Friday, January 25, 2013

A dream of receiving and giving free art

Reposting this record of a dream last spring:

I woke up this morning from a dream.

I took a Little Free Art Gallery someplace for a day of workshops where people would make little paintings, collages, sculptures. We finished with a ceremony before bringing in a new group for the next session.

Each participant in turn approaches the Little Free Art Gallery, carrying a piece of art she made today.

The participant opens the little gallery door and surveys the art works collected within.

She selects a piece created by a previous workshop attendee, holds it up for the rest of us to see. In its place, she leaves a piece that she made today as a gift for somebody in the next session. She closes the little gallery door, bows, withdraws.


That's when I woke up.

Writing about it in my journal later, I realized we were honoring a process:

Art Making → Curating → Exhibiting → Receiving → Giving

If I am lucky, I receive artistic insight that permits me to create art that is original and which can engage others. A gift to me from the universe, that's how the insight feels.

In gratitude, I choose a little piece of my art to give away for free.

You encounter my art. You give it your appreciation and attention. You spend precious time interacting with this incarnation of my artistic vision.

You select my art work and take it with you. I accept more good feeling, knowing you have chosen to receive my work as a gift because it speaks to you.

I take pleasure in the knowledge that my art will continue to evoke responses from others when they encounter it on display in your collection, or when you pass it on to another art lover.


photo by Doug Millison

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Little Free Art Gallery to participate in Free: A Utopian Project's next free shop

We're happy to announce that we'll be setting up a Little Free Art Gallery and will use it to distribute free original art works by Doug Millison and others, at the next free shop of the Free: A Utopian Project free shop in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Location and date to be determined, stay tuned. Free: A Utopian Project http://www.freecoproject.com/