#iTOMB: In Obama's Shadow - Inauguration 2013

#iTOMB on the Mall in Washington D.C. 01.21.13

My thanks to those who helped get me to D.C. this week. It was a bit of a crazy time with all the buses being booked, but me and #iTOMB made it just fine and joined up with A Thousand Artists for the installation that brought art up through the people, as opposed to all the propaganda that was being trickled down from the top. It was a lovely day and we all loved it in our Tyvek 1000 Artists Uniforms and orange hats. A Thousand Artists turned out to be more like forty-something but it didn't matter. Thousands of attendees enjoyed our show and a great number painted their own dedication to the ceremonies. Art speaks louder than words.

Constituents painting the future.

Help Me Bring #iTOMB to D.C. For the Inauguration

The People Listening...Oil on Canvas 2009 by Andrew Purchin

Breaking news: I just received a note from a friend in San Francisco regarding the project "A Thousand Artists: Inauguration 2013" and I apologize for the lateness, but this is just the sort of thing that I would like iThink Outside My Box to be involved in, in the future. The trouble is, the future is tomorrow. Literally tomorrow. 

"Four years ago, Andrew Purchin set up his easel in the nation's capital to capture the crowd on Inauguration Day. He painted alone. When he returns Monday, he will be one artist among many. 'It was incredibly moving in 2009. It was the best day of my life,' said the 50-year-old Santa Cruz artist and psychotherapist. 'But it will be second best after this year's inauguration."  

The website for the event is here.

With no political agenda, not for nor against the President or any government, but much more in the spirit of allowing art to be a conduit through which people can express themselves publicly, the message of #iTOMB fits perfectly with Mr. Purchin's event.

"'The inauguration seems like the best place to magnify the importance of art, especially when the arts are so underfunded,' he said. 'If everyone had some sort of creative outlet, our society wouldn't be as crazy as it appears to be these days.'"

And so I would like to join in. Not unlike the crazy trip I made a few years ago to see Todd Rundgren in Amsterdam - leaving from Munich, this will be a rush - but I won't hitchhike this time:) Buses and trains will be available Saturday night and that will get me there for a full Sunday and beyond for the Inauguration on Monday.

The best way to help would be to send contributions via Western Union with David E. Carlson in New York City, marked as the recipient.The budget is $500 - there and back.

The second best way is to use the PayPal button in the sidebar - but that takes a few days and I wouldn't see the donation until after the event.

In either case, I would love your support to have #iTOMB attend "A Thousand Artists: Inauguration 2013". Things have been a little trying in the Big Apple this winter, and I know the project would benefit from a little airing out and quite possibly national exposure in advancing the people's creative voice in our national dialogue. God bless America.

BTW: I just heard from Andrew, the organizer and he's keen to have us:)

#iTOMB: Above It All

#iTOMB.Alessia (Canada) 10.20.12 from The High Line

Last fall a journalist had asked me to describe the High Line in three words.

"Above it all", I responded. And then another man focused further that what we were, were not a street artists, but aerial artists - because the work happens in an elevated space. I liked that. But it comes to mind that our painting itself is Above It All as well.

Running just 34 slides and counting, our first thematic curation, selects the images that have been made about The High Line itself. Lovely work. Above It All. Below.

#iTOMB & OWS: Where It All Began

Outside Trinity Church on Occupy's first anniversary 09.17.12

Nearly every day, people ask me where the idea for #iTOMB came from and I tell them it began as an activist platform for me at Occupy Wall Street in New York in 2011. Above I appear at Occupy's first anniversary, in front of Trinity Church last year with the anniversary poster to my left.

Below is an interview I did on that day with New Tang Dynasty TV in Taiwan. Pay special attention to the clips before my cameo as the police arrest and harass regular citizens for exercising their right to free speech. God bless America.

And God bless news outlets like this who show the world that our free country is not all it advertises itself to be. But we're working on that:)

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El Anatsui Live On The Highline

On the High Line I locate normally at 22nd St. After working in a number of places in the park last fall, iTOMB finally settled on this spot for its tranquility, space, lack of wind and general pleasantness for painting and creating. Then along came a lovely neighbor.

Enter El Anatsui and his installation Broken Bridge II that originally debuted in Paris in 2012. His largest installation to date of recycled press tin (otherwise called rubbish) and mirrors, the installation began last fall and was finished after Hurricane Sandy. I was fortunate to be able to meet him as he came to direct the finishing touches and it's funny; the work we do at iTOMB is so small and his so large, yet when two artists stand on the same plane and do what they do, the people who participate, either by viewing or creating, are affected in a similar way. Minds open. Art speaks. People listen. And when we're lucky, they sing along.

Installation view of Broken Bridge, 2012 Paris Triennial 2012, le Palais de Tokyo,Paris
April 20–August 26, 2012. Photo by Erik Lasalle

Thank you all for 2012

iTOMB Javiera (Chile) II 12.23.12

As the year softens to a close I look at the little painting above and all I can say is, "Thank you". Thank you all, for as long as I shall paint, I will never make a one like the one above. Look at the fire in that sky:-) And thank you Javiera. This one was made just days before Christmas and since then the rain has been bad and things just too cold to do any painting at all. So, this may well be the last great painting at iTOMB in 2012. And so be it. It has been a great year.

Since beginning as an activist vehicle for Occupy Wall Street, I Think Outside My Box (iTOMB) has seen an organic growth into a vehicle from which over 1200 artists have been inspired to etch their own thoughts on a little 3" X 3" canvas - all from a simple request, stated over and over by people watching me paint, that said "Hey, can I paint too?" And so iTOMB was born again - a place where everyone can have their shot at spontaneous self expression. A place where peace, and a little snippet of New York City skyway, can be a place of respite, of reflection and of creation. All wildly different. All widely original.

My thanks also to Ronnit Bendavid-Val and all the staff on The High Line - without who's gracious work and space, iTOMB would never have grown to the community project it has now become.

On Christmas Eve, all my painting supplies were stolen from the rolling mobile studio I use for iTOMB. In a bag, atop the cart, all paints, rulers, glues and all manner of gear with which we all use to paint were unceremoniously lifted by someone who thought they needed the stuff, or value, more than I - and maybe they did. But I doubt they will be put to use by so many for as much expression as I have seen this past fall at iTOMB. Should you wish to make a donation to help me replace supplies and to build an even more functional display space for the over 500 real artworks that have been entrusted to me, please find the PayPal button in the sidebar and help out with any amount.

And still I thank you. In 2013, I will work to make iTOMB a non-profit foundation and hope to see the concept spread from New York to as far as an idea will go. And with your help, I'm sure that's to infinity :-) Peace.

Introducing: BabyHarmony

BabyHarmony lets you voice over melodies for your children!

Recently I helped my friends Emmannuel and Isabelle in Munich introduce a new concept in music for children - this one, where parents can include their voices over pleasant melodies for their newborns or about-to-be-borns over the Internet. Introducing: BabyHarmony, the world's first Internet recording studio for parents and their kids - kind of like mom & dad's Karaoke for Mozart kids:)

I think it's a very big idea and this is just the Beta stage. I can easily see parents singing all sorts of songs for their children as this concept matures. Take a look at their site and make a song if you like. With all the kids we have painting at iTOMB, I thought it was fitting here for the parents to check out yet another interactivist format that let's you create that special atmosphere. Roll over Beethoven:)

"What do I get if I win?"

iTOMB. Tala (Syria) 11.24.12  (not the girl described below)

"What do I get if I win?", the little girl asked as she sat down, eagerly, to paint her little square. "Well, nothing", I said laughing, "It's not a competition." - as her father looked reassuringly at me, smiling warmly as well at my answer. 

Yet so goes the state of education in America and dare I say, much of the rest of the world that I have seen - including, of course, Asia. Kids, especially the more well to do ones, are raised as sort of show ponies so that the elements of whatever might be taught to them are much less important than what might be gained by getting the correct answers on a series of tests that will eventually get them into the right university where they will then study the right subjects and get the right answers to the right questions to get the right job - or husband or wife:( - making students so deathly afraid to fail at even the smallest task.

And that's what I love about art. There are no "right" answers. And for that matter, there are no wrong ones either. At iTOMB the first priority had better be "fun" and after that, I'm perfectly pleased to let the cards fall where they may as far as whether people think works are good or bad or inconsequential.

At iTOMB I'm fairly famous for saying two things as people approach and decide to paint or not. #1) "There's no skill assessment here" and #2) "I give absolutely NO instruction". And with those two sentiments, I believe we begin to discover what makes all the work as endearing as it is. 

In this environment, I try as best I can, to offer total freedom as it seems to be what many if not all the painters seem to crave - if even for the short time it takes to fill a 3" X 3" cardboard square. Maybe I should have said that everybody wins - because they get to do whatever they want for once in their life. A lesson that just might make them want a little more of that.

#iTOMB and NEST+m: New York's Premier K-12 Public School for gifted and Talented Students

iTOMB - NEST+m, Anon 10.27.12

"Amor et reverentia pro scientia (love and respect for knowledge): It is our hope that every student works and lives by these words. - NEST+m is a New York City Department of Education city-wide coeducational school for Gifted & Talented students, grades K to 12. We offer an academically challenging curriculum designed to produce young scholars who are distinguished by their intellectual capabilities, communication skills, capacity for leadership, ethical values, and readiness to contribute to the betterment of the world at large. We are the only public Gifted & Talented school in New York City in which students can move seamlessly from kindergarten through 12th grade - NEST+m is committed to providing not just an outstanding academic education for all our students, but to creating programs that support their growth as scholars, artists, and citizens of the world. We aim to teach outstanding communication skills, whether through one of the five world languages that we offer, the required computer courses, our workshop model of reading and writing, or an expanded vocabulary in physics."

And so reads the website of NEST+m. On October 27th, #iTOMB was pleased to be a guest at the school bringing inspiration, freedom of thought and a boatload of cardboard and paint for student expression. As one iTOMB painter said, "There are fewer and fewer opportunities for random self expression" - and so I continue to believe that that's what makes the #iTOMB Interactivist experience continue to work - to provide an open opportunity, an open book, the breathing room to exhale with a brush and inhale with the spirit of new experience.

I look forward to more schools in the future. If you're in education and would like to know more about school programs, shoot me a mail. And enjoy the fine work below.
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#iTOMB: The Little "Gates"?

#iTOMB.Jackie (9) 09.22.12

My apologies the last few weeks all. Things became hurricane based for a week with no power and the High Line closed and they have been slow to return. Our collection of small paintings continues to grow and is now nearing 1000. Who knew? As thankful as I am to all the painters out there, I am more thankful to you for just making me feel like a king on a daily basis. Often I have said, that never have I had a job where people thank me for what I'm doing all day. My days at #iTOMB are truly gratifying because of all of your spirits.

A few days ago, while I was packing up, a woman named Britte (pronounced BriTa) approached, quite deliberately and said, with a great smile, "I cant WAIT, to see what you do with all these paintings!" Returning the smile I acknowledged and then admitted to her that I didn't quite know what to do with them. Galleries are for selling art, and museums seem almost overwhelmed with submissions as is the High Line Art staff who seem not to see what we're doing every day in the shadow of an El Anatsui installation that is indeed captivating but certainly no more captivating by the quality, diversity and style that #iTOMB painters are pulling off every day. Devoid of pretension, not for sale and ever evolving, the #iTOMB cannon continues to amaze and impress even the most jaded of New York art patrons. And it certainly has impressed Britte.

Christo: The Gates

You know, she said to me, "It recalls to me The Gates", a massive art installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in Central Park in 2005. And taken aback, I said, "What? How? Why?", fully well understanding the cost, effort, time and stature of Christo's work in New York not so many years ago. "It's about the experience", she said. "Have you noticed the joy with which people take in your work, this experience, this participation, this art? It's the same as people wondered and wandered through the gates", like it was something that wasn't supposed to be there but is anyway - so it is partaken as a gift. I smiled and told her I knew it was an extremely large compliment, because it was. So first, a comparison to Paul Klee and now this. And I realize we are all creating something - something together. And where it goes, nobody knows. I think that's very fair. Very fair and reasonable - an interactivist experience.