Creativity Project 2014 -- Art in the Open -- Thank You!!

As I write this it is a preternaturally warm mid October day. I've just come in from our garage after cleaning up the aftermath of the Creativity Project's 2014 Art in the Open incarnation. I say aftermath because, following the uber- intense week of final preparations, the 24 hrs of installation, interaction and tear down, what lands in our garage is not a pretty sight. Nor am I.

The wondrous high I feel immediately following a successful exhibit is chased down and swallowed whole by an exhaustion from which it takes several weeks for me to emerge. Perhaps we are fools for art, but our love of the open air festival, the fantastic way people engage with ours and other exhibits, fuels our volunteer efforts.

Digging through the mounds of tent fabrics today, folding up lighting and cords, re-reading some of the poetry, carefully packing away the purposefully shattered mirrors, all conspire to transport me back to that electric late August night. An invisible energy re-ignites within.

What I hold and fold, mere shells of what once was, carries with it a wonderful sense of ghostliness for me. Despite the concrete evidence it all represents, it still feels as though our work was just an apparition spirited for that one magical evening. As an ephemeral work of visual art installed for eight hours of public engagement, perhaps that is the project's truest form: apparition. Something magnificent which emerges from our depths through collaboration: emails, phone calls, over hot teas on hotter evenings, in the silence of our busy minds in bed before the encumbrance of sleep. It then takes shape in the dark cave of my garage, my sister's living room and deck, my side yard and my parents garage as well.  Yet we all know it breathes deepest and smiles widest those short hours during Art in the Open while the curious public pokes around, inquires, inhales, exhales in quiet and in laughter both.


Creativity Project AIO 2014 Incarnation--

Our cocoon tent and origami butterfly mobiles require a tree branch and open air to truly come alive, need willing bodies to slide in beneath the fragile forms, lie down, be vulnerable. The world is truly a beautiful place!  

The shattered mirrors need faces peering in, amazed, distorted by the simple concept. Who am I now? And if so, then who are you?  

The poetry requires avid eyes, hearts and minds willing to pull back a sheer curtain panel, peek in and choose to enter our tent and read. Enthralled.  Engaged. The veil is lifted. 

The blackout poetry tent with its fabric rainbow smiling down on those brave souls who risk entering the strange and happy, tiny room we silently invite them into. What purpose does it serve without its book pages torn and altered, from which new meanings creep through a series of omissions. 

The transformachine simply can't transform you unless you are a willing participant in the transformation process. In the dank and creaking barn this day its crank sits still, its lights are darkened without someone eager to step up, take part, transform the world. Why not you?

Truly then, what is an Art in the Open installation without its public audience? It is simply all for naught, a sad, forgotten pile in an artist's garage. A folded in upon itself series of whimsically stitched tents waiting for a reminder of their raison d'etre. But this is not entirely true, for its existence was as much the frustrations and delights in the process of its creation, as the wonder of the final product.

And remembrances dance vivid in the minds and hearts of the creators and for those who were engaged by it. 

Sincere thanks to all who worked so hard to make Art in the Open become real once again this year. Warmest gratitude to our small but dedicated team who helped create, install, run and tear down the Creativity Project's 2014 AIO incarnation. A great big thank you to Becka Viau and this town is small for inviting us to take part again  this year. Your support has been immeasurable!! A warm hug to Paul and Arlene McGuigan (our mom and dad) for their loving support, problem solving and helping hands. To our brother Finn for his help with the transformachine-we owe you and Kristy babysitting. And to guest contributor John MacKenzie a big shrug of a hug. After experiencing the madness of last year you joined us once again, by choice-- who knows why? But thanks an absolute million for being there with your willingness, balance and the brilliance of your gift. To my husband Paul, you are the very best there is!! To our kids and nieces and nephews--wow!! Folding origami butterflies is fun!! To Steve Love, you were an amazing volunteer, solid as the day was long. We could not have done it without you!! To Jamieson, for making the world a better place just by being born mid August. 
And to reiterate- to the public, thanks for your participation. It would be nothing without you!!
In sincere gratitude,
Jill MacCormack 
on behalf of the Creativity Project collaborators