From these MOOCs, I am intrigued by the idea of art spaces that integrate art into life: Living as Art. The MOOC discussed several different art spaces ranging from factories to homes to studios, but all centered around the concept of collaboration.
I personally have experienced blurring the lines of art and life in a way that fosters community. In high school, I pursued art and ended up in AP studio art my senior year. I had formed the foundation for relationships with the other artists in the class from participating in the introductory courses together in previous years. For AP Studio, we spent two out of our seven class periods together during the day in addition to occasional meetings outside of class and working on pieces during lunch. This became a close community of about seventeen girls who were comfortable creating together, critiquing each other, offering suggestion, giving encouragement, and sharing personal things about all parts of life. Our art classroom became a sort of haven for me, where I was able to relax, create, and laugh with my friends around me. Once a year, we expanded our creative space by holding a chalk festival, where groups would spend a day creating chalk pieces on the ground of our schools’ quad. Students were able to watch the pieces develop throughout the day and enjoy the finished product. In a very literal sense, art was integrated into my day to day life in high school.
In a less, but still somewhat literal sense, art existed and made its way into our lives in San Diego through a statue called the Cardiff kook. The statue is located on the pacific coast highway and depicts a young boy learning how to surf. However, the work initially received a lot of criticism because the community thought he looked like a girl. Today, the community dresses up the statue for various important events in their lives. They decorate him for their friends birthdays, for homecoming proposals, to promote opinions, etc. The kook provides a platform for the community to connect and create art that directly links to the things that matter in their lives.
