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/.

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!

Father's Day came and went, and it was beautiful outside! 

To my pleasant surprise, a father and friend of mine decided to get outside for Father's Day and visit Gwynns Falls Trail. He and his family checked out my piece #TakeASketchLeaveASketch, and his daughter sketched a little something to leave in the box.

Though I haven't made many interactive works in the past, it makes me very happy that people are actually interacting with this piece. From what I've observed, usually kids are the ones who leave a sketch.

One of the best things in life to me is to share my art with others. And #TakeASketchLeaveASketch is about giving others the opportunity to share their art as well. I'm glad kids are compelled to sketch something and share it, but I hope more adults will jump on board too! You are never too old to let your creativity out.

When was the last time you shared your art with others?

It's July, and there is nothing too new to report about #TakeASketchLeaveASketch. I checked on the original mailbox (now birdhouse) on Sunday. It still looks about the same as it looked a week earlier, no further decay and still no eggs in the nest. I wonder if the bird still wants to go through with laying eggs there since the roof and door suffered some damage earlier. I will check on it later again later on.

The great part about doing interactive outdoor art is that you have a reason to visit the park a lot! I highly recommend Leakin Park at Gwynns Falls Trail. It is quite beautiful as you can see...

One exciting thing happened yesterday. A contact I made at work, Rachel, said she would like to take part in #TakeASketchLeaveASketch, so she and a couple co-workers did some nice sketches for me. Check out all the sketches to date on the #TakeASketchLeaveASketch page!

Thanks to Rachel and everyone who has participated so far! Don't forget to like my Facebook page and follow me on Twitter for more updates.

Last week was the slightly rainy opening of Nature Art in the Park. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I am pretty new to creating nature art (art made from natural materials) and public art (art displayed in a public place). I should also say I have never made an interactive piece before, but came up with the idea to build a nature inspired interactive mailbox. I built the box from found branches and bark, filled it with handmade recycled paper, left instructions for visitors take a sketch and leave a sketch, and encouraged them to tweet their sketches using the hashtag #TakeASketchLeaveASketch. I planned to upload all the Twitter photos to a page on my website over the course of the Nature Art in the Park exhibition. After much hard work, I completed the piece, installed it, and hoped for the best.

Because of the weather, not that many people visited my piece at the opening, but I did meet one person who sketched the following and put it into the mailbox. I was happy that the project was underway.

The weather continued to be quite rainy throughout the week, and there hadn't been any tweets after the first sketch, so I decided to check on my piece yesterday. I was surprised at what I found:

There was a bird's nest inside! To be fair, I modeled this piece after different birdhouses I looked at, but I didn't think a bird would take it so seriously. I called the organizer of Nature Art in the Park, and she suggested I rename this piece, put a "do not disturb" sign next to it, and make a new, more secure box to carry out my original idea. That sounded good to me, because if I took the bird's nest out, I am pretty sure another one would come around and use it later.

So, for now, #TakeASketchLeaveASketch has been temporarily derailed, but hopefully in a week or two I will have the second version finished and ready for action. If you would like to see (but not touch) this original #TakeASketchLeaveASketch art piece, find it on Trail D at Leakin Park.

Also, let me know if you would like me to make you a birdhouse.

Well, I was supposed to work on some outdoor art today, but it has been raining lately and I can't start my project using wet wood. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow. If not, I'll really have to work it during the week to finish my piece for Nature Art in the Park!

Anyway, I decided to browse the web today for other examples of nature art. I definitely found some things I like.

As long as I have some nice weather and a little time, I will have a nature masterpiece done this week. Stay tuned, and plan to stop by Leakin Park on May 19 to see my work!

To gear up for Nature Art in the Park, Sasa and I made our second visit to Leakin Park today. Though I have never made an outdoor piece before, an idea came pretty quickly to me about what I would like to create. One hint: it's going to be interactive.

Some reference shots:

Check back later for more updates and make sure you make it to Leakin Park this summer!