Participate in Abandoning

For about five years, there has been a grass roots movement for artists to abandon their artworks.  I have written about it before when I first began doing it as a form of guerrilla art back in 2011.  I continued to abandon artworks when I moved from my lovely art studio in Ohio to Central Florida. In the past 4 years I had sort of let my abandonment of artworks languish for the most part.

It more formally became a movement when Michael deMeng began a FaceBook group (of which I am one of over 36,000 members of artists).  Artists post pictures of the art they have made for abandonment as well as pictures of where they abandoned it.  I even have found several pieces of abandoned art myself over the years from other artists who are anonymous.

This past summer when I was teaching art camp, one of the projects my campers did during the week was to make artist trading cards and leave them to be found by others.  The lovely thing about this was that we had permission from the Orlando Museum of Art to leave the tiny artworks around the hallways and other spaces at the museum.  Some of the students were so excited to see someone pick up their abandoned pieces of artwork.  Others were loathe to leave their artwork behind.

For me, abandoning art is a very freeing process.  It enables me to do many things 1)practice non-attachment 2)see someone enjoy receiving a piece of free artwork and 3) destash some smaller pieces of art and jewelry that are ready for a new home.  I get no monetary reward from leaving these artworks and my art is not signed so no one other than myself and anyone with me when I abandon the art would even know it was mine except for any photographs I might take of the item.

Other than the summer camp abandonment, I haven't done any art abandonment for about 4 years, but I have been missing that joyful sense of release and the fun of surprise knowing that someone is going to find and either keep or share my artwork. I love the idea of an anonymous happy surprise. There is so much "not happy" surprise going on in the world today that I think we need this little random acts of kindness to jolt us back to knowing that we are here for more than just the hum-drum, ho-hum slog through life.

In fact, I think right now I'm going to go make a couple of pieces of art and prepare them to abandon. I'll slip them into my purse and when I find a place that feels like the right place, I'll find a hidey hole to leave them for someone.

May we all share our talents, find happy surprises, and release our attachments.

(c) 2017 SZing, Bohemian Art Cafe. All Rights Reserved.  Photographs courtesy Bohemian Art Cafe, All Rights Reserved.

Oh the Joy of a Rusty Toy!

When I see rusty bits of metals, odd springs or screws, nuts and bolts or brass findings, I cannot help but sort them in my mind's eye into a semblance of something new and different than their intended uses.  Like one of my favorite found object artists, Michael deMeng, I am fascinated with rusty stuff.  When I first happened upon deMeng in 2009, I was already futzing around with found objects and creating unusual combinations or as deMeng calls it, "Oddification"--a term I find a perfect fit--the modification of odd items to make new 'somethings' (my definition, not his--you can find his at his blog.)

(c) Michael deMeng, used by permission.
"Urning Rubber"

In 2007, deMeng wrote Secrets of Rusty Things.

(c) Michael deMeng, used by permission of the author/artist.

In a sense, deMeng is a modern art Dr. Frankenstein--taking bits and pieces and bringing them "to life" in a new creation.  The moniker is fitting on the whole and taken from the perspective of the 'uninitiated'--my niece for example, who says the art pieces are "weird," "odd," "scary," "fun," "funky," and "bizarre," by turns.  I can't say how deMeng would feel about these labels, but as for me, I'd be thrilled to know my artwork provokes others.  Yet I do not in any way get the sense that his work is contrived just to get a rise from people.  Being that his star is on the rise, this becomes more and more a challenge as continuing to please "the people" can be consuming to artists. As an artist gains acceptance and an audience, it gets more difficult to create from the heart without regard to the audience.

(c) Michael deMeng, used by permission.  Archangel Michael.

Besides the details on how he combines unrelated pieces to create a new creature (or artwork), I genuinely found the stories that accompany the instructions and the art in his books to be fascinating. In fact, finding great "junk" is a necessity for an assemblage artist.  I already scheduled my calendar to attend one of the largest antique shows in Florida to scour the place for fun items I want to incorporate into my own assemblages.  When I read his stories, I felt that he must at some point truly get into "the zone" (you know the one I'm talking about) where he is working and immersed without being necessarily aware of the culmination of his creative thoughts into the actual work.

(c) Michael deMeng. Used by permission.  Diablo.

Secrets of Rusty Things was followed in 2009 with Dusty Diablos.

(c) Michael deMeng, used by permission of the author/artist.

His works are often filled with images and have names, if not directly related to deities, then at least reminiscent of a deity.  To me his work makes him a mundane reincarnologist--though he and the end result of his work are anything but mundane.  (Yes, yes, I know, I'm making up words again.)  As those who visited my "Recycled + Repurposed = Reincarnated" solo show last year know, I am all about recycling/upcycling and repurposing and most of my artwork is driven by the threads of the spiritual whisperings that are woven throughout my life.  As a result, deMeng's work speaks loudly to me and demands my attention.

(c) Michael deMeng, used by permission.  Dream Keeper.

deMeng is not hugely world renown (yet) but he and his works are something of a phenomena in the circle of crafters who attend arts and crafts retreats such as Art Is You or other workshops and retreats around the country (and a few outside of the USA).  He is the darling of the craft world and his classes rarely have openings in them.  He is also active in promoting the abandoned art movement (a stem of guerrilla artworks where artists anonymously leave art behind for others to randomly find and keep.)  

(c) Michael deMeng. Used by permission. "Our Lady"

While there isn't much known about him (very little available on Wikipedia, for example) his books are very revealing about his process and adoration of all things vintage, rusty, antique and upcyclable into art.  Many of his artworks are reminiscent of angels,  monsters or demons or mythological characters.  Almost all of them seem to be steeped in a spirituality that leads, in the end result, to a sense of sacred artwork.  There is a definite feel of a Hispanic sensibility in that many of his works play with themes often seen in Day of the Dead artwork of Mexico.  Having myself grown up surrounded in New Mexico by a heavy duty Southwestern Hispanic and Catholic influence, I find the works beckon me at a quite visceral level of connection.

I don't know how much of his artwork is shown at galleries or museums or how much he is concerned about having it appear in these venues.  I know he is enormously popular as a figure leading the charge in assemblage art.  Whether or not he will be able to transit from a sort of "cult pop icon" to a larger audience remains to be seen.  I think he fits somewhere between folk, whimsy, and modern art, but the labels are really not as important as the impact of the art. My greatest fears for his work are 1) that he may become such a cult figure in the craft world that he gets bored with what he is doing or 2) he loses the genuine feel of the work or 3) with so many students of his work, the "copycats" are bound to appear and overrun the market with similar works. My hope is that those who are "following" him find their own voice and method of expression.  I'd hate to see his work go the way of Kelly Rae Roberts and become the ad nauseum of rustic assemblage artworks.  I think deMeng's art makes a statement beyond that which it has been recognized for thus far by the "art world."

 
Text (c) SZing, 2012.  All photos and video in this blog entry are (c) Michael deMeng, used by written permission of the artist.

14 Reasons to Abandon Art

I am very psyched up by a phenomenon I came across this past week--an art movement called Abandoned Art.  It's been going on for a while and has been somewhat of a "guerrilla art" movement.  I participated some while living in Ohio and am again excited to do some more abandonment of art.  I have many pieces of incomplete artworks, many that are quite small (easy to carry around and leave behind.)  I think the biggest challenge is that people seem to be quite unobservant and/or very oblivious.  I left some artwork this weekend and people literally walked right by it and did not even see it.  Other artists have talked about the same phenomenon.  Some artwork in a tree (a current challenge for the month of July) was actually "ducked under" by someone texting on a phone and the person never even saw the art.  A case of it actually hitting her on the head...of course, there are theories by some artists that the artwork is intended for a specific someone to find and only that person can find it even though it is directly in the path of others. 

(c) SZing "Eye spy"  (oops, fuzzy picture of it tho)

What is the purpose you may ask of abandoning artwork?
1.  Share art
2.  Share beauty
3.  Create conversation about art
4.  Increase awareness of art in the general population/public
5.  A happy surprise for someone
6.  A great feeling for the artist to know someone has adopted artworks
7.  A thrill at abandoning the art in public locations
8.  A thrill to see the artwork has disappeared from public locations
9.  A mystery as to who made the art
10. A mystery as to who found the art
11.  Inspire others
12.  Inspire artists
13.  Free artwork
14.  It feels good to give things away and surprise people

Most abandoned art is done anonymously or under a pseudonym.  Here is a website dedicated to abandoned artworks.  What fun.  Now I am going to carry a handful of small artworks I can abandon at any time.  If you are an artist, have you abandoned any artwork lately?  If you aren't an artist, are you on the lookout for it?