08 May 2007

Art Community: Community Art

I'm starting a commune. An arts commune.

No, not really. But I posted about art and community over at SoulPerBlog today. It's my first stop on a small tour of the community building aspect of art.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Erin -- I so agree that art can be community building. But I don't always experience art this way. When I'm writing or painting, I'm usually alone. I think the process, as much as the product, could produce more community in my life, though I'm not quite sure how. Any thoughts?

By the way, the project you discuss in the other blog has give me some ideas.

8:14 PM  
Blogger Erin said...

Charity,
I think that though you are producing your work in solitude, you have been influenced by a community. What blogs or books are you reading? Who really made you think last weekend when you talked until the wee hours? What artist inspires you? What kind of music have you been plugging in as you daydream or wash the dishes or drive to work? What Scripture passages are you camping out in these days?

As subtle and unconscious as those things are, they represent a sort of community of influence on your creative life. (I consider Job, C.S. Lewis, Michael Card, Nichole Nordeman, Gustav Klimt, Michelangelo and Giotto to be a part of my community, even though I don't personally know them.)

Our Mocha on the Mount group was a great example of this, for me. So many times someone would share an insight on the Sermon on the Mount- maybe just a different perspective on a verse or a personal experience- and my thinking would take a new direction. Then my artwork would follow suit. Or I'd see someone else's visual interpretation of a specific verse or thought and the wheels in my brain would start to chug.


Notching it up slightly, actually CREATING artwork in and with a community would be a fun adventure. Painting with a nature study group or in a large studio environment... joining a writer's group for companionship and sharpening... those might open up some really interesting relationships. An entirely new community. (I've seen blog groups that write novels together as a community. Each participant writes a chapter in a round-robin fashion.)

I'll have to think on this some more. The possibilities are endless...

So, you got an idea for a project? Are you going to build a bridge???

10:13 PM  
Blogger L.L. Barkat said...

I was thinking you meant in terms of product, not in terms of process...the way an image can create an identity, a way to hold people together that transcends words.

12:10 PM  

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