The OCH Art Market: A Huge Success Story!

What an amazing first event Project Create had yesterday. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth and supported us. Our booth had painting supplies for art market customers to paint their own artworks for FREE!!!

We had 14 paintings created, and more importantly, 14 NEW ARTISTS!!! The whole point of Project Create is to make more people explore their creative selves…and we succeeded 14 times! On top of that, we raised over $100 in donations. WHAT A GREAT DAY!

Check out some of our pictures from the day:

Project Create Booth

First Project Create Customers!!!

New Young Artists!

First Dollar Raised From Project Create Services!!!

“First Time Painting In Years”

Masterpieces

Man Cat – A Project Create Mascot!

Family Day Out – Perfect Time To Make Art!

Painting Party

5 Brand New Happy Artists

A New Prodigy In Town!

Busy Makin’ Art

Is He Humming? Yes, He Is!!!

Creative Creature!

Having A Great Time At The Project Create Free Painting Booth!

The Art Market was also a great success for meeting new people and making some great networking connections (even some that may lead to a permanent space for Project Create to teach classes!!!). You can be sure to see Project Create at more OCH Art Market events, as well as other markets around the city. We will keep you updated on all of our events, and until then, don’t forget to like us on Facebook and share our page with your friends!

To help us raise the money for our own studio, you can DONATE here.

The Good Fight: Art Abandonment, A New Form of Paying It Forward

As I have said before, it is always great to find other people fighting the good fight. Check out this great find by our creative cousin over at Free Penny Press (the founder of Take It To The Street Poetry):

 

Art Abandonment= Great Idea

Many of you may know of the Poetry/Art gig that I run, “take-it-to-the-street-poetry”. I collect, edit & publish poetry zines that are printed off by people around the globe to be given away for free. I love the concept of sharing words with others at no cost to either person.

I have found our sister group, the “Art Abandonment” organization. Same premise, make some art and then take it out into your town or wherever and leave it for some unsuspecting person to find. How wonderful is that to happen upon a piece of art and it is yours, for FREE. How wonderful to be the artist freely sharing their art, for FREE.

The organizer of this group, Michael deMeng has a few thoughts about why he feels this group is important:

“I think it’s important to be able let one’s art live a life beyond its creator. I love imagining what becomes of my art after it is gone…whether given or sold.
Some folks can’t seem to let go of their work…even when they sell it.
This is a great way to learn to move on.
It’s also a way sharing work with an unsuspecting patron. In this day and age when money is tight, this is a way of encouraging folks to stay involved in the arts.
This is good for the soul. A random kind act. You’ll find it’s a bit addictive…and fun.”

If you are an artist, budding artist or simply someone that’s likes to doodle, I encourage you to get involved with this group and let’s help keep Art alive in our world.

http://michaeldemeng.typepad.com/art_abandonment/2012/06/art-abandonment.html

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArtAbandonment/ (This is an “Open to the Public” group, so join)

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Project Create strongly encourages artists from all walks of life to partake in Art Abandonment! What do you think?

Like Project Create On Facebook!

Remember that time when your parents asked you to be their friend on Facebook? So awkward, right? They practically had to beg you to accept their friendship.

Well, begging isn’t just for parents! Project Create has finally launched its Facebook page and I am BEGGING (read: politely asking) you to Like us.

Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-Create/304465866286550

Make sure to leave some comments and share the word with all of your friends (especially your parents!!!).

Project Create Is In A $500 Grant Challenge – Vote For Us!!!

Project Create has come quite a far way from being just an idea. We have accumulated over 300 followers, racked up over 3000 views, and held a contest for what can only be described as the Best Logo Ever. But Project Create needs to start doing something very, very, very important: RAISE MONEY!!!

Unfortunately, we are not yet accepting donations because we have not achieved our 501(c)(3) status, and donations would not yet be tax deductible (refer to my previous post on how to become a nonprofit). I will say that we have been in deep discussion with an amazing nonprofit that might take us on as a fiscal sponsor (I even flew down to New Orleans and met with their Board of Directors!), and hopefully achieving 501(c)(3) status will just be around the corner.

Until that time, we are doing everything we can to get our name out there and find other fundraising opportunities. One of those opportunities is the GOODMaker Art Everyday Grant. GOOD is offering a $500 grant to an individual or organization with an innovative plan for bringing the visual arts to their community.

I think we can all safely agree that Project Create falls into that category.  And so, Project Create is one of the many amazing ideas to be listed in the GOODMaker Challenge, but GOOD will only award the $500 (and all of the glory) to the one idea with the greatest amount of votes.

So now it is up to YOU to help us win the award!!! What can you do, you ask?

1. First, you can click here to go to our contest page and vote for us! Leave lots of comments too. People like to see comments.
2. Second, you can spread the word BIG TIME to all of your friends and family (Facebook, Twitter, Email, ANYTHING HELPS!). Share our link: http://arteveryday.maker.good.is/projects/projectcreatenola.
3. Make some art (true this won’t help us win the contest, but it will help you be AWESOME).

Voting is open from March 22 – 30. Please vote for us! This money, and the recognition, will go a long way in allowing us to opening our doors. Think of the children!

The March Art March: GOOD Magazine’s 30-Day Challenge

Art is good, and everybody knows it. But taking time out to create art during a busy work week can be difficult. Trust me, I can sympathize. I work an average of 50 hours a week and I am currently struggling to find time teach myself how to paper mache a life size model of Dolly Parton.

Life goals aside, being creative doesn’t have to be a gigantic task. We can be creative every day with simple actions: doodling, trying a new recipe, sewing on a button, dressing up your dogs in business suits, etc.. The point is, most people don’t realize how easy it is to add a little artistic spice to their daily soup. That’s why I get so excited to see other people make the effort to be more artistic every day.

Check out this challenge from Senior Editor Cord Jefferson and Designer Trevor Burke of online magazine GOOD. The challenge is to be creative 31 times in 30 days with simple tasks. What’s amazing is that their 31 challenges are all things you probably want to do anyways (i.e. go to a museum, frame a picture, and even break something!!!!).

So I say its time to stand up for yourselves and GET CREATIVE. Do you have what it takes??? Be sure to check off your list and let us know about your successes! We would love to see pictures of your creations.

Thanks to my artistic cousin, invadingnola, for sharing this with us!

Today’s thought………………………….

Some inspiring words to start off the day (courtesy of pangealtd)

PANGAEA LTD by fairapplecelt

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Daily Art Project: Doodle A Day

If Project Create hopes to accomplish anything, its to show you that anyone can be artistic at any time. Check out this inspiring idea from the creative mind over at Mindless Babble:

I recently saw this thing called the 365 project in which someone is suppose to take one picture a day for a whole year.  I got interested in this project but me not being one for taking pictures I decided to do my own version of the project.

Instead of taking one picture a day I will produce one doodle a day.  I’m not the greatest artist in the world, it’s just something I used to do a lot as a kid that I want to reconnect with. I’m also interested to see if my art will improve at all at the end of these 365 days.

Since I will be drawing something new each day I need a subject matter, and what better subject to use other than my favorite video game series Mega Man.  So for the next 365 days I’ll be drawing a new character from the classic Mega Man series and once that’s done I’ll most likely move on to other video game related things.

So let the doodles begin!!!

So how about it? Think you can doodle once a day for an entire year? If you work in an office, you probably do it already, so you might as well make a game of it. So grab a pen and a piece of paper and doodle away!

Please feel free to share your doodles with Project Create. We would love to see what you come up with.