 | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||
Artistic Pen Pals
Almost four hours and about 200 miles separate Atlanta's Get This! Gallery and Savannah's desot O row Gallery, though through the collaborative works of 16 artists and an old-fashioned thing called the U.S. Postal Service, the distance is shortened through a neat little project called Pen Pal.
"We wanted the artwork to act as much like a written letter as possible thus the name Pen Pal," said Get This! owner Lloyd Benjamin.
An idea born in the head of desot O row art director and SCAD graduate Ryan Brennan, the goal for Pen Pal is fairly simple -- all dialogue would be visual, not written.
"I want to do a correspondence. There isn't a lot of mail art, so be communication but communication only through artwork. ... The dialogue would be through the art," Brennan said. "Logistics came about later."
Benjamin and Brennan handed a uniform 15 x 32 inch, multi-media paper to the eight artists in their cities, who were then told to paint or draw what they want.
Artists in Atlanta are Rene Arriagada, Harrison Keys, Bean Worley, Lamar Barber, Kelly Tealsley, Shana Wood, Nate Moore, Chris Chambers. Savannah artists are Crystal kanney, Martha Allen, Jason Kofke, Erin Vaiskauckas, Hillary White, Steven Speir, Aundre Tellier, and Ted Bihun.
The work was then sent to the opposite city, where an artist would pick a piece, take about a week to add a layer, return it to either Brennan or Benjamin, who would ship it back to the originating city. The switch goes for three rounds, with the art traveling in wood mailers Lloyd Benjamin made specifically for this show.
"We wanted all lines of communication to go specifically though the artwork itself, no emailing each other to discuss ideas on what was going to happen to the pieces," Benjamin said.
The collaboration is blind, meaning the artists don't know who their partner is, an uncommon set-up in the art world.
"I definitely think artists feed of each other during the creative process in collaborative works. Usually since the artists are familiar with each other's styles and are friends or are part of a collaborative group such as Atlanta's Golden Blizzard, the direction or theme of the piece is easily or jointly achieved," Benjamin said. "We wondered since the artists were left blind as far as who they had teamed up with, if they could still achieve the joint direction with the work.
"We also wondered if the artists would have respect for the artists they were teamed up with. And if not how would they react once they got a hold of their original work after the second artist had left the mark."
"We wanted the artwork to act as much like a written letter as possible thus the name Pen Pal," said Get This! owner Lloyd Benjamin.
An idea born in the head of desot O row art director and SCAD graduate Ryan Brennan, the goal for Pen Pal is fairly simple -- all dialogue would be visual, not written.
"I want to do a correspondence. There isn't a lot of mail art, so be communication but communication only through artwork. ... The dialogue would be through the art," Brennan said. "Logistics came about later."
Benjamin and Brennan handed a uniform 15 x 32 inch, multi-media paper to the eight artists in their cities, who were then told to paint or draw what they want.
Artists in Atlanta are Rene Arriagada, Harrison Keys, Bean Worley, Lamar Barber, Kelly Tealsley, Shana Wood, Nate Moore, Chris Chambers. Savannah artists are Crystal kanney, Martha Allen, Jason Kofke, Erin Vaiskauckas, Hillary White, Steven Speir, Aundre Tellier, and Ted Bihun.
The work was then sent to the opposite city, where an artist would pick a piece, take about a week to add a layer, return it to either Brennan or Benjamin, who would ship it back to the originating city. The switch goes for three rounds, with the art traveling in wood mailers Lloyd Benjamin made specifically for this show.
"We wanted all lines of communication to go specifically though the artwork itself, no emailing each other to discuss ideas on what was going to happen to the pieces," Benjamin said.
The collaboration is blind, meaning the artists don't know who their partner is, an uncommon set-up in the art world.
"I definitely think artists feed of each other during the creative process in collaborative works. Usually since the artists are familiar with each other's styles and are friends or are part of a collaborative group such as Atlanta's Golden Blizzard, the direction or theme of the piece is easily or jointly achieved," Benjamin said. "We wondered since the artists were left blind as far as who they had teamed up with, if they could still achieve the joint direction with the work.
"We also wondered if the artists would have respect for the artists they were teamed up with. And if not how would they react once they got a hold of their original work after the second artist had left the mark."
Tags:
