For my birthday on Saturday night, Laura and I hosted what was officially the most ambitious party idea I've ever had... by a mile.
Last summer I came up with the idea to host a party where all the guests are left free to make art. This vision connects to everyone's childhood sense of unbridled creativity that is often squashed as you grow older, but at the same time also seeks to be classier and very much more Adult than your standard party where the top order is simply to drink.
With Laura moved into the upstairs apartment, we finally decided to put this idea into action, with the added bonus of a live fake-money auction for all of the art that everyone creates so that all the guests can go home with at least one piece of art of their own.
After two weeks of acquiring supplies from the Dollar Tree, Target, a girl on Craigslist, and the local high school, we spent all of Saturday setting up: workstations (tables, chairs, benches, an easel, etc.) both in our living room and kitchen as well as on our back porch (for painting), materials and media (paint, pencil, crayon, marker, charcoal, clay, collage, craft), and lighting (an array of household standing lamps, christmas lights, and clamped desk lamps from the CL girl).
Finally, from 7-11p, a group of ~15 people's imaginations went wild. At 11pm, we gave out $100 in fake money (shrunken copies of real USD with the President's face replaced by my portrait) to each person and began the auction. There had to have been at 15-20 items that at least a few folks were legitimately fighting for -- art pieces that people truly would like to see hung up on their walls.
I had high hopes that this would go well, but realistically the event exceeded all of my expectations. It was incredible to see the amount of truly unique and creative art that my friends -- all but one non-artists -- made in only 4 hours, a few of which could legitimately be found in a real art gallery. Not to mention the simpler fact that, for most of us, this was the first time as artists since grade school 10+ years ago.
We will definitely be doing this again soon. And this time, we have an incredible collection of art supplies ready to go.
Last summer I came up with the idea to host a party where all the guests are left free to make art. This vision connects to everyone's childhood sense of unbridled creativity that is often squashed as you grow older, but at the same time also seeks to be classier and very much more Adult than your standard party where the top order is simply to drink.
With Laura moved into the upstairs apartment, we finally decided to put this idea into action, with the added bonus of a live fake-money auction for all of the art that everyone creates so that all the guests can go home with at least one piece of art of their own.
After two weeks of acquiring supplies from the Dollar Tree, Target, a girl on Craigslist, and the local high school, we spent all of Saturday setting up: workstations (tables, chairs, benches, an easel, etc.) both in our living room and kitchen as well as on our back porch (for painting), materials and media (paint, pencil, crayon, marker, charcoal, clay, collage, craft), and lighting (an array of household standing lamps, christmas lights, and clamped desk lamps from the CL girl).
Finally, from 7-11p, a group of ~15 people's imaginations went wild. At 11pm, we gave out $100 in fake money (shrunken copies of real USD with the President's face replaced by my portrait) to each person and began the auction. There had to have been at 15-20 items that at least a few folks were legitimately fighting for -- art pieces that people truly would like to see hung up on their walls.
I had high hopes that this would go well, but realistically the event exceeded all of my expectations. It was incredible to see the amount of truly unique and creative art that my friends -- all but one non-artists -- made in only 4 hours, a few of which could legitimately be found in a real art gallery. Not to mention the simpler fact that, for most of us, this was the first time as artists since grade school 10+ years ago.
We will definitely be doing this again soon. And this time, we have an incredible collection of art supplies ready to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment