Chelsea Now features #iThinkOutsideMyBox

Wen Chang snaps a photo of her friend holding the painting she created. Photo by Nicole Javorsky.

Our thanks to Nicole Javorsky and ChelseaNow for their lovely feature on #iThinkOutsideMyBox. Having scheduled the interview time with Nicole a week before, the guests were random, not invited and we were fortunate to have Wen Chang, an art therapist, as a return painter, bringing her friends from Taiwan for a session. Read more...

ChelseaNow 20 October 2016

Our Fourth Anniversary: #iThinkOutsideMyBox

#iThinkOutsideMyBox Season IV Gallery Opening 06.22.16

The month of September is anniversary month for us. Firstly, it's the fourth anniversary of the #iThinkOutsideMyBox project as you see it today, a global public studio where anyone can paint and secondly, the fifth anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, the social demonstration where the idea of a public studio was born.

At Occupy Wall Street, as seen in the Wall Street Journal 10.07.2011 Photo: Bryan Derballa

Over these past four years I've worked very hard to both, keep the activity accessible to all and also to guarantee the concept's sustainability. This means growing the idea as a business, while remaining a non-profit entity. To that end we are now focusing on our work outside the park to build ourselves into the kind of organization that can reach multiple levels of the community, while remaining primarily self supporting. Should you work in the non-profit or NGO space, education, museums, corporate creative growth or publishing, please take a look at our offerings below. We're exited to enter our fifth year and continue to encourage freedom of expression by engaging the public in public art℠.

Looking great at night as well.

Licensing: We are now able to license the #iThinkOutsideMyBox experience to non-profits or NGOs who need an ongoing, all-ages, public outreach or fund raising vehicle based in art and communication. License fees include a complete studio and gallery kit, start-up instruction and as needed ongoing consultation. Discuss with David to find the right fit for your organization.

Education: Our work with public schools, universities and colleges continues. We are available as a one-time activity or can structure programs and classes to your need. Speak with David for details and academic references.

Museum/Gallery: Our 2014-2016 #iThinkOutsideMyBox gallery is available with framed work support for museum or gallery exhibition. Contact David for more information.

Corporate Creative Training: David's career as a Creative Director for a host of Global 500 clients, along with his experience in establishing #iThinkOutsideMyBox as a premier community creative activity can be useful in re-energizing creative employees at all levels. Talk with him on custom solutions for your company.

Books: We are currently assembling a series of books using public created art for the #iThinkOutsideMyBox collection. If you are involved in the publishing of art or novelty books please request a presentation from David.

#iThinkOutsideMyBox Season IV Gallery Opening 06.22.16

#iThinkOutsideMyBox Season IV Gallery Opening 06.22.16

Please join us to celebrate David's birthday and the opening of the Season IV #iThinkOutsideMyBox Gallery. Painters needed. Please support iThinkOutsideMyBox.com by hitting the Paypal button on the left. Your support helps us serve the community.

#NJTeenArts Wrok the Jersey Shore!

#iTOMB #NJTeenArts Tina "Best of Show"  06.02.16 - Sublime work here triumphs.

What a lovely week. The crew at #NJTeenArts put on a barnstorm of creative in a pastoral beach setting and the kids wroked. Following, the shortlist from over 150 paintings (click on the arrows for mini-films):

Our thanks to Mark Wilson at Ocean County College and the Grunin Center for the Arts and Tony Petito at the Arts and Education Center, who say, "We believe the basic human need for meaning and self expression is best satisfied by the study and practice of the arts.  An understanding of the arts helps describe, define, and ultimately deepen human experience.  This must be an essential component of every child’s basic education and a life-long pursuit."  We live for this ideal as well.

#NJTeenArts 06.01-03.16

Contact us for academic, non-profit, museum and corporate events. #iThinkOutsideMyBox provides an interactive means of self expression, team building, fund raising and organization mission accomplishment. All events provide a live performance augmented by a full social media compliment that covers Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and our website audience. We'd love to help your organization by engaging your pubic in Public Art.

#iTOMB Hits the Jersey Shore

This week sees us off to the Jersey Shore for the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival at Ocean County College - Three days of dance, art, music, theatre, photos, film and fun. Last summer we did Seton Hall University, so it now looks like we spend our summers in Jersey:) Maybe I'll head over to Asbury Park this year and see if I can find The Boss:)

The one thing I wish I could change about these events is that I'd love to see the other presenters activities and do a bit of learning too:) But as it is, we're booked solid for the whole time so I'll miss Modern Dance, Musical Theatre, Chinese Brush Strokes, Film and Video and what sounds to be a great seminar on getting a job in the creative arts.

Take a look at the programs here and contact me to discuss adding a participatory art element to your educational activities this summer or in the fall semester.

NJ Teen Arts Program

Our thanks to Mark Wilson, Artistic Director at Ocean County College and Tony Petito, Executive and Artistic Director at the Arts and Education Center in Matawan, New Jersey.

Clarion High School Art @ #iThinkOutsideMyBox on the High Line in New York City

#iThinkOutsideMyBox was pleased to host the Clarion High School (Clarion, PA) Spring arts tour that included The Met, The Whitney, The High Line and an Off-Broadway show on 28 April. Good company, we thought.

Organizer Ray Jones had met me last fall and asked me early this year about bringing a group of 30+ in for a flash painting session (one hour) in the spring and the date was set.

The student's nearly twenty four-hour bus trip and city tour was a whirlwind event and not one they'll soon forget. Our thanks to Ray for putting it all together.

Our location on the High Line can handle up to 50 people seated and painting time for everyone:) Or we come to you: From June 1-3 we'll be traveling to Orange County New Jersey for the three-day New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival. For group events, contact David by email. 

#iTOMB Julia #CHSArt #ClarionHighSchoolArt @highlinenyc #aBetterWorldIsJustAroundTheCorner 04.28.16

#iThinkOutsideMyBox from Fauna on Vimeo.

Season IV: The Freedom to Express One's Self - a Love Story

Alex: Free thought
(#Québec) 10.25.14

Quik. Name the first organization you can think of that exists solely to encourage, freedom of expression. 

Not so easy is it? And in America, a country who's founders felt so strongly about the idea that it became the First Amendment to our constitution, we now find ourselves not teaching it in schools - as arts and music programs disappear facing budget shortfalls - leaving the concept an obtuse philosophical theory with little no practical application. And whilst the United Nations and NGOs like George Soros' Open Society Foundation expound at length on this fundamental human right, through any number of societal and diplomatic channels, these programs are aimed primarily at developing countries and nations under siege from oppressive dictatorships or worse, mired in armed conflicts with the right to speak freely becoming a matter of life or death. 

David Everitt- Carlson at Occupy Wall Street 10.07.11
Photo: Bryan Derballa for The Wall Street Journal

But here, in America at least, with frightening billions of dollars spent on defense of our supposed freedoms, we seem to have conveniently forgotten about this one. As free as air, or water should be - now relegated to the basement of first world consciousness because - maybe we don't need it. Or maybe we need it more than we ever have since it was written into our national psyche, our raison d'être.

Towers of Gold 09.16.14

That's where #iThinkOutsideMyBox came in, as a protest communication vehicle at Occupy Wall Street, standing (or sitting in my case) in the line of fire as thousands of armed police, police in tactical riot gear, even police on horseback arrested over 3500 of us, many violently, for exercising our human rights, our constitutional rights, to speak our peace to what we believed was becoming a tyrannical government. It was an electric time and in the midst of all that, a simple cardboard box became a metaphor for me, in one sense a shelter and in another, a kind of soapbox for me to graphically air our collective grievances by painting slogans on a box. "The phrase "I Think Outside My Box" symbolized the thought of trying to come up with better ideas for a society that had become systematically disenfranchised from the bailing out of financial institutions without regard to human cost.

"It needs to be, just so" 01.31.16

As a casualty, but not wanting to play the victim, I put words and art into action and next, I was in the Wall Street Journal. First, for calling out Wall Street, and second, for being a very interesting photo, a guy who looks like he could be working on Wall Street, sitting in that box. Activist performance art. But after becoming an Internet meme for a week, a funny thing started to happen; people began to ask me if they could paint too. An there, the public studio was born. A place where anyone could paint and express themselves in public - something defiantly peaceful and fun.

Katie 10.19.14

Fast forward to the High Line park one year later in the fall of 2012 and fun had become the operative term. The offer of Feel free to paint℠ was attractive to many in a place where birds chirped high above the bustling streets of one of the most exciting cities in the world. Who wouldn't? And paint they did. "I stumbled upon a great thing. A man is letting people of all ages paint what they feel and either let the world see it or keep it. Magic." By the fall of 2015, three years later, our collection numbers over 20,000 from visitors from over 100 countries  and this collectivist collection of expressions has become not only my full-time work but my passion and creative love. In short, my job.

Michael Moore's, "Where to Invade Next?"

In Michael' Moore's new film, "Where to Invade Next?" he invades Finland to capture an idea that made their public education system the best in the world.

"Let the students express themselves. Cut the hours, eliminate homework, re-introduce music and the arts and do away with standardized tests - an effort to grow better people instead of just better students. Let them be kids. And it was found, that having the arts in their curriculum, increased their scores in math and science - not to mention expanding their entire worldview.

Schools: that's one way I see us interacting with the community - as a plug in creative module for school festivals, summer camps or regular class sessions. 

Cartoon: Hugh MacLeod @ gapingvoid.com

We're currently booked for two educational sessions this season, a three day college creative festival in New Jersey in June and one day on the High Line in April with a large High School group.

Contact me to add #iThinkOutsideMyBox to your school program this coming season.

"I was just passing through then saw a man painting, and that he was definitely enjoying what he was doing caught my eye. David: 'Wanna paint?' Me: 'How do you know what you want to paint?' David: 'It doesn't have to be an apple'. So here we are." 

Suja
"Create a Life You Love"
06.29.15

#iTOMB welcomes Season IV: This winter has proven to be most unusual with temperatures in the 50s and 60s, often enough, that we've maintained a presence in the park and it's caused people to remark, that if I didn't love what I do, I wouldn't be out there in the middle of February. And it's true. This is the winter I found the work I was meant to do.

In the beginning I thought it was something to keep me busy and bring in a little income as I looked to find my way back to the advertising business. But now I realize that it is much more than that. It is a chance to do what artist Hugh MacLeod of gapingvoid.com laments above might not ever be a possibility for anyone working in corporate America. It's a chance to change the world, for the better, just a little each day. By letting you change the world, just a little each day, with a new idea, remembered as a painting.

Me and Tia 07.15.15

One supporter, Diane, says this,"I think of David as the Pied Piper of the High Line! Facilitating and adorning the High Line with the creative self-expressions of thousands of people." And that to me, sounds as much like a real job as anything. Following are a number of extensions of the concept currently in process:

Grants: I am actively applying for arts and community grants for the project. If you are aware of any I should be applying to, please let me know.

Media: Please pass us along to your favorite media contact for stories.

Book: I have a proposal for a book that would be a cube of printed cardboard paintings, with descriptions on the back of each one,  3"X3"X3" called "#iThinkOutsideMyBox - Every Picture Tells a Story".  Please talk to me if you know publishers or agents who might be interested in it.

#iThinkOutsideMyBox #TheNewWhitney 10.15.15

Museums: Our sculptural display of paintings, 2014 - 2016 is now available as a museum exhibit, along with supporting artwork from the project, and the ability to execute live interactive performance. If you are a curator or educator with museums involved in design, sustainability, art or social change, or know someone who is, please introduce yourself. We'd love to collaborate.

Galleries: This season I am actively soliciting galleries to mount a summer fundraising benefit to encourage, protect, promote and practice freedom of speech. With over 20,000 paintings to choose from we have the ability to fill a gallery and offer on-demand prints of any works in an interactive, press worthy exhibition. Please talk to us if you are or know a gallery or gallerist who might be interested.

Corporate: I am always available for corporate presentations, retreats, team building and creative motivational exercises. Contact me to discuss adaptations of the activity and scheduling.

Fundraising: Later this year I'll be mounting a fundraising campaign for financing our 501(c)3 application, book publishing, website redesign, mobile app and other growth opportunities. Should you like to support us otherwise, prints of anything on the website may be ordered at any time. $100, framed on acid-free paper and perfect for gifts or souvenirs.


Thank You: I thank you all for your support of #iThinkOutsideMyBox and look forward to the coming year. I feel fortunate to be able to do something I love, and see that it is loved and nurtured by all of you in return.

Peace.