Life gets busy, especially when you own your own business and have a small child. Making time for art can be a struggle, but it helps to have a collaborator! I am glad I know Mary England, my artist/blogger friend who is always working on new, collaborative, creative work, so I can make art by way of collaboration.

Recently Mary organized a Puzzle Art Project, inviting 36 different artists from around the world to make art on their assigned blank puzzle piece. We all created something special on our puzzle pieces and returned them to Mary, who assembled the puzzle and affixed it to an abandoned building in Baltimore to bring a little beauty and joy to the area.

Here is the puzzle piece I submitted:

I used this puzzle project to finally experiment with some dried flowers I had and decoupage, a technique I had never really tried before. I had been saving some dead flowers for a while but didn't know what kind of project I should use them for. Luckily the puzzle piece afforded me a manageable blank canvas to attempt something new.

Here is a picture of the assembled puzzle and the work installed at the space:

Pretty awesome! The other artists and I all felt very good about working together and making such a successful piece. All the credit goes to Mary for coming up with the idea and getting us together on this. 

For more information on the project and to order a puzzle of our puzzle (so cool), check out Mary's blog directly: http://uncustomary.org/puzzle-art-project/.

My friend Mary and I have been accepted to create an art exhibition at the Top of the World Observation Level Gallery at the World Trade Center in Baltimore!  

In this exhibition, World Views: What's Your View?, we will collect and install at least 200 pieces of mail art from around the world. The goal is to inspire both the art makers and the art viewers to be curious, reflective, and aware of their own and other people's views, all while enjoying the view of Baltimore. 

We are now accepting submissions for mail art that we can incorporate in our show. Click here to view our call for mail art. Please submit work by January 24, 2015, or January 31 at the very latest, and spread the word to your contacts around the world! The exhibition will be on view February 6-March 29, 2015.

If you don't know what mail art is, feel free to browse Mary's blog, or take a look at some of the examples below:

Somehow this summer I've found myself collaborating with artist friends in more than one group projects with an environmental theme. I have always considered myself a bit of an environmentalist and included nature in my abstract works, but this year it's been nice to work with others to make some statements about man's relationship with nature.

First, I came across a fun opportunity to do a performance art piece in a pool for DC's SynchroSwim event. We had a blast making costumes and putting on a show! See my SynchroSwim webpage and my friend Mary's blog post for more.

Then, last Friday I went to my friend Michael's house to work on some puppets of dead sea animals. He went to Ocean City this Labor Day weekend with the puppets to raise awareness about Obama's approval to use sonic cannons in the Atlantic coast, a practice that uses extreme sound to search for oil that can kill, deafen, or otherwise impair animals, particularly dolphins and whales that rely on sound for survival and communication. I was unfamiliar with the issue but reading about it definitely raised my concerns.

I'm hoping Michael will have some pictures from his time at Ocean City with the finished puppets, but here are some pictures from when we were working on them:

Being a part of this project reminded me that art doesn't have to a solitary, complex, or exclusive endeavor. Team up with your friends and find your own audience!