Introducing the sm@rt cart - a better urban utility vehicle!

The sm@rt cart is an urban utility vehicle made from repurposed materials. Designed in Harlem, New York City, the sm@rt handles shopping, laundry and utility tasks much more efficiently and sturdily than standard carts. Using completely repurposed materials - shopping cart baskets married to baby stroller frames - the sm@rt carries hundreds of pounds effortlessly and fits store aisles, elevators and subways with ease.

Originally designed to carry the iThinkOutsideMyBox project and manufactured in Harlem, USA, the sm@rt also helps by not only repurposing discarded materials and providing work to those who need it, but by providing a superior service vehicle to you - creating a win/win for all.

sm@rt carts are all custom made and can be configured to any requirements.

Example: If you are a photographer needing a custom carrying solution for street work, work panels, drawers, Mac video viewing portal, etc, we can manufacture to your specs. For street sales, service (plumbing, electrical, etc.) sm@art carts travel in streets, subways, trains and trucks with ease.

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#iThinkOutsideMyBox operates as a non-profit providing a creative think tank, public arts programmes and supporting the under-employed through sm@rt carts. Your donations keep us doing well. Thank you:)

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Let us know how we can design a solution for your future:) See our Etsy shop for all designs.

#iTOMB: The Magic Of...

And that's how it goes. For all the people who have never seen our setup, or who don't know that all their thinking outside their relative boxes comes from, well, a box. Here's how it works.

The entire structure you see in the end is a result of the dimensions in which my panels come pre-cut, then cut again and the size in which they need to fit for travel. "Form follows function", as Mies van der Rohe said.

There's a lot of magic in this box.

#iTOMB Photo: Steven Rosen 09.14.13

#iTOMB - "It's so New York"

#iTOMB Jan (Australia) 09.06.13

As comments go, we hear a lot. And a lot the same, or similar. For the life of the I Think Outside My Box project, the most common is, "Thank you. Thank you for doing what you are doing" - as if I have uncovered some insatiable thirst for people to simply unhinge, take a break, be free, say what they want - and leave in peace. And just by painting. In a beautiful park. Who knew?

Frankly, this blows me away. Are we such a repressed society that we are now not accustomed to expressing ourselves, either through speech or art or song or - uh, maybe sex? - that a small bit of painting becomes respite in such their cruel world?

One day I found a $100 bill tucked in an obscure place in the exhibit with the note, "Thank you" written on it. Even when I'm not paying attention, or just generally managing the crowd, people slip me tens and twenties and say the same - they thank me.

And for what? I'm nothing in their lives. I'm just some guy on the street (ok, an elevated street)  - and no, I'm not getting rich off this. In too many financial ways, I am poorer for it.

But I can't deny the reality that, in the execution of this community endeavor, I never have a bad day.

Never. And never does it seem, that anyone else does either. And if I were looking for financial reward, I'm smart enough to know that getting your paintbox out and hitting the streets, probably isn't the formula that's going to shoot me over the top of the New York socio/cultural/career,  make-an-f-load-of-money scene anyway. But that isn't the point. So what is?

"Thank you. Thank you for doing what you are doing"

"It's so New York"

"What a great idea"

"How Charles and Rae Eames"

"Did anybody ever tell you, you look like David Bowie?"

"Wow, I needed that - that's the most peace I've had all week"

"I've never seen anything like this in the world"


That's the point. It's so New York.

#iTOMB: Redefining the Concept of Public Art

#iTOMB Maribell 04.08.13

I have been working in the venue of public art for two years now in New York - first as a painter of protest signs  at Occupy Wall Street, nearly two years ago, but more currently as the creator/curator and chief protagonist of the I Think Outside My Box (#iTOMB) project  on The High Line in New York - and different from the idea that the government will take our tax money and decide what kind of art "the public" will get, we simply get the public to make art, and then serve it up to - you guessed it - the public.

How simple is that? How American is that?

So it seems the delineation between public art, art that our government says you should experience - and art that we, the public make is a real line of demarcation. A visitor last week to #iTOMB remarked, "Wow, a new definition of public art!", upon seeing the art created by a random populace. And even I didn't see it as that in the beginning - but that it has become. Because, to my knowledge, no government or publicly supported entity really encourages you to communicate freely with no strings attached. But we do.

At #iTOMB, we are simply in the non-profit business of facilitating the citizens at large to make art, to exercise their First Amendment rights - to express whatever they like - without censorship. Just like America was envisioned by our founding fathers - without the hundreds of millions of dollars our administrators set aside for supposed public art projects. 

So what should "Public Art" be? The best iteration I've seen in New York recently would have been "The Gates" in Central Park, created by Christo and Jeanne Claude - an installation that actually required the public to interact to make it work. And it worked - albeit for too short a time. So in my best-of-what-could-be definition of public art, I would like public art to be interactive - to not just provide a viewing experience or something that can be easily sponged up by the iPhone/iPad paparazzi, but to be an involvement that requires a response - a two way communication. And I have been told that we and The Gates are similar. One woman called us "The Little Gates". 

Nice.

But the other day another woman railed that she didn't like The High Line at all - for not serving neighborhood needs and turning her home into a tourist attraction. "I thought this was going to be a neighborhood park". she said. "But it's turned into a tourist trap and that pisses me off", she said "I liked it better the old way - now all they care about is fundraising".

And although I don't agree with her, I can see her idea. Now things are being spit-shined to such a degree (and escalating real estate values) that it's losing it's New York-ness - its neighborhood feel.

So how do you bring that back - or keep what was good, depending on your POV. How do you foster community involvement amidst an urban renaissance?

In a recent conversation on community creative encouragement I said, "You can dictate things, you can plan things, or you can nurture things", the question is, how comfortable can you be with understanding that sometimes people don't do what you legislate or organise - but what they do do, naturally, is actually a communication on the affirmative in response to being encouraged. Can you be flexible enough to allow that? Can you encourage and celebrate happy accidents - through the trials it takes to create them?

Leo Burnett, founder of one of the world's most successful advertising agencies, The Leo Burnett Company (Marlboro Man, Tony the Tiger, Keebler Elves, Jolly Green Giant, Pillsbury Dough Boy, etc.) said two things that still ring true for me. "You cannot sell a man something he does not wish to buy." and, "Any idiot can change an idea, but it takes a real genius to keep his hands off a good one."

So it seems that everyone in the business of dealing with public art needs to have an even throttle on what to let go, and what to let grow - and in the case of the High Line, a park that grew up upon an old bit of governmental infrastructure, that seems simple. But simple it's not. Before, you had nature as the boss - now you have  humans. And humans are much less predictable than nature.

Colin Huggins, Piano and Orchestra - Washington Square Park 08.16.13

Last Sunday night I had the pleasure of hearing Colin Huggins at grand piano backed by a ten piece orchestra in Washington Square Park at 10pm. And no, this wasn't planned by a conservancy, nor given any millions by the city to promote the arts. This was public art, created by artists and managed by artists for an adoring crowd - and it was lovely - a true representation of public art and what we strive to grow at #iTOMB as well.

If you have enjoyed your public art experience at #iTOMB, please send a note to the High Line and let them know. We'll just Keep Calm and Carry On:)

The World's Largest Collection of Handpainted Works (#iTOMB) Now Lives on The High Line

When you have 500, that's a lot. And a thousand is a lot more. But now, with our first anniversary approaching in September, the iThinkOutsideMyBox project is nearing 5000 individual painted works - and 90 some-odd % of those have been made on The High Line in New York City, an old elevated railway, converted to a city park and, in a little corner - a pop-up public painting studio:)

 #iTOMB Painted by a visitor identified only as "U" 08.12.13

And still, we don't have a day where people don't tell me how much they loved the experience, or found relaxation, or a moment alone, or a larger peace - or always something good. It's a fairly amazing project. But am I amazed by the numbers? I don't think so - because I don't think that quantity matters here. What seems to matter to virtually everyone who participates, is some aspect of quality. Quality of life I believe. And that's an awfully hard metric to quantify. So we don't try to.

But if you have visited the #iTOMB project and would like to pass on a nice word (or not:-) or encourage a public exhibition of the work we've collected, please do send The High Line an email, or maybe a good old fashioned snail-mail:) here > Friends of the High Line, 529 West 20th Street, Suite 8W, New York, NY 10011 - Ph: (212) 206-9922  Fax: (212) 206-9118 Email : info@thehighline.org 

As Performers Continue to be Arrested, #iTOMB Keeps Calm and Carries On:)

Soviet Union c. 1975: A violinist was arrested in the subway last week for, you didn't guess it,  playing a violin. And yes, those of us old enough to remember what we were told about that evil Soviet empire at the time might find that odd, but that was then, and this is now - in America, nonetheless.

How's that New World Order workin' out for us?

But Matthew Christian, the violinist and staunch advocate of Buskers Rights,  is not alone. All over the city, musicians, performers and artists are being summonsed, arrested and harassed for their exercise of their, and your, First Amendment rights. And if you don't think that really matters to you, read on.

#iTOMB Tim Purdue Skateboard (PathOfLife) 07.26.13

Last Friday on the High Line, my regular spot for over one year, I painted this skateboard for a really nice guy named Tim, whilst under the watchful eye of Captain Rowan of the NYC Park Enforcement Police (PEP) for roughly two hours. And yes, for free - which was my offer to Tim from the start.

But the law in NYC parks regarding artists and performers, over the past few months, has changed - very different from the law on streets or in the subways.

It is  now illegal to take any money in CP, Union Square, The High Line or Battery Park (unless in an already taken designated spot) for any expressive endeavor - in a  public space, a space that we all own - in this capitalist country, a country that revolted against British rule over double taxation (and wearing truly silly red uniforms:).

Performers, and facilitators like myself, in NYC parks above, are now, not allowed to accept money for exercising their First Amendment rights - even if people enjoy it :-?

#iTOMB Girls At Work 07.26.13

So with my brush in hand, I listened to Captain Rowan explain all the ways in which he could bust (harass) me, even for promoting art and expression for free - and it was clear that if I didn't leave, he would simply make up a reason to bust me. And with my previous unlawful arrest experience in this trade, I packed up, and went home. Reluctantly.

And it wasn't your first amendment rights being violated, was it? Only another's. But you could just wait until the NSA is using your last cellphone message against you in your trial for speaking your mind, couldn't you?

Please support your local artist and do sign the petition supporting artist's rights here.

To support #iTOMB outside the parks, we have just launched the #iThinkOutsideMyBox product store online. Here you can find designs that help support the cause: To make sure you can say whatever you want, even when big brother says you can't:) Our first item is Tim's skateboard design, entitled: PathOfLife.

Keep Calm and Carry On:)

#iTOMB Anon 07.27.13

"I Think Outside My Box" Goes Corporate - In a Good Way:-)

As a silhouette on screen I speak to an inconvenient truth.

The continued matriculation of the I Think Outside My Box (iTOMB) project finds me at as much of a surprise as those who see and experience it for the first time - and I am caused to reflect on its humble beginnings as just a cardboard box in a pile of cardboard at Occupy Wall street and think about how it has grown from a pretty good 'one line joke' activist vehicle (a man sitting in a box that says "I Think Outside My Box") to a full blown creative platform for thousands upon thousands of people to freely express themselves through just cardboard, acrylic paint and simple brushes.

On Tuesday, 12 June, I was proud to host the concept in Midtown Manhattan at what is arguably, "the largest worldwide advertising agency by global footprint",according to Adbrands.net, and the subject of my talk was about "Starting from scratch". 

"What if you had to throw away, all the corporate crowns of creativity in the advertising business (the awards, the bonus', the corner office, etc.), and begin again? What would you do?", I was asked.

And my answer has already played out. I'd think outside my box. But on this particular day, my audience was a group of top agency creatives who's perch at the top of an industry could be in jeopardy if they don't rethink themselves and their approach to their businesses quite seriously. And who better to enlighten them, than a man who's been in their position before - and in some cases, in a better position than they.

For those who don't know, I didn't begin my creative career in a box. I began it as a sign painter and journalist as I worked my way through college in both trades finally graduating with a degree in Corporate Communications (concentration: Graphic Design) and a minor in Journalism. And then moving on to become a VP at a top 3 global agency and founder of the first 100% foreign invested agency in Korea.

But on this day, I needed to be just a man, a man stripped of most of what my audience might have considered valuable and brought to his bare credentials - the claim that he was indeed "creative".

To do this, I decided that the worst way would have been to walk into a room and talk about it. Because that's boring and these people wouldn't care. No, for this we needed a device, a suspension of disbelief, a bit of threatre - some mystery, a MacGuffin, if you will - decidedly not a trick, but a way to hold interest that would allow me to get through a seemingly complex story in an unencumbered and convincing way - wanting them to know in the end, who the real man behind the story was.

So thus came the silhouette. A backlit figure, actually behind a screen (with the projector behind me), that could speak with his audience in realtime, whilst controlling a Powerpoint presentation that carried all the visuals to illustrate the live narration and provide a foil I could interact with throughout the presentation. Example: As a live silhouette, I could actually point to pictures of on the screen or even look at myself on the screen, or other images, so bringing one's standard PPT alive in a way that even I hadn't seen before. And since there was no rehearsal, the toys I had provided myself by creation of the live silhouette on live screen, were only made apparent as I worked through the show.

And trust me, it was great fun. Great, great fun. By bringing iTOMB alive in this way I caused the participants to imagine, not only the career and frame of mind that caused me to conceive it, but what it might be like to participate, interactvely as painters, creators and protaganists in whatever the next chapter of iTOMB might be.

In summary, the Global Creative Director who had brought me in said this: "David, thank you - You touched us all and made us think. You made us think! And in the end isn't that what we are supposed to do." 

And so we did. We thought. And I am now caused to think about what propelled me to create the box, a box in which I would need to think my way out of - and the answer lies as such:

You don't go from being a Vice President at the largest advertising agency in the United States, as I was, to protesting at Occupy Wall Street because you screwed the whole situation up yourself - but when it comes to sorting oneself out of that situation, there is no one better than you to do the critical thinking, put pedal to metal (or brush to cardboard as I did), and make the solution so, so much bigger than the canvas one was given.

This I hope, is what we did, with a little smoke and mirrors, last Tuesday for a company and staff that needs, in many ways, to start from scratch. I did it with truth, and a simple, compelling execution of such. Where they go now, is simply up to them. 

I've been told my personal branding is spot on:-)

My best to those who welcomed me into their professional home for the afternoon:-) For more on corporate applications of iTOMB, please contact me.

It's All Good

#iTOMB Caroline 04.27.13

It's all good. With the government still threatening to close down performers around the city, we carry on - with real support from all and a true belief that America, the country many migrate to for true freedom, will remain that way.

#iTOMB continues to prosper, and in a way, so much so, that I cannot keep up with the uploads of new work to this site. Sorry all, I'm about a month behind, but your work will be posted - ughh, later or sooner.

Funny sidebar: A man named Will (his real name) performs Shakespeare monologues on the High Line, many times near me at 22nd St.- and the people love him. He's friendly, fabulous and talented - a real working actor with a valuable contemporary twist on the workings of the Bard of Avon.

In solidarity we have become good friends in our love of art in the parks of New York City. But recently, our government has caused us all to reflect on what a world we might live in when it's no longer legal for Shakespeare to be performed in a city park in America.

"Shakespeare Arrested In Park" - the headline could read?

That's just not American.

Thank you all for your love and support. We carry on with your spirit of love, friendship and the indomitable American way:)

"Hokahey!" - Performing Artists Now Under Attack in NYC Parks

"Hokahey!" - It's what Crazy Horse's warriors screamed when running into battle and it back-translates roughly in English to be "It's a Good Day to Die" - and was meant to say that they were not afraid of the battle, or dieing in it.

And so will cry the New York City performing artists tomorrow when the city declares war on performers and artists being financially rewarded for their lawful expressions of art in America. The law is simple as such: You cannot perform for money in New York City Parks unless you are an organ grinder with a monkey (defined as "mobile" with only your feet touching the ground) - but should the monkey touch the ground, or you both stay in the same place for more than 15 minutes, you're pretty much screwed.

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In the video above, Manhattan Parks Commissioner, Bill Castro, lies horribly in describing the new law on performers (I know, I was there) to an entire room of concerned citizens about the effects of a new law governing performers in NYC Parks. The truth is, if you do anything artistic and take money, you WILL be busted, either by a $250-1000 summons, or by arrest. Period. Read the law, listen to Bill and then realize that what is real is the written law and not any at all what he says. This will make  Joe Mangrum, the sand-painter in Union Square illegal. This will make Collin Huggins, the guy with the baby grand in Washington Square illegal. It will also make iThink Outside My Box (#iTOMB) illegal - which essentially makes citizen input and expression illegal - if you give me money. So I have a solution.

#iTOMB was founded at Occupy Wall Street in the fall of 2011. Here's us in the Wall Street Journal, and a comment from a reviewer at the site.

#iTOMB and David Everitt-Carlson - Photo by Bryan Derballa for the Wall Street Journal 10,07.11

"This photo captures a number of the responses I've had. The guy really is thinking outside his box, and that's the power he wields: not pepper spray, but wit, intelligence, ideas, and language. Ideas, combined with courage, intelligence, and character are power." 

Your government is currently enacting laws to first curtail me from helping you express yourself and in response curtail you - from speaking and expressing freely. "Just shut up", they say. Please do one of the following to preserve your First Amendment rights.

1) Sign the Petition to Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Parks Commissioner, Veronica M. White to repeal the ban on performers in New York City Parks.


2) Contact New York City Parks Commissioner, Veronica M. White, and tell her that you support performers in our parks. This will make your voice heard to those who are serving you.

3) Tweet or Instagram with your #iTOMB photo, "I like #iTOMB @HighLineNYC". This will let park admin know that #iTOMB is much more a community service than a business. News about our 501(c)3 non-profit application, soon.

4) Contribute to the iTOMB legal defence fund, here. 

"Hokahey!" - It'time to take your rights back from those who police you.

Andrew Purchin of 1000 Artists.com has said that that "The Making of Art is True Democracy". Let's prove him right and reject this fascist repression of citizen rights.

In the following 1961 film by Dan Drasin, "Beatniks, roving troubadours and their followers" were beaten by police in Washington Square Park over their right to sing folk music. Time to repeat history, NYC? The folk singers won this one:-)

8 May: D-Day for Performing Artists in NYC Parks - Join us!

Pursuant to my previous post regarding a ban on performers in New York City Parks, on May 8th, this Wednesday, PEP Officers (Parks Dept police) will be giving out a FAQ sheet describing in detail the rights (or lack thereof) of all performers in all NYC Parks. Last Wednesday at a community meeting, the Parks Department had assured performers there will not be any enforcement actions taken against them. Depending on what it says on this new FAQ synopsis of the revised park rules, "performers will have either officially won their rights or begun a new struggle to regain them", according to Robert Lederman, president of A.R.T.I.S.T. (Artist Response To Illegal State Tactics)

I plan on attending the direct action planned on Wednesday by bringing #iTOMB and joining Joe Mangrum, the sand painter at Union Square, Collin Huggins, the pianist at Washington Square and my performer friends from the High Line along with hundreds of other New York City artists as we stand for our and your first amendment rights. And you can help as well. See the three actions below and choose one or all to stand for the right to speak and gather freely in our often billed as free country.

1) Sign the Petition to Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Parks Commissioner, Veronica M. White to repeal the ban on performers in New York City Parks.


2) Contact New York City Parks Commissioner, Veronica M. White, and tell her that you support performers in our parks. This will make your voice heard to those who are serving you.

3) Tweet or Instagram with your #iTOMB photo, "I like #iTOMB @HighLineNYC". This will let park admin know that #iTOMB is much more a community service than a business. News about our 501(c)3 non-profit application, soon.

#iTOMB Azza II 04.09.13