Transparency of the process: we truly reveal what we saw that inspired us, how that led to an idea, and the resulting artwork. And that is unique. We normally see art when it's finished and we are rarely—
if ever—allowed into the creative process. This is an essential educational element, and where we can genuinely change the way people see: finding art in the everyday.
How?
What?
Who?
Who is doing this? What separates artists? We can begin by speaking to the heart-centered openness necessary to be in the moment, to work with available resources outside of our comfort zones.
Finding international collaborators to work in that mode is incredibly exciting, and part of our mission, making contact with artists around the world, ultimately and admittedly idealistic in building a network of artists who are healing agents of change.
enter deeply, exit lightly—a Chinese saying about sinking your teeth into an experience but leaving little trace that you were there, in other words not disrupting the spirit of a place and being respectful, or leaving a small footprint.
Where?
Dislocation. Artists typically work in the comfort of a studio. Travel outside of that comfort zone means adjustments far beyond the range of many artists, who require certain tools or supplies to create. We are talking about making a mobile studio, using local materials, creativity on the road.
Freedom of moving between mediums, of crossing over freely by responding to the flow of the situation. Being a chameleon. This becomes crucial if you want to talk about traveling and being sensitive to what is going on around. It also opens the interdisciplinary possibilities of working with a dance group as they interact with sculpture, improvised painting to Tuva throat singers, etc.
Gestation period. For LAP the time from inspiration to completion of artwork is less than two weeks! An artist typically observes, absorbs, and creates (then exhibits and sells, the old paradigm which I believe we can change—that's another topic). Seize the Day. Joy in art making every day.