A Community with HeART

This blog post has been years in the making. Years!

 

(Well, maybe I’m overstating things. Now you’ll expect something as huge and detailed as the Sistine Chapel ceiling mural and you’ll be let down and then I’ll feel insecure.)

I’ll rephrase: I’ve been hoarding collecting supplies for years. I started collecting cardboard egg cartons in late 2015. Have you noticed that cartons have different patterns embossed on the bottom? 

Taken almost 5 years ago, during the collecting stage...

Since we don’t eat tons of eggs in our house, I asked friends, family and neighbors for their empty egg cartons. And now it’s late 2020. Five years later the egg cartons are finally hatching! 

 

Why did it take so long? Who knows? I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with the cartons. I decided to save them and see which ideas floated to the surface. But months and then years passed. Life was so busy. Juggling the lives of three kiddos is my priority so the egg cartons remained paint-free. It’s embarrassing but at times I start projects, feeling excited! and inspired! and then I reach a stalemate or become distracted and the projects wait for years to be completed. But this summer I put my foot down and sternly lectured myself, saying You’re going to do something with these egg cartons. If you can’t find the time during lockdown, then there will never be a good time. (Getting tough with myself seemed to work!)

On Saturday, Oct. 3 I invited neighbors and a few friends to see the installation of my new art project, Metamorphosis. If you did not get to see the installation in person, I apologize. I was trying to keep the gathering relatively small, due to the pandemic. But I hope you enjoy the photos and the back story. This is thrilling to me because I have never had my own art show, and doing it this way feels right to me. This project is not about making money, and none of what I made was for sale. What’s important to me is creating something unique and bringing people together.

For years I have wanted to create a temporary community art project somewhere public. I envisioned asking strangers to help paint my creation. But given the pandemic, I decided not to go with strangers painting the egg cartons, even if they were wearing gloves and masks. So the project shifted a bit and I decided to ask friends to help instead. 

This is a community art project—in other words, many hands went into its making. The community aspect of this was important to me, so I didn’t want to give that up, but I did it safely and I hope you enjoy it. I provided gloves for my painters, who did their work at home, so there was literally no contact between us. I left supplies outside their door, they painted and then they left their creations out for me to pick up. I waited a number of days before touching their painted egg cartons. My painters knew their egg cartons would be cut up and made into a big community project. 

I pieced together my biggest butterfly by overlapping
and gluing 4-5 boxes.
The bricks are holding things in place while the glue dries.

Progress photo...

The back needed a little flair, of course...

This is what some of the egg cartons looked like once I picked them up from my painters:

Now I’m finally ready to share this community art piece. I hope it gives people a boost to see it. The egg cartons were free, and I had paint and brushes already. I did buy some more paint, brushes and adhesive but I wanted to see how much awesome art we could create without spending a lot.

I like it when people participate in art together and I believe that anyone can make art. Plus, the idea of reusing something very ordinary and turning it into something different always excites me. Projects that bring people together feel good—especially when the world seems extra divisive. 

Just laying out my options and figuring out a plan...

Originally, I considered egg cartons as just an interesting art material. Then, I realized that there were other meaningful aspects of this project. The recycled art aspect of this project appealed to me. I also liked that eggs carried a potential statement about how much we have in common as people. What is more universal than eggs? Every person on this planet started out as an egg. The cartons I’m using come from hens. Some eggs are pale green, and some are brown. Others are white, and some are speckled. Some are big. Some are small. But they’re all eggs. They’re the same inside. I believe that people are much more alike than we are different. If we look for similarities, we will find ways to connect rather than ways to keep separate.

 

For donating approximately 70 egg cartons and/or painting cartons, I’d like to thank my friends: Addie, Adrianna & kids, Ally, Amy, Angela, Anna & kids, Ashley, Chantal, Debby, Ella, Frank, Gladys, Haley, Jeanne C, Jeanne W, Ky, Lisa & kids, Mara, Margy, Mary Jane, MaryAnn, Meg, Melissa & kids, Mom, Olivia, Ray, Rechelle, Roxanne, Sam, Sue and Veronica. And thanks to Hubby for helping me reinforce and hang my giant butterfly.

 

For donating roughly 200 egg cartons I am sending thanks to the bakers at Hans and Harry’s Bakery in Bonita, CA. Your hearts are as sweet as your cakes. 

 

I did not use all 270 egg cartons, so you never know—they might pop up in another art project one of these days (or years).

 

Several ideas came to mind for this project but I settled on butterflies. They are colorful, cheerful and fun to paint. They go through a metamorphosis from caterpillars to butterflies. Like all of us, they change during their lifetime. I feel like I’m always changing and growing, so this project has a personal component. And who doesn’t love butterflies? They are helpers, pollinating the natural world.

 

This butterfly is a smaller one: roughly 1 foot by 1 foot.

A medium sized butterfly in the collection: roughly 2' by 18"

I made ten butterflies—four small, five medium and one giant butterfly. My largest butterfly is seven feet wide and six feet tall. I decided to debut my project at the park near our house. It is a natural setting for butterflies, and because I wanted to invite my painters and neighbors to see my project, the outdoor setting is safer than an indoor one.  

 

The look I asked my painters to create was a layered, textured look. Beyond that, they had freedom to interpret the assignment. I love art that has a free, playful look. I don’t want it to be too neat and polished. Expressive! Lively! Joyful! That’s the feel I wanted for this piece. I painted the back of the butterfly, too, in a Jackson Pollock style spatter. I highly recommend flinging paint. Very therapeutic. And please—you thought I’d ignore the back side? It’s PARTY in the front—and in the back, too.

 

A few days ago I was thinking about the common thread between this project and my Wacky Wednesday projects. (If you aren’t familiar, years ago I created a different outfit every Wednesday, always from unexpected materials. I’ve done 97 of them and I am slowly chipping away at 100 WWs.) Although I’m not wearing this project, taking everyday items and turning them into something new and imaginative embodies the same spirit as my Wacky Wednesday creations. 

This was not taken at the park. I decided to set up my installation in front of our house today,
just to entertain the dog walkers. I'm including this photo because you can see the brightness of the colors.

It's good to know a guy with a drone...

The back side of Ms. Butterfly. Looks like she's flying, right?

My art may not lead people to hold hands around the world, singing folk songs and finding peace. But art can be a colorful reminder to people that we can spend our time searching for how we are alike rather than believing that we don’t have much in common.  

This installation turned out exactly as I hoped it would. I’m so grateful! There was a breeze, no butterflies fell, and my painters were delighted to see what they’d helped create. There were unplanned benefits, too: a woman walked over from the tennis court while I was setting up my butterflies. She asked about them and I roped her into helping me attach one to a tree! She explained that the butterfly has special meaning to her because she is involved in an organization called Life Sharing, and butterflies are the organization’s symbol. This sweet lady told me that when her son passed, she donated his organs and tissue to those in need. Her sharing this story made my day, and I gave her my blog url so that she could read the story behind my butterflies. This kind of connection means a lot to me, and I love that this community art piece fostered a meaningful link today.

Thank you to the friends who painted egg cartons, which started as one thing and then metamorphosed into these butterflies. I’ve always known this, but now more than ever, I have to say: San Diego, you have a lot of heART!