ArtAwake 2011

Proud mama here. For two years now, my son is a co-director of this amazing event in Rochester NY! The concept of ArtAwake, now in its 4th year, is to find an abandoned or unused urban space and bring it to life for a day with music and arts (the event is put on by college students). They've been planning for a year, and today was the big day. My husband and I spent over 5 hours there, listening to an assortment of live music performances, looking at a broad variety of artwork, participating in interactive art experiences, mingling with people of all ages, eating cupcakes, tasting wine...

One interactive exhibit consists of people dressed in white, with assorted paints and brushes for those who pass by. *I admit I have no idea what the person dressed in fairy-garb is doing there, though she (and a male counterpart) were at the event all day and evening. Anyhow, I had fun with painting the people last year, and again this year, painting a face, some lizards, and a little bit of a dragon. The gal in charge of this exhibit remembered me from last year! Note that I was NOT responsible for getting one of the models to lie on the floor or for pouring whole cups of paint on her. The other model pictured is the one I painted.

Here's my son Ben and "Art"

The guy on the left painted people's portraits, one after another, all day, for free. The man on the right was from the mbira quartet Mbira dzeMugomo Guru.

Then there was an opportunity to complete a spontaneous 6" work of art for a show coming later this spring. This is my contribution.

Some of my favorite art pieces, above and below-

Altered book below :Oregon Trail

The space used was a former bank. The vault was used as a bar. I like the door.

Here's a tiny sampling of the music performances (2 stages, 20 different performing groups, including rock, classical chamber music, folk, percussion groups, etc):

Oh my gosh, these guys were AMAZING!!!