Adapt – New Paradigms for New Art

Back in May, I was paralyzed in fear about my next creative endeavor. I was so pleased with the first iteration of The Leaving and the Left – A Celebration of Love and Loss, that I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to make anything else as good as that collection. I was avoiding the studio, avoiding thinking about it, avoiding doing any work on any of the backend stuff.

Then, I got a call from Misty, a journalism student who had seen my show back in February and liked it. She wanted to do a documentary on me and the philosophy of the project. She wanted to film me creating a piece start to finish.

O. my. God.

I told her I would do it.

And that forced me back into the studio.

And I did it.

I was working with different materials. Similar materials, but different than the ones I used in the first series of this project. There was a learning curve.

And I pulled it off. I got in there and created. I took new photographs of a new (gorgeous) model and played around with cutting those up and collaging those in a fashion. I figured out how to display the work that uses flimsy metal as its canvas, and cranked out nine new pieces in a little over three months.

It was highly rewarding, very exhausting and truly cleansing for me and for the people who contributed letters to the project. The resulting show, The Leaving and the Left – Teardrop on the Fire, opened August 7th.

And now I think that I’m finished with it. I don’t know. I said that if the donated love letters and post breakup emails didn’t come in, the project would die. And the letters and emails aren’t really coming in. I’ve tried a donation center at the show, I’ve tried Craigslist postings, I’ve Facebooked it and Twittered about it trying to solicit letters for the project. All failed.

So I think it’s over. I really enjoy working in this medium, and I want to continue in this vein, but I don’t know what direction to take it. There are still some behind the scenes things I’d like to accomplish with this project, and there are other (more glorious) reasons that I may abandon it.

People who want to see me continuing on with this project, though, need to submit some letters. Send yours, or tell your friends to submit theirs. Spread the word.

If you haven’t seen the new show, and you live in Missoula, you only have three more days to check it out. It’s at Noteworthy* Paper&Press (near The Wilma, on Higgins) until Thursday afternoon.