The Great Art Exchange



A canvas when I received it.
Eek! What to do with such contrasting components?



January 19th, 2013

Sunrise: 12:11 pm

Sunset: 3: 58 pm

Temps: -24'C - -34'C

What does one do in Inuvik in the dark and cold months of Winter? Painting is one option. I recently took part in the first "Great Art Exchange," and it was a great experience.

My additions to the painting. I named him "Old Man Winter."



I was placed in a "team" of 8 people, although it was all very secretive and I didn't really know who my "teammates" were. We each received a blank canvas, started a painting, placed it in an envelope and dropped it off at a common location.


This is the canvas that I started.




Next, we picked up another canvas (following a numbered coding system). That week, we could add as little or as much as we wanted to that painting. Then it again went into an envelope, was turned in, and eventually passed on to the next painter. This cycle was repeated for 8 weeks until we had each worked on all 8 canvases.



This is how "my" painting looked at the end of 8 weeks!



It was important that the progress of each canvas remained a secret, so that artists didn't influence each other too much, and so that the ultimate finished product would come as a surprise.


Our teams' paintings on display at the "great reveal."


At the end of 8 weeks, the project coordinator held a soiree at her house, the "great reveal," and had all the paintings displayed. It was fun to see how the paintings I had worked on had evolved. "My" painting certainly got a facelift!

Next round starts this week, with 4 teams of 5 people, over 5 weeks. I can't wait to get started!!




Oh, and our little project made the news! If you'd like to read more, check out the link below:

http://nnsl.com/archive/pdf-archives/in122012.pdf