The Free Art Project : Week 100

The We Are All Artists free art project is reaching its 100th week. In truth, the project first began to come to life through a series of experiments dating back to around 2011, but it was on April 8th 2016 that I left my first piece of free art outside the town hall in Wallington.

If you are unfamiliar with the project, you can read more about the early stages of development, and watch a short video about the project here. Since the project started it has taken me, and members of various communities, local, virtual, global, on a series of adventures and collaborations. The project informs lots of my work on resilience, creativity, experimentation, organisational and personal development, and community interaction. It remains a fascinating example fo what happens when you start something, keep at it, and remain open to the possibilities that something can bring. I try to approach this work with beginners eyes, seeking new ideas and ways to make things interesting, challenging, and enjoyable. A flick through the search term ‘free art‘ on here will yield a few stories about the project, should you wish to take a look.

Reaching 100 consecutive weeks feels like a milestone to me, and I am choosing to celebrate with a piece of art larger than most of the works I make and hide.

This piece of art, currently untitled, is made of several layers of paint, built up over time, onto a 40cm x 50cm canvas. It will be hidden somewhere in the local area over the next few days.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me and the project. As a thank you to the local community there is a free art workshop happening on March 10th – you can read more about that and book tickets for it, here. Where will the project go from there? Who knows – and I am currently motivated to keep making so let’s see where that takes us.

The Free Art Project : Week 52. Anniversary

This week marks the one year anniversary of the free art project, I’ve been making and hiding art in the local area, every week for a whole year. Time flies when you’re having fun. This week I’ll give away the 76th art work, and this is what it looks like.

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The work is titled ‘Anniversary’. The painting represents a Chinese red envelope – traditionally used to contain money as a gift for a celebration. We’re looking down onto a carp fish, a symbol which represents abundance, and the characters on the left hand side of the painting represent the word anniversary.

Thank you to everyone who supports this project. I appreciate your ideas, feedback, participation and encouragement more than you know. I’m grateful to Carole and Keira for the many good ideas they share with me, and most recently, thank you to the poet Adrian Thirkell who has started writing verse to accompany some of the recent art works. I’d love to experience more collaborations as the project continues to develop.

I’m really excited to confirm that the free art project has recently been awarded a grant from Arts Network Sutton. This grant will help me develop and extend the project through some community events. Watch this space!