Art Buddies Invitational

Several forces came together for me this morning in a burst of creative energy. Let’s see if I can get my thoughts in order enough to write about the experience.

About a week ago, I finished reading the May/June/July issue of Artful Blogging. One of the featured artists was Leah Piken Kolidas (of Blue Tree Art Gallery), founder of Creative Every Day. I’ve seen the Creative Every Day (CED) badge on blogs I follow, so I knew there were a lot of artists out there committed to being creative in some fashion every day. I wanted to make a similar commitment so yesterday I signed up, telling Leah I was late, but joining in. Leah responded by saying, You're not late at all. You're right on time!

On Sunday, my daughter Amy graduated from Willamette University with her Masters in Teaching. (Yay!) While waiting for the pomp to begin, Amy and I went roaming in the campus bookstore. What did I discover? Little wooden art mannequins, about five inches tall -- and they were 40 per cent off! Well jeez, how could I walk away from such a deal. I picked out five and as I was paying, I decided I should get five more. I had my own posse of art dolls!

This morning I woke up on fire with ideas zinging through my head. I wrote a post on Facebook saying my brain was going to explode it was so full of creativity. I know that Leah’s Creative Every Day was a catalyst; I also know that since I am done teaching for the summer, I find myself with a little more time; and with things slowing down, I’m no longer working off of a two-page (never-ending) To Do list. In thinking about what I might blog about (especially in the absence of doing any classes right now), I decided to pose my little art mannequins. As soon as I started to set them up, I realized I wanted to call them my Art Buddies. Well, thinking of art buddies made me think of my REAL art buddies. All of my friends that do one or more of the following on a regular basis:

Post comments on my blog
Motivate and encourage me when I’m feeling creatively dry
Ask me about what I’m doing, what I’m working on
Provide me with things, be it ephemera, doodads, or just plain crap (or maybe a metal doorknob from the Oregon State Hospital!!)
Take classes from me and eagerly ask when and where I’m teaching again
Think up and include me in art projects, round robins, and/or collaborations

Do you see where this is going? Well, I don't know about you, but I am always in need of inspiration, motivation, challenges, and outright DEADLINES. So, as I photographed my Art Buddies, I decided to do an Art Invitational, inviting those who regularly do one or more of the above. I am inviting my art buddies (the human kind) to participate in my Art Buddy Invitational (ABI? Yeah, I like the sound of that). Once the invitation has been accepted, I will mail one of my wooden art buddies to them and ask that they do one of the following to the wooden poser: 1) art it up, 2) alter it beyond recognition, 3) take a photo/photos of the little guy going on a field trip, 4) think of something I haven’t thought of, or 5) a combination of all of the above!

Once everyone has received their Art Buddy and done something artistic with it, I’ll have everyone send me a photo, which I will then post on my blog – a sort of virtual Art Buddy reunion. And, the cool thing? My real life art buddies will have an Art Buddy to serve as inspiration for them!

Here are by Art Buddies goofing off around the house . . .