Guerilla Art 🎨
Adding little bits of happiness to the world
After I complete many of the activities on my 50 Things list that involve some kind of arts and crafts, I often don’t know what to do with the finished projects. Sometimes they turn into gifts, but if they didn’t turn out very well, that’s not an option. When I picked up a copy of The Guerrilla Art Kit by Keri Smith, I knew what I could do with some of my projects. Plus, the book gave me a few new great ideas to practice “guerrilla art.”
Guerrilla art is the practice of leaving art in unconventional spaces for the public to find. Similar to the “art” I placed around my town as described in last week’s newsletter, I tried to practice guerrilla art by placing a few small things where they were likely to get removed - either by nature, child, or an adult. I’ve left decorated shells on the beach mixed in with regular shells, and decorated rocks scattered along walking trails in local parks. A few days later, some of these small things are still where I put them and some are gone. In any event, I hope they made someone smile.
Guerilla Art offers many other ideas so I decided to try two simple ones. The first I tried was to create “art” with chalk in a public place. Although I felt a little silly making a childlike drawing in public like this, I hope someone liked it. I also like the idea of drawing with chalk. It’s not permanent so there is less of a chance (hopefully none) of it being considered graffiti.
The second I tried was the “Postcard Project.” In this activity, you leave a postcard in a place for others to find. The suggested postcard message as provided in The Guerilla Art Kit is shown below.
I didn’t have any postcards lying around so I created one from the Ebru project I did a few weeks ago. As mentioned above, I often don’t know what to do with the things I create but I love the idea of giving them away. My postcard was simply my Ebru art cut to size with the above words written on the back. I then left this postcard tucked behind a sign in a busy area at a train station. I’d love to hide somewhere and see what option people select (or, if the cleaning crew simply removes it and throws it in the trash 😕). There are so many great ideas in Keri Smith’s book, I will definitely continue to do more in the future.
Create a small piece of guerrilla art and leave it somewhere for others to find. It can be as simple as a doodle on a post-it note stuck to a wall inside a public place or something you take more time to create and leave with instructions for whoever finds it.
If you meet the challenge, please reply to this email or comment below and I will share your work with other subscribers in an upcoming issue.
Thanks so much for reading 50 Things! If you are not yet subscribed, it’s easy! Simply click the button below. Thanks!
