Retirement: Online Art Workshops

SWAP ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Passionate Declarations-Artists in A Time of War 2006

PLEASE read this thoroughly before you decide to participate.

Each artist will contribute a page of art-collage, painted, mixed media, etc... Artists may submit more then one page, if desired. Artwork should be in COLOR, as should copies, please. These pages will then be sent back to each contributing artists so that the artist can bind them into a book by herself/himself.

Theme: Passionate Declarations-Artists in A Time of War 2006

I've been re-reading Howard Zinn's Artists In Times of War the last couple of days. I thought what if a group of artists could get together and take this theme, this idea so well thought out and spoken so eloquently as only Zinn can do, and transform it into something tactile, something memorable, something that speaks out against what is happening in the world today?

From the book, "The artist thinks, acts, performs music, and writes outside the framework that society has created. The artist may do no more than give us beauty, laughter, passion, surprise, and drama. I don't mean to minimize thes activities by saying the artist can do no more than this. The artist needn't apologize, because by doing this, the artist is telling us what the world should be like, even if it isn't that way now. The artist is taking us away from the moments of horror that we experience everyday-some days more than others-by showing us what is possible.

But the artist can and should do more. In addition to creating works of art, the artist is also a citizen and a human being.

...So the word transcendent comes to mind when I think of the role of the artist in dealing with issues of the day. I use that word to suggest that the role of the artist is to transcend conventional wisdom, to transcend the word of the establishment, to trasncend the orthodoxy, to go beyond and escape what is handed down by the government or what is said in the media.

...It is the job of the artist to transcend...to think outside the boundaries of permissible thought and dare to say things that no one else will say..."

If you could use your art to express your views on the world today: the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the ongoing "wars" across the world (war on drugs, war on poverty, war on terrorism, war on this, war on that...), what would you "say"?

Size: 8 1/2 x 5 1/2" You MUST stick to this size. The small border that goes around the page when creating color copies is fine-don't worry about it. Artwork should be HORIZONTAL.

Each artist will make enough COLOR copies for each participating artist PLUS two additional copies. (FYI, Staples is having color copies for $.39 a page. You can fit two pieces of your 8 1/2 x 5 1/2" artwork on the page. All art that you send in, should be cut to 8 1/2 x 5 1/2", please.

ALL artwork should be in Kelly's hands before November 1st, 2006. Please include a Self addressed Stamped Envelope (with priority mail postage on it) that is larger then 6 x 9".

Questions? PLEASE email Kelly

To sign up, please email Kelly BEFORE September 15th, 2006.