About Papergirl

As promised I wanted to take a little time to expand on some of the motive and function behind Papergirl. The majority of this text is copied from a listing I posted on Valley Art Share, which if you are an artist working in Western Mass, or interested in Western Mass art happenings, you should join.

I feel like this sort of explanation is some what warranted, and I actually wouldn't even really call it an explanation except we are asking artists to give us their art work so we can in turn give it away for free. I can understand that from the perspective of most artists, they may feel their work is too precious to throw into the wind, and I can't argue the validity of any sentiment resembling that notion.

Papergirl began in 2005 in Berlin Germany, it was conceived by Aisha Ronniger and her pals and was developed as a means to combat tightening laws and penalties for graffiti. For them, Papergirl was about developing a means in which everything important about street art could be retained, but under a circumstance where no one could get arrested or fined.

For us, Papergirl is a way to bring our community together, to promote artists in an area where opportunities are bleak despite the reputation of being an artists community, to extend ourselves to the rest of the community that may or may not be active in the arts community or even interested, and to inspire selflessly via creative productivity.

The premise of the project is to collect works of art on paper which are then displayed for public viewing, after which all the art work is rolled into bundles and distributed via cyclists. The project has a number of objectives, the initial being that art is for everyone, much in the same way that graffiti, although illegal and sometimes not always tasteful, possesses a really progressive idea about art in that sometimes art can be free, and it's really great when people don't expect it. Yes, we give the rolls of artwork away for FREE, once your artwork becomes a part of Papergirl there is absolutely no monetary value attached to it anymore, obviously we will take good care of it, but it can not be bought.

Papergirl is such a beautiful concept because it breaks down all the pre-conceived notions that most people hold about the art world when they have never had any direct experience with it. Papergirl breaks down the barriers of who and what consists of an art audience. Much like graffiti, Papergirl makes no assumptions about its audience. Papergirl is for everyone and can be experienced and enjoyed by anyone. Papergirl says you don't have to have an art degree to understand this or to appreciate it, you don't have to be a connoisseur art collector, you could have not a penny to your name and become an art owner. It's really important that the art world makes a move to extend itself beyond the walls of its glass house to prove to the world at large that the contributions of artists are extremely important. The "art world" has a bad rap for being snobby, self righteous and reserved for those with complicated and inaccessible conceptual applications of so called beauty, people who love wine and cheese and people with fat wallets. Especially at a time when here in the States, funding for the arts is cut year after year and if once a year we do Papergirl and other types of highly accessible art based open community projects, year after year we extend ourselves to a new and random public, that might for the first time realize how important art is and might start to advocate for the arts and maybe, just maybe, we can start to change how funding for the arts is determined from the ground up.

Another important element is about community and Papergirl is designed in such a way that it defies the typical perceptions of community. Papergirl manages to remove the commonality of geography from the idea of community, which is brilliant and necessary in the art world and especially at this time. Last year we had art work come in from all over the U.S. and even the UK.
Papergirl has been around now for a few years and it has sprung up in communities all over the world. Last year when we had Papergirl in Northampton for the first year, the turn out was amazing, we had artists from 8 years old and up, we had artists from all over the map, all different races, different levels of skill, we had photographs, drawings, paintings, screen prints, wood cut prints and it was exciting and inspiring to stand in the basement of Thornes in the Dynamite space to see all this represented. It was exciting to walk around town after the distribution to see people carrying their rolls of art work, and to see how surprised and grateful the lucky random recipients of a free bundle of art work were.

It seems a fair percentage of our local population has caught wind of Papergirl but this year we want to make it even bigger and better, we want everyone to know what papergirl is and what it stands for and why it is so important.

So make some doodles and send them our way, and spread the word.

Big Wheels Keep On Turnin. . .

Last weekend Art In The Park yielded one sale of a Now.For.Art shirt, we have 8 dollars as an organization. At least that will be one round of flyers that doesn't come from my or anyone else's pocket. Thank you to our number one fan, who ever you are.

More importantly a lot of really excellent dialog about art, specifically in Northampton, took place at least in the one day + hour and a half I was able to be present. I feel like a lot of exciting things are going to start popping up in Northampton, perhaps finally living up to its (currently unwarranted) tag as being an art hub.

In other news, Now.For.Art will be picking up a couple extra hands this fall, and we will also be implementing a monthly artist's t-shirt series. Featuring a new artist every month, we will show case and sell 3 original shirts, hand printed on organic U.S. made shirts.

Im keeping this vague so I can keep your interest, shit is going to get exciting.

Oh, and pass the word on Papergirl 2010, again mail or drop off submissions to
103 State St Ap. 4
Northampton Ma
01060
See this post, for a few more details.

I will write more indepth about Papergirl in the next few days for those who aren't totally keen on what the deal is.

Email Now.For.Art@gmail.com for questions/comments

Art In The Park, Follow Up

So the itinerary for Art in The Park, as compiled by the great organizer Andrew Huckins is quite lengthy to the extent that I don't have the time to re-post it here at this moment.

Im a busy person.

I highly recommend heading over to Facebook and Joining their group, so you can be better informed about what is happening when and where and which artists will be pitching tents in Pulaski park over the 4 day event.

Art In The Park

Next week is Art in The Park, an initiative by the B.I.D. to allow free booth space to artists in downtown Northampton in conjunction with the towns side walk sale.

Brendan McCauley, Eben Kling and myself, amongst many other folks will be present selling artsy goods.

I believe Brendan and Eben will be selling works on paper along with some paintings. I on the other hand will be selling shirts for which the proceeds will go towards NOW.FOR.Art's operational expenses. This is one of three designs, the other two which will miraculously formulate somehow between now and Thursday.

Here's a sneak peak, or rather a lousy photo from my phone.


A full itinerary for the weekend, which will also include performances, is expected late this weekend, I'll post when it comes out.

just be groovy.

Papergirl Rides Again!!

Brendan McCauley whipped up this super sweet poster for this years run of Papergirl!

Again, drop off or mail submissions to 103 State st Apt 4. Northampton MA 01060
Untill August 31st!

Jammin!

Pt. 2/2: 60 Days is a long time

Along with the steam roller printmaking workshop we've also seen the close of another project that has been long in the works. & In One Another was a project that we began putting together many months ago. This was a very ambitious project were we enlisted about 85 artist across the U.S. to make one drawing a day for sixty days in response to daily prompts.

We sent out 85 uniform 7.5" x 10" Moleskine extra large blank Cashiers note books. Eben and Myself along with Michael Gundlach and Bobby Toher, generated a massive list of ideas of assignments which I narrowed for the final cut of 60 prompts.

We started February 5th with the prompt "Your House" and finished 60 days later on April 5th with "Now Draw Yourself", with everything between ranging from "Tales From The Ripped ", "Least Favorite Person","Lazy apparition/ Half hearted haunting " to "What I Ate Today".

The idea of collective unconscious came up early in talking about the kinds of things we thought would result from this project and when the books came back it was present across the board. A lot of people drew Cat Stephens for the prompt "Cat Man Starring", Most people literally drew exactly 20 Beasts for the assignment "Twenty Beast", A few references to Jack Shepherd from Lost for the assignment "Cool Doctor" where a lot of other people drew ambiguous doctor's smoking with sunglasses.

All in all this project was such a huge learning experience for us and the artists involved. We wanted this project to generate a sense of community amongst people that didn't know each other, in some instances lived on opposite sides of the country, and amongst people that would possibly never interact with again, even if the interaction was sharing the experience of going through this project, again, collective unconscious.

This project was more of an experiment than a project and we didn't even realize that for ourselves until we got towards the end. We attempted to cancel the show when the return was low, we neglected to consider all the people who finished and instead we concentrated on the terrible retention rate, thinking we had failed some how. Maybe our assignments were lousy, maybe the project was a bad idea. Well neither was true and we learned the hard way that if you can get 30 people to do a drawing a day for 60 days, on top of all the other people who made it part way through, it is a success and it speaks volumes and deserves celebration.

We had the show and the response was overwhelming, at the opening reception people swarmed the the books, people just camped down on the floor and didn't move for the three hours of the reception. This project made me realize again, as Papergirl did last year, that a true measure of success is when someone you have never met before comes in and experiences the art that is going on and then you talk to them, they are so ecstatic and you can tell by the look on their face that they want to go home and make something.

It was also fantastic to see the artists who participated in the show, go through the other books, having the experience they had, the ideas they had for the prompts, and getting to see what other people came up with, drawing connections between themselves and amongst the whole group.

At the moment we are in the process of returning everyones book and from there we are going to encourage people to scan some of their drawings to post to a group flickr. Link to follow soon.

All in all, as previously stated, this was an experiment and a learning process for us and we will run this project again, with improvements on our end of organization and a little restructuring. So keep an eye out, late next fall, it will be sketch book time again.

A lot has happened since we last spoke: Pt. 1/2 Steam rollers are for suckers

The 2010 Northampton Steam Roller Printmaking Workshop went down on Saturday May 15th, as some what planned. Months of planning came together in the early hours of this day were for once in New England, mother nature was on our side.
I tailed behind one of my dearest friends, Dave Provost to the storage yard of the steam roller that Dave set us up with through a very gracious and greatly appreciated personal connection; his former employer Bousquet Excavating. I had not yet seen the steam roller and I was afraid of the possibility of it not being quiet what we needed, but it was and it was in fact quite cute!

(Dave Provost, our steam roller driver. Image from Frances Kidder, Steam Roller printmaking participant)

Meanwhile, Eben was on sight in the walkway between Thornes and the Northampton Parking Garage which we were set up with permission to use via C3. Running around like a maniac, Eben was getting set up with another one of our outstanding cohorts in this endeavor, Zea Mays Printmaking who offered their unwavering labor and equipment for the day to which we would not have been able to do this with out.

After some more setting up, we finally started rolling out prints and the first one seemed kind of bleak, we needed more ink, the second one, not so hot either. This was going to be a trial and error kind of day that honestly, I worried that after all these months of preparation and anticipation, people would not be very happy about it.

We only pulled a few prints with the steam roller, and I think the general feeling in the air was that this wasn't coming out as good as people expected. And then came a blessing in disguise, the steam roller broke, yes it broke.

At this point the real beauty of the day finally made itself known to us. Before the steam roller broke, it was as though everyone was milling around in a state of limbo, worried about the quality of prints being pulled and wondering when their turn was.

I am pretty sure this was Liz's idea, once again revealing herself as our super hero from Zea Mays, equipped with barren's, we all got on our hands and knees and hand pressed these massive prints. One at a time, side by side, getting sweaty, making our introductions, testing our muscles and personal space, we finally came together as a community. When the steam roller broke, we had to rely on the groups collective dedication towards the groups collective agenda; to make some big prints. When the steam roller broke, we almost instantly became a tight knit community lending all of our hands one at a time to help each other as individuals, one at a time.





(Images C/O Carolyn Webb, who's print is being hand pressed and pulled here)

It was also immediately clear that we as a group, with only our arms and some pieces of plastic and unbridled determination, were a better make shift press than our steam roller, the hand pressed prints were coming out better. Who knows, maybe our cute steam roller didn't weigh enough, maybe it was because we had to roll every print 2, 3, and I think in one instance 4 times, maybe it's that human determination and artistic spirit in conjunction with community drive are more powerful than 2 ton construction equipment. Yes, that was cheesy, but whatever some how it worked and we learned that a steam roller is only a vice in the world of over size printmaking.

Another really beautiful element of the day was all the people who just showed up, had no connection to anyone involved in any part of this workshop and got on their knees with a barren to help us out. One such man, from South America randomly happened upon us and helped out for quite a bit. Before he left, he told Eben that it was the best day he had had in America and that he wanted to go back to his home country and tell everyone about it and make something similar happen there too! Talk about a few simple words and how they alone seem to make all the work that goes into putting something like this together, more than worth it.

One important part of this project that really needs mentioning, not just because we are required to do so, but because it is really important on a greater level than crediting. We received a grant from the Northampton Arts Council through a grant round that was funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. With the grant we supplied free non-toxic Akua Ink, cleaning supplies, saw horses to prop boards to roll ink on, and other wooden supports for the workshop. Everything else was very generously donated and required the dedication and coalescing of a huge community for a one day event. Because of all this, we were able to require that our participants only supply their own blocks to carve and their own paper. It's not always clear how these things come together, who pays for what and where that money comes from. When people see, participate in, and experience, these kinds of things, the result is not always the turning of gears in their heads over the subject of funding for the arts. Well now is a good time to think about what is behind determining public funding for the arts, make your opinion known when these issues come about and think about donating to the arts because the pay off is huge for everyone.

So much of mine and Eben's time goes into organizing these kinds of things, and we are not paid, we actually spend a lot of our own money, which yeah, sucks but it's worth it. All the organizations that volunteered and donated time and equipment to this one majorly inspiring, productive and meaningful day were not paid and if the pool of funding for the few small things we were able to supply at this workshop were greater, we could have paid everyone involved, rightly as they deserve to be. These are the things that make our communities exciting and vibrant and despite being invaluable as it stands, this is all really great but it could be fucking mind blowing.

A lot of people benefited from this experience and we will do it again, we will do other things like this. If you live in or around Northampton, check out all the organizations that helped us make this possible (follow the highlighted text) and think about how you can help this become even bigger the next time around. If you aren't from around here, think about who in your community is making similar kinds of art related events that you can support and in what ways you can do that. And remember, it doesn't always have to be money, be creative, just like us.