We met only once. Then the Pandemic hit. But so committed to our ArtistsU process, we continued to meet virtually for the next 6 months… then continued for an entire year. Encouragers, sound-boarders, jump-starters and as friends scattered over the whole state of New Hampshire, we are now going into our second year of challenging one another to make great art.
As a remedy to the creative blocks that can come with these stressful times we are living in, a group of artist friends and myself are challenging each other monthly. These out-of-the-hat challenges have been fun for all of us and, because we each work in different mediums, has given us all a stretch to try something new.
Here’s the idea: we each have taken responsibility for a particular part to the challenge—color, shape, material, emotion, finish—and have made a “hatful” of answers for 12 months. We Zoom each month to share our finished pieces, then randomly draw the slips from the hats for the next month.
When we met in January we chose the following:
- Benjamin Moore’s color of the year 2021 Beacon Hill Damask
- The shape of New Hampshire
- Foam material
- Sassy emotion
- A hammered finish
Here is what I came up with:
Walkin' with my head in the clouds, between this rock and a soft place. Thinkin' my thoughts to the birds out loud, very happy I made this my home state.
So I had the ideas to continue….I made some cotton & wool rag paper dispersed with more bits of that foam to resemble clouds, printed my verse onto paper colored with that Damask, made a polymer head of myself on a pin then assembled it. Check.
The big reveal of everyone’s art piece was earlier this month and here are photos of what my friends came up with:
- Adele Sanborn; https://cornerstonedesignnh.com
- Steve Hayden; https://www.haydenarts.com
- Lori Rollason; https://www.lorirollason.com
- Cheryl Miller; https://www.cherylzmillerart.com
Thanks for reading. Stop by next month for the March challenge!