GSE: Trial Run and Idea Expansion

Trial Run- I spent part of my Saturday running around town taking care of business. I picked up a coffee, got a book at Powell's and went grocery shopping. I pretended I had all of my cards done and they were in my purse, ready to be distributed. I kept a look-out for anyone that might be a good candidate for a card.

I parked downtown, right in front of Jackpot Records. I got out and immediately locked eyes with a fine looking black man working inside. meow. Definitely would've like to give him one. I might need to go back ;) I wanted to give one to the dude playing his guitar in front of Powell's. His music was cheery and he had a nice smile. He deserved a little creative love. As I was leaving the grocery store, a big, burly dude walked by wearing shorts. He had the most incredible calves! They were huge and muscular. You could tell he was an avid bike rider. I love big guys who excerice. Those are my favorite. I turned left at 28th and pulled up to the light at Sandy. There he was in his truck, right behind me. I would've jumped out at the stop light to give him a card.

Idea Expansion- Earlier I wrote about creating a game where I passed out a card that included a clue to where a cool piece of art could be found somewhere in the city. The art could include a link to this blog and, hopefully, whomever found the art would write a comment about what they thought.

I've decided (as a side project) to skip the clue and just strategically place little pieces of art around Portland with a link to this blog on the art. I'll post pictures on the blog of each piece that I hide and people can log in and find the photo of the art that they found and write a comment. They could write about what they did with the art. Did they like it? Did they take it? Did they leave it? Pass it on? Throw it away? Something to work on this summer.

GSE: First Goals and Idea Evolution

1st Goal- My first goal is to complete 6 cards, photograph and post them to the blog by Sunday night.

2nd Goal- The second goal is to distribute all 6 by the following Friday, March 6th.

Idea Evolution- This idea is evolving inside of my head. I'm thinking that this experiment needs to be developed into a bigger art project, possibly 2. I'm not really sure what that would look like at this point. It will depend if anything interesting happens. I also think I need to document the process with film and hand written words. Take photos of the places I see people, journal entries about what I was feeling and thinking, document what happens after. I'm imagining wooden cubes, maybe 12"x12", on recycled wood, paint, collaged items, anything that tells the story of meeting someone new. The cubes would be interactive, people can pick them up, turn them around, read the story. Still thinking about this. Or... they could be vertical. I'm also imagining each story made out of a few pieces or recycled wood. Maybe each one has 3 pieces connected by chain or rope. They hang vertically down a wall, 1, 2, 3. Collage the story on the 3 pieces of wood. Still working this one out.

I'm also thinking about making this project into more of game. Every day, I take Sky for a walk down a street by my house. Someone has nailed an interesting piece of art high up on a telephone pole. This got me thinking that it would be cool to hand someone a card that had a clue. A clue that led them to a piece of art that I placed somewhere in the city. Will ponder this idea more.

GSE: A new idea, courtesy of Shar

Shar has a friend who once gave a random guy a calcium chew and then they started dating. Maybe some of the cards could have useful things attached? Perhaps a cough drop or a moist towlette? Bandaid? Jolly Rancher? Tic Tac? No, Tic Tacs could be misintrepreted.

I may need to get a bigger purse :)

The great social experiment: art and romance

The GSE for short. I actually came up with this idea about a year ago, but it didn't bloom into the full-on social experiment until just tonight. I completely forgot about this idea until my good friend Leslie reminded me. Thanks, Leslie! Some of you may remember me writing about this last year. Once again, feeling extremely frustrated about the difficulty of meeting integral men and the challenges of online dating, I started thinking about ways I could meet men in person. I thought how great it would be to create little pieces of art to randomly pass out to strangers I found intriguing. Wouldn't you be stoked if someone you didn't know came up to you and handed you a little piece of art and just said something like "Hey, you look like a person who can appreciate a little creativity. Cheers!" then walked away? I would be!

The art- I imagine the art to be on heavy-weight paper about 4"x 4"; sweet, juicy collages with highly textured paper, sensual, intense colors and dabs of black, sexy charcoal. Perhaps a trinket and some decadent words or a funny joke? Art cards for different occasions and different personalities. Of course, I will include the link to this blog so that I can be found :)

The experiment- I imagine passing these juicy morsels of art out to any man I find interesting, funny, smart, sexy or creative, along my day to day journey. Anyone I want to pass on a little joy and creativity. I wish I had documented all my funny and often ridiculous stories about meeting men online over the past 3 years. So here I am now, chronicling this new adventure and using art to create romance and writing about it- the 2009 love experiment. It can't be any worse than Mac the spider head, right?

This blog and writing about this adventure will create a certain amount of accountability, which my creative mind needs to keep me disciplined in manifesting change, excitement, new friends and, of course cool art. Feel free to leave me a note, a comment, a criticism, funny story or encouraging words. 2009 should be interesting. Cheers to new friends and interesting ideas!

Next blog to come...examples of completed pieces by Sunday night.