Art Dispersal: January 17, 2014

Art - accessible to 100% of people

ART DISPERSAL January 17, 2014     5-8pm

Cedarwood Waldorf School 3030 SW 2nd Ave  Portland, OR 97201

 Can you imagine going to visit someone and finding their home full of artwork? Can you imagine needing to stop and ask directions on your way there and finding that person’s home full of artwork? Can you imagine appearing in court to pay your parking ticket and finding the courtroom walls covered with paintings  that were  somehow consistent with your being in a courtroom? Can you imagine a society where many, many people are working artistically and everywhere is something that has been created by someone? Can you imagine a society where these people also have time and materials and enough to eat?

Free Columbia is an investigation of art in relation to the spiritual aspects of the human being and the world. As a new experiment in our ongoing attempts to de-commodify art, Free Columbia is planning an art dispersal event in Portland. http://www.freecolumbia.org/art-dispersal.php

 On Friday January 17 we will open the event with a reception and presentation on Free Culture by Laura Summer, the co founder of Free Columbia.

As a society we have placed original visual art outside of the financial means of the majority of people. At the same time we have impoverished most of our artists. We need to turn this situation around.

At the art dispersal event, which will occur on January 17- at the Cedarwood Waldorf School we will present two different, and not necessarily connected, actions.

1. We will make approximately 30 pieces of visual art by New York artist Laura Summer available for dispersal to people who would like to live with them for an unspecified amount of time. This means that the recipients will take the work home and will not need to return it. If the time comes when they no longer want to keep the artwork they can give it to someone else who does want it or they can contact the artist to return it.
2. We will accept donations to support the work of both the Cedarwood Waldorf School and Free Columbia.

How are these actions connected? Only in terms of visibility, time and space. That is, the event will make people aware of the availability of the artwork and of the possibility of contributing to support the freeing of culture. Those who take paintings will be encouraged to make a financial contribution but it will be clear that this is not connected to a value assigned to the art work, rather it is an opportunity to support creative activity which the person obviously values since they are taking the work home. Also people are free to contribute to Cedarwood and Free Columbia and need not take any artwork home.  We don’t know what will happen but we will know more after we try it.

Perhaps you have wanted to live with an original painting, perhaps you have wanted to contribute to free culture but how to do this was unclear, perhaps you are simply curious about what will happen…    for whatever reason, please participate in the art dispersal event.

Let us see what happens when we ask people to support the conditions for creativity instead of purchasing artwork.

6 minute video          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoN4uMu2t4k

Comments from previous art dispersals in New York:

Thanks a million. I love looking at the piece every day.

Beginning – not knowing what was happening, middle – it’s working!!! End – a totally satisfying experience, new, social, surprising…making people so happy.

This is amazing! We love being able to own original art. Thank you!

It sort of felt like adopting a baby. A beautiful quiet well behaved baby. It was as if everyone had a painting that was meant for them in the room and they had to find theirs.

Looking at your work makes me think that this kind of activity makes a more lasting impression by being in the house than not because it does form part of our daily life. It weaves itself into our daily imagination and emotions without being prompted by external considerations. It forms part of our daily eyes.  

http://www.freecolumbia.org/

Workshop with Laura Summer: January 2014

Devotional Painting in the 21st Century Drawing from the Face of God             

to draw: to move continuously toward or after a force applied in advance; to extract the essence from...     Webster’s Dictionary

Jan 22/Jan 23

Eugene OR: Wednesday eve 7-9pm and Thursday 9-4

Eugene Waldorf School, Art Building

with Laura Summer

What is devotion? What happens when we devote ourselves to something through painting and drawing? What do we learn about the “object” and what do we learn about ourselves? Can I present an experience for my viewer without pictorial images? How can sacred art be contemporary, an expression of an experience in the present?

As we enter the 21st century, can we find ways to work devotionally in painting? Using a variety of media––watercolor, pastel, collage, ink, crayon, and poetry––we will explore this question. No previous experience is necessary. The techniques we will use are very forgiving and exercises can be worked with at many levels. Both beginners and advanced painters are welcome!

We often start with a contemplation of a cup and a related drawing exercise, then we go on to nature and then to a poem or prayer. No specific religious orientation is used, just the question of how can we devote ourselves to something greater?

Suggested Donation $60-120  All of the work at Free Columbia is based on an understanding of the importance of creating a free cultural space, therefore there are no set tuitions. Rather we offer suggested donation amounts based on what it costs to run courses. If you prefer it is possible to make a monthly pledge to support Free Columbia rather than making a one time donation.

Laura Summer is co-founder of the Free Columbia Art Course, a year-long program based on the fundamentals of painting as they come to life through spiritual science. Her approach to color is influenced by Beppe Assenza and Rudolf Steiner, also by Goethe’s color theory. She has been working with questions of contemporary religious art for 16 years. Her work, to be found in private collections in the US and Europe, has been exhibited at the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York City and at the Sekem Community in Egypt. She is a founding member of The Experimental Art Collective and Raising Matter-this is not a gallery.

Registration: marciaseymour@q.com  or 541 484-5234

Jennifer Thomson Painting Art Retreats Summer 2014: August 8 thru 12 and August 22 thru 26