Wednesday, July 30, 2014

ART-INSPIRED Project ~~ Proctor Arts Fest this weekend!

I am really looking forward to this, AND I am more than a little anxious.

Friday morning I will step into Mason United Methodist Church, where I spent a whole LOT of my young life, and I will become immersed in the submitted artworks to this year's Proctor Arts Fest Juried Art Show.

I will wander among the works, looking for pieces that speak to me, jump out at me, entice me with their secrets.  Some of those messages will be intentional.  Some might not - they might be the result of a chemistry between something in me, and the potential of the work itself.

From the half a dozen or so I will choose, snapping a photo of them with my digital camera and noting the artist.  I will drive home, eat lunch, sit at my desk and put each photograph in turn up on my secondary screen while on my primary screen I will being writing "Drabble" for each: a story with 100 words exactly.

The choices don't end there. Does the story come from inside the art?  Does it come from the observer's perspective? Does it explore the technical experience of the art?   The answer is "yes", though hopefully not all at once.  THAT could be quite an accomplishment!

Still baffled by the concept of "Drabble"?  Here's an example written from an oil painting hanging at home which my Mom used to spend hours looking into, as a child, imagining herself in the world of the painting.

Mom’s Painting

By Judith Cullen
© 2014

The leaf-filtered morning light air is bronze, copper, and gold.  Cool air rises from the river along with my excitement.  “Can I go too?” I said so many times, only to be left on the bank, hand firmly clenched by Grandma. 

Not today.  I watch the twinkling river surface advance and recede.  I think I see fishes.  I imagine all manner of water-born creature beneath the sparkling thin veneer: lost worlds and creatures rarely seen by human eyes. I wave to Grandma on the bank, returning with great anticipation to that which is both window to, and mirror of, adventure.

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I'll be reading the fruits of this art-inspired project at 1:00pm on Saturday in the Mason UMC Parlor - 2710 North Madison Street.  Come along and see how it turns out, and then plan on checking out the visual adventures of  the Proctor Arts Fest Juried Art Show


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