art of the region and facilitating an art making cooperative. I need participants from all over the world! If you would like to participate see the instructions below. Send me the picture(s) of your finished work and I will add it to the collection!

Symbolic Mixed Media Self Portrait.  

There is no artistic ability required for this project. There is no age requirement. There is only the requirement to be thoughtful about who you are as a person and how you will tell that story to someone in a different country.

The idea behind this is that we learn about each other's daily lives. 

1. COLLECT: Start to collect things to use in your project that represent daily rituals or traditions. For me, I drink coffee every morning, commute to work and pick up my kids from their nanny. So tangible things that represent that ritual are starbucks cup sleeves, gas receipts and the daily report from my kids' teachers. Then I have larger/more important traditions like quiet time and my scripture journaling. I might pull some pages from my journal. Pictures of me and my kids. A map of where I live. A picture of my church and some of my friends. All these things represent me and create variety.

2. COMBINE: Look at all your items. What pulls them together in unity? Similar colors or textures? Think about how you can amplify those similarities. How can you tone down the differences? Continuing with my example, I might use green, brown and blue as my color scheme since the green and brown is symbolic of starbucks, the blue is already in the pen marks of the daily report and the journals. Then I might decide to run copies of most of the pictures so they are black and white and can be painted/colored on. This also tones down their differences.

3. CREATE: Find something you can use to glue all your pieces onto. This is referred to as a support. It will be more interesting if it is NOT a pre-made canvas, but maybe a scrap of wood or piece of cardboard. Cardboard also has layers that are wonderful for peeling back to reveal textures. You might also find scraps of fabric, colored paper or magazines that are in your color scheme. As you are arranging your items, think about balance and emphasis. What do you want to be the first thing people see when they look at your piece? How can you use repetition to create balance around your piece? Maybe repeating the same fabric all around, or the same color. How can you create a visual sight line throughout your piece? Maybe using brightly colored thread and sewing a line all around and through the composition. Can you use an image INSTEAD of words? (Words are fine too...but keep the language barrier in mind) If you use words can you use them in an interesting way with layers? Suggested materials: cardboard, newspaper, magazines, thread, wood, markers, watercolor, acrylic, pastel, crayons, fabric, found materials, transparent paper, foil, glass, photos, and anything else you can think of!

4. CO-OP: Send me a picture of the finished piece! I will share with the group in Angola and the whole process on this blog.