April 15, 2020

 

Hello, my delightful Arty Happy Hour Companions! 
 
This week has been a doozy for me. Throughout this crisis, I have gone through many phases: denial, resistance, maybe a little anger. Now, I'm ready to move into reflection, then reconstruction. What will our future hold? What is to come for us as individuals and as a collective whole? How will we work together to create a future where all citizens of our world have the basic necessities to be safe and healthy? As I isolate physically, I keep coming back to thinking about community and what it means to be a part of a greater whole and sharing a world together. 
 
The Secret Love Collective showed in our fall 2019 Collectivism exhibition and boy do they know how to bring people together! People couldn’t help but put on a sparkly garment, or one covered in dimensional eyeballs, and pick up an umbrella to twirl and celebrate with the people around them. Secret Love collects playful materials: reams of wild fabric, plastic fruit, Mardi Gras beads, pool noodle necklaces, and displays them alongside banners adorned with statements of belonging and empowerment. Their manifesto states a desire to re-envision their lives to gain agency. Well that sounds exactly like what this world needs right now! 
 
This Wednesday during Socially Distant CULTURE CLUB, we will take inspiration from this merry band and create our own collages of community and self-empowerment. We'll create collages, assemblages, or sculptures but don't let parameters fence you in. Make a still life of objects in your house that represent your goals for the future, altar style. A papier-mâché object might be your future fetish. You might create a soundscape or a mantra that will empower the manifestation of your desired future. The possibilities are endless. 
 
As always, we invite you to make a snack, grab a beverage, fire up Zoom today at 4:00 and - use what you’ve got - to create along with CVA! 
 
Much Love, 
 
Katie

P.S. Remember to share your creations with us on social media! Use the hashtags #cultureclubvisioning #CVAcultureclub.

Featured Artists

 

"Secret Love Collective was born in early 2017 out of a desire to connect and create worlds that do not yet exist. Through gatherings, events, performances, and exhibitions, we hope to engage friends and strangers in questioning the status quo, rigid categories of identity, dominant social structures, and art world hierarchies. By creating, we re-envision our lives and gain agency. We see this work as inherently political and intentionally liberating."   -  Secret Love Collective

 


More Artists for Inspiration
Images, left to right, top row: Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, with the cooperation of the Hilma af Klint Foundation, Stockholm; Wat Rong Khun, Chiang Rai, Chiang Rai Province, Thailand, by Chalermchai Kositpipat, photo via pixabay.
Bottom row: painting by Ashley Longshore: Corita Kent, Beatitudes Wall (detail), 1964, Collection of United Church of Christ, Courtesy Corita Art Center/Immaculate Heart Community

 

Jenna's Links for Culinary Creativity

 

My creative endeavors tend to be food-based, especially when practicing self-care. It's important to nourish your body, as well as your mind. This week, in looking to the future for inspiration, I came across these links. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!   - Jenna

 
NASA's Jamaican Coconut Rice & Beans
Have you ever wondered what astronauts eat on space flights? This recipe, created by high school students, is used to make freeze-dried meals for NASA.
 
3-Course Dinner Chewing Gum
For a fun treat, we turn to innovative candy maker Willy Wonka. Remember the 3-course dinner chewing gum that turned Violet into a blueberry? There's a recipe for it right here or a video tutorial here.