5x5: Chapter 8

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?

Kim Henkel

"I have brought joy, peace and comfort
I have brought silence, beauty. strength
to the very heart of my creator.
I have let in the light."

Cat Storey

"grow"

Robert Stockton

"I exist as a fragment of the everyday details of a life lived in another place or time."

Olivia King

"She often does not know the way. She stands alone in front of me waiting, sifting through memories looking for the still point of a fragment, a whisper, a color. Then she begins with her brush. because she must show you what lies beneath her soul."

Karen Isaacson

"What will she do next?"

Lindi Stevenson

"Art...in real life. Where have you been?"

Carrie Siems

"My artwork did have something to say... until I took the words right out of its mouth. Seriously, have you looked inside?"

Sandy Babb

"I extol the warmth of I the shimmering summer sun.... I express the purity of the atmosphere on full moonlit star studded nights... I express the verdure of the forests that cover the hills and hollows of her home both through color and symbol... I express the intricacy and detail with which she likes to create... I express creative freedom and artistic adventure where the inception of new ideas are formed and begin being worked out... I express the emerging artist who is slowly working her way out of  her insulated cocoon and testing her new found wings..."

Who has had the most impact on your creative life? 

Carol Henley

"Find A Project was the standard cure for almost everything... So... I learned to be very creative! Thanks Mom!"

Elizabeth Bunsen

"shadowlady"

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The next and last edition of 5x5 will be posted on Sunday, December 30th.