Our mission statement reads: To connect and support artists, cultural creatives and spiritual edgewalkers to transform culture.
Let's break it down.
We live in a time of crisis- social, environmental, and spiritual. The beauty amid the chaos of personal and social battles that are being fought, is the formation of communities. People feel safe in these communities where they can come together to express their authentic truth. These communities, like #metoo, #blacklivesmatter, and #lovewins make movements, waves, and ripple effects. This expression, that stems from the roots of our being, an inward belonging, is what we call art. The source of this expression is our truth, inherent to each of us. It is our creativity.
This week, I ask you to find your creativity by exploring your truth. What is your Art?
Let’s do an exercise. Bill Stanton comes up with three open-ended questions to ask yourself:
1. What if? Example Q- What if we had an unlimited budget? What if I had to just think and things magically appeared?
2. Who else? Example Q- who else has come up with this? (This one’s more research based with the aim of giving you more ideas)
3. How is? Example Q- How is this like that? (Find connections between random things- how is a car like a grape?)
While this exercise is meant for struggling businesses, I thought it’d be a great fit for just anyone who is looking to exercise their creativity. This, paired with the questions- “Who am I?”, and “What is the purpose of my being?” should do it.
Before you start with this activity, I am going to leave you with three artists that have inspired me today:
“Justice allows us to be judged. As a society of Americans, we have enjoyed more than 240 years of the American Experiment, begun in 1776 with The Declaration of Independence. Chaos and inequality of all types threaten the continued progress of The American Experiment in 2020.
With this work, “Just Society” I begin a new artistic direction that attempts to visualize the experience of the threats to democracy. I want to contribute to the documentation of our times by visually expressing the emotions, representing our culture of information indulgence in an atmosphere of growing propaganda and social disintegration.
I subscribe to the effort of recognizing our social disintegration in order to begin repairing the damage. I believe we must not use force or intimidation but encounter each other face to face in conversation, seeking common ground together. My hope is to spark conversation about how to build unity back into our social fabric, inclusively, with equal justice for all.”
100% biodegradable masks with flower seed, that turn into flowers after burial? Lovelyinnov!
“’All these years I have been working as a graphic designer I have used so many resources from nature to be able to make my drawings (especially paper), so I wanted to give it back to her. For weeks I fell on blue disposable masks, thrown on the streets and sidewalks, so I woke up one morning with the idea of a biodegradable face mask with flower seeds on it. Thus, the earth remains happy, the bees, nature, people also happy. I am selling the mask with the name Marie Bee Bloom. And the world will flourish!’
Instead of rubber bands, they have soft cords made of pure sheep wool. The flower seeds remain in the mask using a special glue that is made from water and potato starch. And in addition to all the other sustainable materials from which the biodegradable mask is made, even the logo is written in a special sustainable ink.” – tekdeeps.com
Donna Bassin has created powerful portraits of resistance from the daily onslaught of obliteration and silences.
“Following the 2016 presidential election, I initiated portrait collaborations between those who – through race, sexuality, gender identity, age, ethnicity, and/or disability – felt they had been deemed invisible and un-entitled to their place in this American moment. Storytelling through pose, gesture, gaze, and props, they turned themselves "inside out" to visually assert their identity and invite a visceral face-to-face encounter with their humanity.
The shared black velvet background and chiaroscuro lighting create an aesthetic unity, joining the individual to the collective. In response to these presently turbulent times, I decided to use the portraits to bring physical expression to injuries brought on by the pandemic, ongoing racial and economic inequality, and other areas of present unrest. I ripped the portraits to create “wounds” that reflect our individual and collective traumas.
Then, inspired by the Japanese practice of Kintsugi – which mends broken pottery by using gold lacquer to repair damage while highlighting the scars – I restored the torn portraits using golden rice paper and thread. The resulting scars remind us that we must not forget the incidents that create our wounds, but rather use them as inspiration to move forward and mend our fractured relationships with ourselves and each other.”