BEGINNINGS
project: #1
location: Denver @ undisclosed garage site
date: 3rd August, 2013
type: collaborative paintings / artist showcase
THE ROAD.
It was a project that began on the road. Two artists, Kate Jane and J.Charboneau drove. slept. ate. and painted. Their inspirations came from endless horizon lines. From sleeping under the stars. From good conversations over bad coffee. They painted by moonlight while drinking whiskey from the bottle. They wandered towns and cities with no aim but to experience them. They sat on dirt paths and busy sidewalks sketching and busking the hot summer days away. This was where it all started. Alley Art began as a chaotic idea from a couple of chaotic artistic nomads.
A TREE FELL IN THE FOREST.
As difficult it seems to show work in a gallery, it proves even more so difficult to catch the attention of the uninterested viewer. An artist’s survival depends on being noticed. Whether their work is noticed in good or bad taste, it is the interaction of another fresh eye that brings whatever idea or subject the artist is portraying to life. If it remains unseen it could very well be just as true as the tree that fell in the forest that nobody heard.
QUESTIONS.
The uninterested, dis-involved viewer rang focus in the coffee shop conversations of the two artistic nomads. They schemed and plotted. Questions rolled off their over-caffeinated tongues. How does one unintrusively grab the attention of the non-viewer? How does one bring the non-gallery goer to the forefront of the arts scene? How does one give art and creativity back to the people? How does one get the people to start looking?
ANSWERS.
The answers came with an invitation. Invite the non-viewer to participate rather than speculate. Grab them from their comforts and, even if for just one moment, make them the creator. Create art that is not only for the people… but that is also by the people.
CREATION FOR ALL.
Give them visual reigns on their turf. In their cafe’s. On their walls. In their *Alleyways. In the places they can’t avoid. So when it’s there in front of them, they look. For what man would avoid attention to that which they created.
A BEAUTIFUL MESS IN DENVER.
The first “Alley Art” project -as every series needs a name- began simple. A short invitation for a small community in Denver to stop by a house. The invitation: come paint. come drink. come see local art. There was no cover at the door. No white walls with art and titles to ponder over. Music blared from a house speaker. And when it rained the wooden board with stretched stapled canvas was moved to the small garage beside the house. It was 6 or 7 of them. Painting. Dancing. Drinking. Every once in a while they would step away to giddily gaze over what they were creating. Paint and chalk were layered and erased as the day turned to night. Hours went. But no one noticed until the storm finally struck fierce and took the power. They finished. Closed the paint jars. Critiqued by candlelight. The spontaneity of the many hands that approached the canvas’ left a mess of colors and lines. But what a beautiful mess.
BEGINNINGS.
The beginning of Alley Art. A chaotic beautiful mess that made the non-viewer not only look… but also help create that which they are looking at.
artists: Kate Jane . J.Charboneau
contributors: 15 Denver community members
