Opportunities Knocking: Collaboration

"Let's you and I conjure together. You watch me and I'll watch you and I will show you how to show me how to show you how to do our marvelous human tricks together."

~Courtney Milne

I sell my work through a local art gallery called Gallery Q. They bugged me for months to put in a proposal to do an exhibit of my work. Truthfully, I balked at the idea that I would have enough of a body of work to fill a gallery show. {That might be also why I don't do more than one art show a year, coming in October.} I still can't believe that I filled up as much of this space as I did.

While working my shift at the Gallery Q one day I realized that I was vastly inspired by the artists whose work was hanging on the walls all around me. There were landscapes and still lifes. Watercolors and oil. There were sculptures and pottery. There was saturated hues and stark contrasts. This was the seed of inspiration for my show.

So I took the plunge in January and put in a proposal {and that is a nerve-wracking event in and of itself}. But it was contingent on getting the other artists to collaborate with me. And that took a lot of trust on my part. Trust that the Board of Directors would want to give me this space. Trust that the artists would be intrigued enough to surrender a piece of art for my show that was eight months away.

This was a huge leap of faith.

Any good collaboration starts out this way. You might not know what to expect from the person who approaches you and you don't know if you want to give up control. What if you don't like what they make in the collaboration? A great part of collaboration is learning to let go, to trust the other person, to believe that they will do great things in this partnership. I am well aware of collaborations that can go horribly wrong. I have been in them. But if you trust and believe, I think a collaboration can be a truly liberating growth experience.

There were seven local artists who gave me eleven pieces of their art to be inspired by. Then in turn I took a leap of faith and sought out bead artists from around the world and asked them to be inspired by the paintings and art that I chose. This was another instance of blind faith.

I did not tell them what to make for me - what color, shape, size, amount - because if I did, that would only be a straight commission and then they would give me exactly what I asked for. I was hoping that they would be inspired by this collaboration, to give me more than what I asked for and the fact that I put no limits on them led to some outstanding works of beady art. And if I was going to ask the local artists to collaborate with me and trust me, I had to do the same with the bead artists. After all, they are all tops in their respective mediums: lampwork glass from Kerry Bogert, Dora Schubert and Julianna Cannon; ceramic from Melanie Brooks, Nancy Schindler and Jennifer Heynen; polymer clay from Heather Powers, Kate Clawson, Lynn Davis and Christine Damm; enamel from Barbara Lewis; metal clay from Beth Hemmila; mixed media from Mary Jane Dodd. So I trusted them and their creative instincts. And what I got from these 13 artists was nothing short of brilliant.

These bead artists told me that this collaboration pushed them in new directions. Some examples:

• Kerry Bogert pushed through her doubt and came up with a new technique to add those bubbles to the hollows. Each took her 45 minutes to make.
• Dora Schubert normally doesn't take custom orders. But she was inspired by what I was doing and wanted to challenge herself. The results are breathtaking.
• Julianna Cannon made me five sets of beads based on the inspiration monoprint. Each different from the last.
• Heather Powers told me that she was seeking some new inspiration for a fall botanical motif and found it in the bittersweet vines.
• Mary Jane Dodd knows just how to pick the right words for any occasion and selected some very poetic ones for the two inspiration pieces she interpreted.
• Christine Damm tried out a new technique with inks to add depth the the color palettes of her clay beads.

The fact that I could inspire them is a wonder to me.

I thought that I would test out my mad skillz at videography and take you on a virtual tour of the Gallery Q and my exhibit and point out what I learned through this collaboration. {Note: I have quite a loud voice, but in this video I am very soft spoken. Must be my inner librarian coming out to play. Turn up the volume a tad!}

The best part about collaborations for me is the fact that by letting go you can fly to heights you may never have imagined. When you allow yourself to relinquish some of the control you have the capacity to transcend what you even thought possible, to do something better together than you could have done apart.

I would really love to hear your thoughts about collaborations.

Do you seek them out?

Or do you shy away from working with other artists?

Would you like the chance to do something like this in your own community?
What's stopping you?

If so, what art bead artists would you most like to collaborate with you?

Do tell!

How about a giveaway? For each comment recorded here - one comment per person please! - I will draw a random winner to receive a few of the art beads that were created just for me for this exhibit, some of which were made expressly for me and exist nowhere else in the world! {Deadline: August 25}

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Erin Prais-Hintz writes about all things that inspire her at Treasures Found::Inspiration Is Everywhere. Her jewelry designs are one-of-a-kind made one-at-a-time. She collects quotes and dust and invites you to send her your favorite (quote - not dust!) to enjoytheday@tesoritrovati.com.
Check out her brand spankin' new website at http://www.tesoritrovati.com/