5x5: Chapter 1

I may be the author of The Pulse of Mixed Media but the true, creative force behind my book is the group of artists who generously shared their secrets and passions and, of course, their art. It was important to me that this book be representative of our entire artistic community, but the total number of contributors I could include was limited by the number of pages in the book. Not wanting to be contained by page numbers, I decided that the Internet was the perfect vehicle to extend the book and be able to include more of the community. With this in mind, the 5x5 Pulse Project was born.

The Pulse of Mixed Media presented the results of a survey in which contributing artists were asked questions that they had to answer with words or provided with prompts that they had to respond to by creating art. These ideas were combined in the 5x5 Pulse Project. I put out an open call for artists to submit artwork created in response to one or more of the following questions that were part of the original book:

1. If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

2. Who has had the most impact on your creative life?

3. What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Submitting artists could chose 1, 2, or all 3 of the questions and respond to each by creating artwork in any medium in the form of a 5" x 5" square. They were asked to include words as a part of their artwork as well. There was a tremendous response to this call and I will be posting each submission every Sunday throughout the months of November and December. 

The 5x5 project is also being featured in a ten-page spread in the November/December 2012 issue of Somerset Studio, now available in stores and online here.

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If your artwork could talk, what would it say?

Jayne A. Harnett-Hargrove

"I hear it loud and clear. My work lives as thoughts. I have captured and collected these thoughts over the years, categorizing and comparing, taking notes on the notes. The artwork questions me... If you finally manifested the art perfect, exactly What you want, if you EVER you got it perfect, Would you be afraid to try again? I pin the thought-captives down with colorful glass-head pins, spread open on the corkboard in a seized parade, and I notice that some of them still twitch."

Leslie Rosenberg

"You Gotta Have Heart. I truly put my heart into everything I do - whether literally or just by caring about every detail of every piece."

Jill Zaheer

"You know we're a team - whatever you do is your voice and so that's my voice as well! Will Love You Always! Love YOU! xxoo Love, Your Artwork."

Juana Almaguer

"Division is the process of finding, reduction us the process of changing, Progression."

Janine Whitling

"The one common thing all artwork has is that it holds an imprint of the artist. No matter where an artist is in their life that energy can be reflected in the art they produce. When I create artworks I hold the energy of love first in a gentle stillness, and from this stillness comes the impulse to make the art. In this energy of love my soul can be reflected, which can then speak to another soul. So if you listen carefully you will see your reflection, you will feel your own divine soul through the energetic imprint of mine."

Joyce Adomaitis

"My answer is represented in a small metal embellishment - dream. I continually think and sometimes actually dream about what I will create, how it will look and what it means to me. I placed a hand on this piece to signify that I am always reaching and stretching my artistic 'arm'... it reaches for the sky and there is not limit."

LorriMarie Jenkins

"never get so grown up that you forget how to fly... Fly baby fly!"

Will Ashford

"Look for art and it will appear. I have always lived by these words. Even before I found them."

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What is one thing you have never shared with the creative community?

Darlene K. Campbell

"I let unfinished paintings sit for years because I held back the passion & emotion that needed expressed on the canvas."

Cindy Jones Lantier

"Sometimes I feel like a fraud."

Holly Dean

"I am afraid of growing old... of not being able to create my art."

Loryn Spangler-Jones

"abused girl"

Debra Eck

"I do these page meditations everyday in the studio, sometimes instead of being random they seem to bring me important messages from the universe about my work. These 5x5 features a selection of those messages - so my 'secret' is that none of my work is really 'mine' - it floats up out of the cosmic soup/the collective unconscious (whatever you like to call it) and arrives through my hands. The obsessive attention to detail however is all mine."

Elizabeth Bunsen

"fear (not)"

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The next edition of 5x5 will be posted on Sunday, November 11th.