Look and Make Art
For 2021, I practiced looking at the world with interest, and then making stuff on a weekly-ish basis. Looking with interest and making things is for everyone, not just “artists” or kids.
DO NOT FORGET THIS.
Prompts are posted here, on Substack, and on Instagram @lookandmakeart
Disclaimer: There are many very important things that need to be changed in the world, like, NOW. And if we do not take time to appreciate and be interested in the world and each other, we will burn out. Quit the doomscroll, go take a nap, pet a dog, and look at a tree. And then get back to building a better world.
*** Recent Prompts. View all Prompts here ***
Some Inspirations
Image: Corita Kent with one of her “we can create life without war” billboards. Source: Corita.org
Corita Kent
(1913–1986)
Corita was an artist, educator, and advocate for social justice. She also was a nun (with my mother!) in the bad-ass order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Corita was all about looking at the world with interest and love, and making things that encouraged people to make the world a better place.
Image: A post from Jason that reminds us that “working a lot” is admirable, but so is being nice. Source: The ‘Gram
Jason Polan
(1982–2020)
Jason was an artist in New York. He drew ALL THE TIME and was always encouraging other people to look around and to draw. There was a silliness and fun in his work, but also a fierce dedication to his craft. I was lucky to hang out with him from time to time and he also loved Corita’s work.
I think they would have gotten along.
Image: Screengrab from The Believer website from the Ashanti Fortson workshop (a GREAT one).
The Believer
Comics Workshops
(2020–??)
For a bunch of Fridays in 2020, The Believer offered up free Friday drawing workshops with different artists. It reminded me to make things at least once a week. They’re offering new stuff up and archiving programs on their site, so mash the button below.
Image: Sample of Sarah’s zines from mirkwork.com
Sarah Mirk’s Zines
For a year, the graphic journalist, editor, and teacher Sarah Mirk created mini-zines. Many of those are collected in an awesome book called Year of Zines. Check out Sarah’s website for free resources on making zines.
Image: screenshot from The Art Assignment page
The Art Assignment
A very cool video series and “assignment” set based on modern and contemporary art and artists. They even did a cool video about Corita.
Image: cover of Yoko Ono’s book “Grapefruit”
Grapefruit
Yoko Ono made a great little book of drawings and conceptual “instructions”, many of them ridiculous.
And no, she didn’t break up the Beatles. She did record a scream piece while I was at MoMA and someone did an amazing mashup of it with death metal.
Image: a copy of Offline Activities by Tamara Shopsin and Jason Fulford
Offline Activities
Tamara Shopsin is a tremendous writer and a New York icon, and made a booklet with Jason Fulford that is basically this blog in a much more condensed and tactile format.
Image: Screengrab from the website.
Learning to Love You More
One of the great early web art projects of prompts and responses from 2002–2009.
It is “both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments.”
Image: photo from a shadow walk, via Flickr
Elastic City Art Walks
Artists collaborated to create different prompts for participatory walks. I got to join a shadow walk hosted by my very talented pal Chiara almost ten years ago.
Image: Screengrab from NGA video on YouTube
Slow Looking
Museums can be great places for slowing down and looking at art. There have been countless educators who have worked on theory and practices around how to do that, including Shari Tishman. The Tate also has a good page on how to do it. My pals at MoMA have also been doing great things around Artful Practices for Wellbeing.
Image: The C4AA logo
The Center for Artistic Activism
What if protests were not boring and maybe even fun? C4AA combines “art and activism, helping activists, artists, organizations, and foundations be more effective and affective in bringing about social change”.
Image: cover of the book “The Zen of Seeing”
Frederick Franck
The artist Frederick Franck wrote a ton of books, and used to offer workshops on close looking and drawing in nature.
Image: Logo for Magic Lessons podcast
Magic Lessons podcast
It’s easy to dunk on Elizabeth Gilbert and the white wellness world that emerged from “Eat, Pray, Love”, but she’s committed to creativity in a way that few people would be brace enough to do. The Magic Lessons podcast was released in conjunction with her book “Big Magic”, and in each episode a normal person would call in for advice about getting unstuck in their creative pursuits. Gilbert would assign the person an assignment, interview a (usually) famous creative person and then check in with the regular person.