art hunt 8/8/2011
Patrick Skoff and I had an art show friday night that was a big hit at a shoe store in Michigan City, IN. called Urban Soles.
The store was one participant in a neighborhood art walk, just like “First Fridays” they have here in Chicago.
There were galleries, boutiques, and restaurants that all opened up their doors, gave out beer and snacks, and showed/sold art off their walls.
Patrick and I collaborated to make a few paintings and hung them in the shoe store.
We weren’t content to just hang paintings and mill around though. We put a canvas we had been working on up on the side of the bus we had parked outside and worked on it during the party. (and attracted quite a crowd, including a newspaper reporter.) Patrick told everyone that if they’d be around tomorrow, we’d have an “art hunt”. “Art hunt”? What’s that? We’re giving paintings away for free- but you have to find them first! (This is a thing Patrick likes to do in Chicago. Look him up- this is so fun!)
We partied all night and saw in the morning that the paper had printed our story on the front page!
The folks at AM 1420 tracked us down while we were just about to check out the farmers’ market, and we did an interview on “Burning Issues” with Kyle, Jeff and Mallory. We told them of our plans to hide 6 paintings around town that afternoon.
We worked together making most of them. He had one just by him and I had one just by me. The rest were collaborative. When we made them, we took turns painting on the canvases. I’d start one, he’d paint on it when it dried, I’d paint on it again after it dried, then he’d paint on it again, and then maybe we’d put a few finishing touches on together. Sort of like “exquisite corpse” only you can see what you’re adding to. Or one of my designer friends calls it “tennis”.
The whole point of the art hunts, as he will tell you if you get him going, is that art is important. So important that it should be shared with everyone. So he makes work and gives it out for free, but you have to find it!
So here’s the way this works: He puts a painting in an unusual place and takes a picture with his phone. He posts that picture, along with a clue to point people to the location that the picture was taken, on his twitter account. Whoever gets to the location first gets to keep the painting. One of the people who interviewed us on the radio played, and won 3 of them!
Here’s the whole twitter thread for this game:
freearthunt Patrick Skoff: About to hide these pieces. Sponsored by Urban Soles.
Skoff: This one’s clue was in the last tweet. The password to get it off the wall is “free art hunt”.
(It was hanging in the store as if it was for sale, but the tag on it said, “What’s the password?”)
Skoff: This old classic collected another bug on it’s windshield!
(You see some pretty weird stuff driving around the roads of Indiana.)
Skoff: Head through the stone gates to find this treasure in the sand.
(We went to the dunes. “Stone gates” refers to the entrance.)
Skoff: This piece is named “bluejeans” you can get a real pair here in about a week in downtown Chesterton.
(Linda, the owner of Urban Soles, is opening up a new store in a neighboring town the following weekend. She sells much more than shoes- clothes, jewelry, bags, all sorts of stuff.)
Skoff: You missed the “farmers’ market” because it was so nice out that you spent all day out on the boat. Well, dock it and pick up your painting!
(We went to the marina.)
Skoff: This one was tough to hide because hunters were on the prowl!!! It was found before we could take the pic!
(No kidding. By the end of the game, there was a car full of people following us. Literally. It was a high-speed chase. The kind that’s fit for TV. They were driving down alleys trying to get to us, and we hid behind a dumpster. We were like, fine let’s just put it here, and set it down and got ready to take a picture for the post. Right then an SUV pulled up and a kid came out of each side and ran towards us! They grabbed it before we could post a clue! )
Jennifer: too late!
(After the game was over, this showed up on the twitter thread. Someone posted a picture of an empty spot where we had put a painting earlier!)
candicelatimer 