The Show Next Year

The Expanded Scope

As mentioned in overview of the One Line Collective project, the response from artists became very big, very quickly. I had ambitious plans about doing a widespread and diverse call for artists, which I ended up truncating, as I could see that we were quickly looking at more art than we could fit in the gallery.

But in my mind, there is a lot of art sources that I would like to draw from, among them printmakers, graphic designers, typographers, book and paper artists. I respect commercial art, but moreso I am interested in the artists who create this type of work. I would love to take these trained artists working in the corporate sector and bring them back into the galleries. Two areas I would like to see more of in next years show is typographical interpretation (literally, hanging words on a wall as a visual art piece) and bookmaking, in the broadest sense of paper arts.

Since (love open hand) was distributed, people have asked if I am interested in publishing the book of poems. I would like to publish the book, but only unique, artist-made versions of the book. “This book will never be bound by a machine” was a poster I made for the bookmaking call for artists. I also had a cosmic experience with artist boxes- boxes as a work of art, filled with art you can rifle through.

Oh, more digital art too. And did I mention I would also like to do next year’s exhibit in a gallery that is twice the size as this year’s?

Help Wanted

The biggest change for the show next year is that I am looking for curatorial help. I would love to hand over the keys and let someone else drive. I will be a pest and provide artistic direction, but I am an artist before I am a curator, and I have an ambitious set of artistic goals for next year beyond the One Line Collective’s second show. If you, or anyone you know is interested, please contact me and we can set up an interview. I would also welcome help with any other show -planning responsibilities for next year, if anyone is looking to gain experience working with group exhibits with intense logistics. Lastly, any volunteers to bartend or help with the exhibit itself would be gladly appreciated.

The Poems Next Year

A new collection of one-line poems, called One Night Stanzas Volume Two, will be released (and sold) upon the opening of the exhibit. Artists interested in participating next year can draw from this year’s poem collection or the new one. In addition, artists who participated in this years show, and other artists, will also be invited to the “open book sessions”. I currently have over 500 one-line poems contained in six hand-written volumes. Some evenings, we will make some food and pass around the books. Artists can have as many of the poems as they have the energy to scribble down.

The (love open hand) collection was added to the public domain, just to free any artist from concerns about being legally bound by copyright issues. Similar steps will be taken next year. It is critical that artists’ have absolute ownership of their work.