by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Life |
Random Acts of ART. Spreading the luvvvvvvv. One heart, one rock at a time.
Tokens to share with anyone who finds them.
First for friend and co-worker Christina. She’s on vacation and doesn’t know I, ahem… borrowed some rocks. Made them pretty. And put one back with the avocado tree. Where I got it in the first place.
First public drop…the gas station. Tucked away there next to the pump. Much harder than I thought. I stood there pumping gas, feeling the weight of all those rocks in my pocket and KNOWING everyone was looking at me. Which they weren’t, of course.
I felt like a criminal.
And really, it’s not like I was doing anything wrong. Just a little artistic littering. Spreading the luvvvvv with unexpected treasures found in unexpected places. I kept looking around in a most guilty manner. And when the coast was clear I made my move.
Whew…no sirens. Not a one.
Emboldened by my brazen actions I moved downtown. The PERFECT, I mean the most positively absolutely PERFECT drop spot manifested right there on the sidewalk.
A little hole..no,no, a nest… just begging to be prettied up. Which I did. Without a moment’s hesitation.
From there I went to the coffee shop. The table was too obvious.
But the window sill between the curtains was just right.
And the shelf with the Valentine cards…oh yeah, couldn’t pass that up now, could I?
I painted a total of twenty-something rocks. My original idea was to scatter them all at once. But what started out as a silly Valentine’s Day event became something…different.
It became a mission. Johnny Appleseed planted trees. I’m planting…well, I’m planting ROCKS. But they have hearts on them and good intentions. And maybe, just maybe, people will find them and smile. They can keep them or they can leave them for someone else to find later. Or they can find their own place to hide them. It doesn’t matter, I’m just passing them along.
And I’m going to keep on doing this. Because it FEELS SO GOOD. I’ll be hiding one or two of these heart rocks every day. Somewhere in the community. I’ll photograph them and post the photos here on a regular basis, say every Wednesday. Random Acts of Art Wednesday. Make it a regular thing until we get bored.
What do I mean, we?
‘We’ my sweetums, means YOU can do the same thing. Doesn’t have to be rocks. Could be little cards or bookmarks. A little piece of art in public places. Something that will make people smile and will do no harm. Something that will make you feel good. If you have a blog you can post the link here. And if you don’t have a blog you can send your photos to me and I’ll post them.
Changing the world one little piece of art at a time. Or at least having fun thinking we are.
by Susan Lobb Porter | Art, Kids |
When my kids were little they were not allowed to use the ‘B’ word. I’m assuming you’re all grown ups and will not be terribly offended if I say it in print. If you have fair sensibilities consider this a warning–cover your eyes or skip down to the pictures.
The word in question…the gasp! cover your mouth WHAT DID YOU SAY!!!! word…was (and still is) B.O.R.E.D. As in, I’m bored. As in I’m SO bored. As in…well, you get the picture.
I would tell these brilliant little humans there was SO much in this world to do, see, think about. Adventures to make up. Things to build. Really, who had time to be bored? And they would go off and write stories. Or draw pictures. Or pound nails into a couple pieces of wood and call it a shelf.
They didn’t start with the eye rolls and the exasperated sighs until the hormones kicked in. But that’s another story.
And this is where you, dear readers, enter the picture. Let’s say you’re one of my students. Let’s say you’re desperate for inspiration. Your muse is misbehaving, filling your head with all sorts of nonsense, making you feel badly about all things art. You’re uninspired. Stuck. Quite frankly, you’re bored. You come to my class and tell me you can’t paint. And you’ll never ever be an artist because you don’t know what to paint.
And I will tell you that you are a brilliant human being. I will give you a hug. Maybe two. Then I will point to the sign that says No Whining, hand you a camera and send you outside.
With one rule. The big picture is overwhelming. Really. Your creative mind is spinning like a kid with a couple of Cokes under his belt in Toys R Us. Overstimulated. So my answer to that is tune out the distractions, tune out the BIG picture and F.O.C.U.S. Don’t go far. Don’t get distracted by the meadow. Or the horses. Stay on the walkway and focus on an area no larger than a foot square. Look for patterns in the concrete or the rocks.
Like this. See, that was easy now, wasn’t it? Oh, wait…are you saying that’s just a couple of rocks? Well yes, it is. Three, actually. And some moss. And not even a great composition. That’s because you’re looking at the BIG picture.
Look what a little cropping can do. Squint. Nice colors, eh? Compositions isn’t bad either. Imagine this with layers and layers of glazes. Imagine working the surface, scraping and painting and bringing forth all sorts of yummy texture.
Some rotation for a different look. The point is any one of these could stand on it’s on as a painting. They could also be used as background for other images. Put some blue on the upper half and call it a landscape.
Cropping another area of the original photo. Squint. See the arrow? Half an arrow. This could be a total graphic kind of painting. There are any number of possibilities. Hey, I did a post about this not long ago using the hair on my dog’s head. Really, there’s NO excuse.
So next time you’re stuck, take a deep breath and tell yourself what a BRILLIANT human being you are. In fact, do that a couple of times. Say it loudly until you believe it. Jump up and down a few times while you’re at it. Then open your eyes, look around and get painting.
By the way, you’re welcome to use any of these photos if they inspire you. And if they do, send me a picture. I’d love to share them on the blog.
