The Collaborative Artistic Experience Project
2018 Project description: large scale charcoal drawings and acrylic paintings
Hi! My name is Amira. I am an artist. And I hope to reveal the power of a collaborative artistic experience within a family, a community, and a culture.
I used to think making art needed to be a solitary practice; that in order to fully focus and engage with the work, I had to be alone. However, recent collaborative drawing and painting has inspired me to explore how an artistic collaboration can affect the people involved, and the final creation.
I started inviting family members to draw and paint with me. My mom and I made several drawings using a blind collaborative process, wherein one person begins by drawing or painting a portrait of the other, and covers the work. Then the other person draws or paints a portrait of the first person. The process is repeated until the paper is full of marks. Finally, the piece is uncovered, and the artists cooperate to resolve visual conflicts.
In alternative collaborative works, my mom and I worked simultaneously on one canvas using photographs of various family members, and children’s books from my childhood, as reference material. Working side by side, this collaborative experience provided opportunities to observe each other’s technique and thought process the entire time.
I also collaborated with my father, brother, sister and nieces, and found meaning and inspiration in each experience. We were vulnerable, and we supported each other with mutual respect. We faced indecision and doubt, and were provided opportunities to help each other through confusing visual challenges. Throughout the process we paused for moments of reflection, observation, and communication. We exercised patience and trust. We abandoned control allowing for pleasant and unexpected surprises. And in the end, both artists were excited to see how well each other’s portraits fit together to create a resolved composition.
I used to think making art needed to be an independent practice. But I have seen that the risk of sharing a canvas or paper with another person can foster the creation of a truly intimate and raw finished work.
These collaborations have inspired me to wonder. Who else could benefit from sharing an intimate, trusting, and open-ended creative experience? I believe there are people within families who could communicate better, connect more deeply, and love each other more after sharing a collaborative artistic experience. Every single person has a different mind, frame of thought, pattern of reasoning – What if we provided a safe space in which people could create art together sharing their inspirations and beliefs? I hope to discover that in collaboration we can resolve conflict. By sharing the experience of making art with the people in our families, in our communities, and in our cultures, we can all learn something positive, something beautiful and something profound.
