Thoughts about art and community.
Let’s first establish that the College of Design (CoD) at Iowa State University is a pretty big place, all things considered. Seven departments, multiple degree program, 1600+ undergraduate students, 150+ graduate students, loads of faculty and staff.
Among and amidst all these other folks, I kept crossing paths with artist and architecture student, Rami Mannan. I remember being slack-jawed first seeing Rami’s drawings in both the CoD and at ISU Design on Main. Who made these?
Read MoreA few weeks ago, I wrote 7 Signs of a Vibrant Community, which is a brief introduction to the concept of the Community Capitals Framework. As a recap, the CCF provide us with seven distinct areas to evaluate to see how healthy our places (and consequently our people) are. While all seven are necessary for having a high quality of life, I’ll defend social capital to my grave as really being the glue that binds everything else together.
Read More“If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.” - Catherine Aird
Last week, I warned that I’d be sharing a laundry list of what I learned by participating in Iowa Pop Art, my very first pop-up-art-festival-type experience.
Without further ado….
Earlier this spring, I was invited (thanks, Niq Thomas) to participate in Iowa Pop Art Market, an inaugural pop-up art event at the National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids. Being a pop-up and festival first-timer, I jumped at the chance and then scrambled to get myself organized.
Part of that scrambling was trying to figure out what I didn’t know that I needed to know. With that in mind, I’m writing a couple of blogs (and later a toolkit) for those folks who need a Pop-Up Prologue, so to speak.
Read MoreMany blogs ago, I rattled on about the basics of asset-based community development***, including why it’s been so influential to me as an artist and how it’s been the grounding nugget of The What’s Good Project. Each painting that I create is a testament to an asset shared with me by someone with strong ties to that particular community.
Read MoreIntroducing Kristin M Roach, Ames-based artist, author, and entrepreneur. If you live in Ames or central Iowa, you undoubtedly know of Kristin, as her hands metaphorically (and sometimes literally) have been in many, many, MANY creative projects and places.
Read MoreI can’t tell you how much I enjoyed and learned from this conversation with Iowa State University colleague and fellow artist, Reinaldo Correa. It was one of those conversations that inspired me for the rest of the week. So much insight and wisdom - this is an interview I encourage you to read over and over, and take some notes.
Read MoreI’m happy to report that I am contacted monthly, and increasingly weekly, by someone in Iowa who wants to begin a community mural project. The smallest community to date was a call from McIntire, Iowa (pop 122). The fact that more and more communities are finding value in community art projects fills me with joy.
Read MoreGot 85 minutes to spare? Listen to me talking shop with friend and fellow artist, Earle Rock. I was delighted to be asked by Earle to participate in this artist interview series. We cover the gamut from my weirdo early life experiences, to painting practices, to the business of art, to asset-based community development.
Read MoreThis year, I decided to expand For the Common Good to include interviews with Community Arts Leaders, many of whom are also artists (but not always), as well as serving in more formal nonprofit or civic leadership roles. These folks have often done the arduous (and often thankless) work of fundraising, navigating local red tape, and building diverse partnerships within their communities, all while supporting and advocating for their local artists.
Read MoreI don’t often like to speak in generalities, but I would venture to guess that we all have that pull to some place, and that those emotional ties give us inklings about what we value.
Read MoreIt’s present day and a child on a field trip walks into a gift store on Pennsylvania Avenue. Immediately, she confronts a wellspring of memorabilia adorned with the president’s name in bold letters and the year “2024” beside it. She is puzzled by the significance of the year. But … it’s only 2020? Bright-red hats embroidered with a popular slogan tower high. Bobbleheads depicting our nation’s leader, with emblematic wavy hair and carrot skin, sit in a row ten figurines deep.
Read MoreHappy 2021! We made it! I couldn’t be happier to start off this fresh new year with a Community Artist Interview with my friend, colleague, and fellow artist, Jordan Brooks.
Read MoreThe What’s Good Project has grown so much in 2020, thanks to your support. Thank you. I am beyond grateful.
Because of you, we’ve been able to support these organizations that are doing really great work in Mississippi, Michigan, and Iowa…
This is little embarrassing to admit, but anytime I read, watch, or hear something that really resonates with me, I get an immediate and short-lived lump in my throat. In and out. Like my body’s way of saying “Yo, you need to pay attention to this.” The weirdo throat response has happened so often and for so long and in such unexpected ways that I’ve really learned to trust it. All that to say, each of these projects, organizations, and episodes elicited the two-second throat lump in 2020.
Read MoreToday’s a very special day. Today is the day that my lovely friend and inspiring artist, Catherine Reinhart, is in the For the Common Good hot seat. Catherine and I have been friends and artist pals for years. We worked together at Iowa State University’s Design on Main Community Gallery while Catherine was the Artist-in-Residence and Gallery Director, and I taught a class for the gallery interns; she’s generously been a part of lots of weird community art projects I’ve instigated over the years (including this one), and best of all, she’s always up for talking shop about what artists can do with folks, and what art can do for folks.
Read MoreGreetings! In this final installation (see what I did there) of how to hang art on your walls, we’ll be going over the nuts and bolts (ha) of the hanging part, i.e. what tools you need, measuring formulas, and best practices for showcasing your work in the best light possible (it’s just too easy).
Read MoreNow that you’re purchasing art that you love, what do you do with it? How do you care for it? How do you create a meaningful visual experience in your home?
Read MoreI get a lot of questions from friends and family on the reg about where and how to frame and hang their art, so I thought I would share some insight. And as always, use what works for you. Ignore what doesn’t. Artist friends, I’d love for you to weigh in here as well.
Read MoreArt is small-p political.
It always has been. Thank God for that. And by political, I mean Merriam Webster’s definition. Art is “the total complex of relations between people living in society.”
Artists and art-experiencers know this intuitively. This is for the people in the back.
I credit the following three perspectives with wise artists and thinkers that I very much admire. They put to words the feelings that I have had for decades, and way more eloquently than I ever could.
Read More
