Bringing together disparate parts and disparate people

 

Working with civic groups, in school classrooms, or in private business settings, the intention is still the same; to establish collaboration and community.  I have worked with as few as 8 and as many as 450 individuals to create permanent works of art.  The completed work is more about the process of connection that happens when the work is in progress than about the finished product, but some astounding work has been created.  As the facilitator, I am always inspired by the experience of disparate parts and people coming together to complete a finished image of which they are all a part.  The idea that the participants can pick out their individual parts when completed, speaks to the understanding that without the contribution of each individual, the mural or sculpture would not be complete. Each person affects and is a valuable part of the whole. In some ways this is a performance piece when even observers are astounded by the beauty and joy of the experience.

 

 
A Dream - Totems for Humanity, NEA Grant for Turchin Center for Visual Arts. Approximately 100 community members designed, built the sculptural forms, created the ceramic tiles and applied the mosaic to the individual totems. 

A Dream - Totems for Humanity, NEA Grant for Turchin Center for Visual Arts. Approximately 100 community members designed, built the sculptural forms, created the ceramic tiles and applied the mosaic to the individual totems. 

  

  

The Four Seasons Planters - Christ Episcopal School, Greenville, SC 2009, 150 middle schoolers

The Four Seasons Planters - Christ Episcopal School, Greenville, SC 2009, 150 middle schoolers

2011 Banner Elk Elementary School Lobby - 125 students participated

2011 Banner Elk Elementary School Lobby - 125 students participated