What is Arting?

When we decided to start this blog, we knew the first thing we had to do was explain what arting is to us, why we love it and how to do it.  

The What

At its most basic, arting is working together to choose art pieces, looking at them side by side in what we call a mash-up, then talking about them.  Through those conversations, we entered into new understandings of the art, ourselves and the worlds we share.

The Why

We started arting once a week for fun and adventure during the pandemic. We stayed with it because it brings continuous adventure and play into our lives and keeps us learning about art and ourselves.

The How

We pulled the guidelines we used to help you get started. Use them to create your own art adventure. Adapt it or be inspired to develop your own process.

1. Choose compatible collaborator (s) whose company you enjoy.  Before starting, discuss what interests and skills you bring to the table that you can use to create your process. They can range from knowledge and experience with art, vocabulary for color and design, to computer ease, to openness and sustainable curiosity and creativity.
2. Not ready to build your own process, we invite you to join us. Use the comment section on the blog. Share art with us on Pinterest or art and thoughts on Instagram (please be cognizant of copyright guidelines.)
3. Discuss goals and outcomes each person seeks, refreshing them as experience and time moves forward.
4. Agree on timing for regular online meetings for trust building and mutual growth. Be flexible about the schedule as need be.
5. Create the mash-ups between meetings, which will require: 1) Decide how many art mash-ups you will discuss weekly.  We used three which requires six pieces of art. Each of us chose three.  We used powerpoint to put them together, so we created three slides weekly. 2) One person chooses the first set of art pieces, then sends them to the other person who makes their selection. There are no limits here. We used everything-from the masters to graphic artists to movie clips to photos of performance artists to comics. Our goal was to look at art far and wide – and include cultures, countries and types. See below for two examples – one with just art, and one where we added poetry to the discussion.
6. Once you get comfortable with the process, change it.  Find new ideas such as adding poetry to the art mashups, pick one artist for a deep dive, compare two countries, focus on political messages, anything that helps you refresh the process regularly to keep it fun. Be open to playing with different approaches, including other people, doing show and tell with others for mutual refreshment and learning.
7. Be aware of copyright issues and fair use if you want to use your products and processes for public and/or commercial purposes.
8. Have fun!
9. As you wish, include your own art.

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