photo by ChadBrooks on Flickr

I’ve been shifting through old letters in preparation for The Leaving and the Left project, about which I’ll be writing more soon (it’s coming along).  As is often the case when embarking upon big “to keep” or “to toss” projects, I got sidetracked.  But it’s OK.  It seems as if it’s a productive diversion.  So, I’m sorting through old scraps of paper, lists and scribbled thoughts as I clear away some of the junk I’ve been collecting over the past year. I was inspired to collect some of the thoughts here in one place, so I present to you Thirty-Six Art Ideas to Execute in 2008.

1. Collage in the style of Russian propaganda artists re: low wages in Missoula
2. Print spam inbox for use in collage
3. Possibly incorporate the spam from #3 above into a mixed media piece (probably)
4. Draw with ink freehand in Moleskine and go over with pastels or watercolors
5. Steel wool and fire for performance art
6. Huge crane – images of beauty in a junkyard
7. Collage:opposites
8. Brainstorm list of 100 opposites for #7 above
9. For an opening exhibition – pillow fight at the show
10. Invite attendees to come in pajamas
11. Ah, yes, a pajama party show, now what art to make for it? Come back to this.
12. “merely a comma” –comma has text re: Iraq war in it. Dead American soldiers overlayed with upsidedown American Flag Mixed media piece
13. A whole series on The War? (without being too overbearing or preachy. How to do this?)
14. TITLE FOR PAINTING: Psalm 129
15. TITLE FOR PAINTING: Never Get out of the Boat (where did I get this?)
16. TITLE FOR PAINTING: Chasing Windmills
17. TITLE: Ebb and Flow
18. Shoot paint containers with a gun in order to create paintings (need to be out in the woods for this one. Also — get some guns.)
19. idea spawned by McMurphy: “pecking party”: the other guy “resist” (with rabbit/wolf/chicken/feathers and blood
20. TITLE: This train is on fire
21. TITLE: Footprints in Water
22. TITLE: The Bang and the Clatter
23. Find lat/Long for every place I’ve lived. Do Illustrator piece on it
24. Blog less
25. Remove ads from blog?
26. Kill blog filler
27. Open/Closed – film it, display feed of opening on site, post recording to YouTube
28. Face copies
29. Re: #28 – donated copy machine @ opening
30. re #28 – handbills with instructions for copying one’s face Shopped onto a facecopy, details on backside
31. Tracing with Sharpies over a lightbox, like Dex
32. More drawing/ doodling
33. Use doodles as jumping off points to major works (I know, everyone already does this. I don’t.)
34. Paint as realistically as possible from photographs (see comment from #33.)
35. Deconstruct photos for collages
36. Buy film for all old cameras — see what happens.

Originally, I was shooting for a list of 100. I’ll experiment more with lists of 100 later, but for now, this is a good start. And no, I won’t just add to this list.

If you want to donate anything to help me achieve any of these projects in 2008, please fell free by clicking the PayPal button below. Even a quarter would be great.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

Yes, I realize blog references are excluded, so the list of 36 is incomplete. It was a brainstorm for cryin’ out loud. :)