Speaking about community art

Before going to ArtPrize, I was asked what I'd do if I won.  I answered that I'd take a day off. Whether I won or not, I was fairly certain that  I'd have more than a few projects to work on as soon as I returned home, and more than a day off wasn't going to happen.  Sure enough, by the time I settled in after the trip, the list of things I was already looking at doing was too long to manage, and since I didn't win, I couldn't hire staff to do it all for me. Well, I've been back for a couple weeks now, the list keeps growing, and I've been bad about updating the blog with recent happenings. So here are just a couple of quick notes.

Balloons Around the World just took place last week. This is the annual event where artists in different cities around the globe join in just for the sake of sharing the fun and wonder of balloons. The crew that was working with me in Rochester was fantastic. Everyone just dove in to the undersea project. I was grateful for all of their help, and as I looked at them, all I could think was, "with friends like these, who needs anemones?"

What makes Balloons Around the World exciting for me is the interaction with the community. While we don't get to build Balloon Manor  this year, BATW was still a way to do something in the local community that brought a number of artists and community members together. Anyone that knows me is familiar with my passion for community projects. These projects provide a way to share my art with a wide audience. They give me a way to see people that don't otherwise think of themselves as artists get excited about art. They get people working together doing something they've never done before. Of course, I'm always looks for ways to take that into other communities.

With that interest in community art, I was thrilled to get an invitation to speak at TEDxRochester on the subject of community art. For those unfamiliar with TED, it's an organization devoted to "Ideas worth spreading." From conferences to downloadable talks, TED is about sharing ideas. The ideas don't have to be limited to any particular area and talks aren't meant to be just directed at any specific audience. The folks at TED have now made it possible for others to offer smaller, local, TED-like conferences, called "TEDx". It may not be quite the same as the official TED conference, but it will be fun.  I'm excited about giving a TED Talk.

Random notes:

My work was recently featured in an article in The Wall Street Journal.

In a recent post to this blog, I mentioned a quote that I found about my work. I thought the quote was funny and needed to be shared, so I posted a phony T-shirt containing it.  To my surprise, a number of people wrote in asking if they could buy the shirt.  Not wanting to disappoint, I went ahead and made shirts which a number of people wore around Grand Rapids during ArtPrize.  I took it a bit further and made it a more artsy shirt. The quote, "Larry Moss is a hack. I see no dachshunds"  is found on the back. The front contains my rendition of the Mona Lisa. The shirt is available from the Airigami gift shop until I run out of them.