So now we’re done. We began every project with worries but strong convictions in the influence of our actions. Each project was a small piece of our mind or our heart that we wanted to share with the community to open up theirs as well. We created with the humble intentions to start conversation and make waves from these tiny beginnings. We learned a lot about the inherent desire to be heard and the willingness of the community to share their thoughts and change and add them to the thoughts of those around them. I guess what we know now is that bold thoughts and actions, although not always spoken or done outright, are a part of everyone; it only takes a little push to help them let it out.
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For this project we drew a LION! While the act of actually getting to draw a lion, a numerously symbolic figure, (and also one with royally curly and magnificent locks) was entertaining on its own, we upgraded the lion to something even greater. Above our drawing we wrote in an arch the words “United We are Powerful.” With this slogan in mind, we urged passerbys to write in the mane of the lion a moment when they felt powerful. Over the course of only a day the mane was filled with peoples’ proclamations of power. There are powerful people everywhere who only need the opportunity to show their inner strength and so they jumped at the chance to speak their mind and roar.
1 day after putting up the blank lion drawing…
“When I’m a rock.” “I feel powerful when I am writing.” “When I make my little brother smile :)” “When I teach 7th graders.” “When my son sleeps for 8.5 hours” “I feel powerful when I am asleep.”
“When I forgive.” “When I finish a task that’s extremely hard.” “I feel powerful when I win or lose a game.” “When we asked the nice guy to help move the couch up the street.” “I did my first speaking and I was good at it.” “When I draw.”
“I felt powerful when I swim.” “i felt powerful when I gave birth to my son after 32.5 hrs of unbelievable labor.” “when I learned how to skate.” “When I help my mom.” “when I’m clean.”
“when I ride my bike.” “when I bring in the groceries.” “First time kickboxing” “when I nail crow pose in yoga class”
We can’t wait to see what it looks like in a week!
We left a sign at jp licks and a basket of tissue paper. Our sign said, “Share a moment when you were reminded that the world is a beautiful place.” For the next four days people wrote their responses. We then gathered all the responses and glued them together to create a giant lantern of beauty. Here are some photos.
The sign we left out at JP Licks.
Constructing the lantern. We made the frame as well as the lantern.
The lantern when we installed it.
When a friend made a map of my life on a post it note that showed how well she knows me.
When people speak their truth and others listen.
When my dog’s tail wags as soon as he sees me ❤
Seeing my kids after a month in reahab!
When I gave a kid an ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles and her reaction looked like I had given her the world.
The beauty found in a three headed monster.
When 12 strangers in jail all sang that Merle Haggard sang spontaneously all the way thru. I love you guys!!
When I planted my first vegetable garden with a friend.
seeing state pass same sex marriage.
My son and my daughter in law surprised me with an ultra sound image on her ipad. Its a boy!
When a MassPike toll booth woman, called me for my mom who had lost her phone.
Trying to cross a 1.5 yard puddle at the bottom of a hill on a busy st a stranger grabbed my hand and pulled me across.
When people took to the streets and protested the girls who went missing in Nigeria.
When I saw this. (referring to the sign)
Help us write the story! We started three stories with “once upon a time” in the Brookline public library. We hung the paper on string and then left a sign inviting others to help us continue the story. Here are the three beginnings of the three stories that people started. Since it was in the children’s room at the library there were a number of story cards that were more along the lines of three year old abstract art :). Here are people’s beginning, we’ll keep you posted on what happens next in these stories.
The pencils we left out for people to draw with.
Once upon a time…
Tanya the bunny woke to find her carrots missing.
She decided to ask her friends if they had seen them. “Have you seen my carrots?”
“No go ask Mr. Boskong.” The turtle answered, and he walked off.
Once upon a time…
There was a lady bug named Gregor
Every morning Gregor was grumpy until he had his ginger tea.
George alway ate a chocolate chip cookie with his ginger tea. For some reason today he suddenly got a stomach ache.
Once upon a time
There was a lonely lonely octopus.
The octopus was sad because he lost his french fries.
So he went to fast food to buy some.
and some one just added this…plot twist?
WE MADE FAIRY HOUSES! We installed them into one tree, and left a basket of wood disks and a note that said, leave a wish. People left over 300 wishes (in multiple languages), and the installment was only up for one day. In the first 2 hours the first basket of discs was used up. We had to refill. When the discs ran out people started to write on acorns and leaves. It was really beautiful to see how much people want to be a part of the project. We spent half an hour in the middle of the day counting the number of people who stopped. In that time, a hundred people stopped!
Here are some of our favorite wishes that people left: “To those who’ve lost, you are still important” “I wish every mother could be as happy as I am.” “Help me to quit smoking” “That my book makes and impact on everyone” “Puppy” and “I wish to rescue stuff.” (both of these were written in little kid handwriting) “I want to stay in USA.” “Bring back some extinct animals!” “Healthy baby #3” “7 years ago I waited until you came out.” “I wish my imagination was real.” “Less hills” “Love you mom, sending kisses to heaven.” “A house.” “Find our girls.” “Fairies please visit (then their address)” “I wish I could see this tree again next year”
The tree with the fair houses in it.
close up: the fairy castle
close up: a few of the fairy doors
close up: a fairy house
Leave a wish: the basket of wood discs and pens
A crowd of people looking and leaving wishes
A crowd of little kids
Some of the wishes on the tree
Some more wishes on the roots
part of the wishes collected
I had a book of thoughts and notes that I had written throughout the year which I wanted to let go. Devon and I were trying to think of a way to creatively let them go. “why don’t we let other people, let go of there thoughts too?” We asked ourselves. And THEN we thought, wait a second, as people let go of their thoughts, other people could catch them. We wanted to create thought exchange.
To do this we made strings of beads. Each string was covered in clips. We hung the strings at the train stop, with a sign and stack of paper and pencils. The sing said, “leave a thought, take a thought.” For three days the strings of beads were full as people took and left thoughts. After three days the MBTA took down the strings, because there was no permit for them.
Below are some images of what the strings looked liked, and then some images of what notes people wrote on them.
A thought
leave a thought and strings
People writing thoughts
a compliment
how do you keep from conforming?
you are loved
The man who know a lot know that he know nothing at all
equal rights!
somebody thanked us 🙂
For mother’s day, last year (we’re a little behind the times), we decorated a statue of a mother in a graveyard, with flowers. We sewed fresh flowers together into chains, and boas, and wreaths. As people came to visit their deceased mother’s in the graveyard, this beautiful blooming mother looked out over them.
We started the piece by making a wreath and long strings of flowers for the woman to hold
We then added a head wreath and a long boa or garland to wrap around the woman’s shoulders. We topped it off with flowers around her feet.
Close up of the intricacies of the flower garnishes.
Suffering from a high fever, Devon made over 500 paper cranes, in the course of the three days and multiple three stooges movies. One day, Devon and me (Kate) were pondering what to do with all these paper cranes. We decided to share them, with everyone, by making them into public art. We spent the night stringing the cranes and the next morning hung them on a tree outside the community center in my neighborhood. People really liked seeing the art, and we really liked making it. So we decided that this should just be the first piece in a series that we would do. And so began the project! Here are a series of photos from this first installation piece.
The cranes were all different colors and patterns
The cranes ranged from the size of a hand to the size of a fingernail
We hung up the cranes in the middle of town at the children’s library so that everyone could see them
This is the beginning of a project that started with a friend of mine. It didn’t start out as a project, but the more we saw the impact of the little things we were doing, the more we fell in love with making it bigger. So this is the start. Where our art goes out and is the beginning of something more than we plan. Where it goes, we don’t know. That is up to anyone and everyone besides us.
artingsomething 
