Free Art Friday

 

Have you heard of Free Art Friday?  If the answer is ‘no’, then I hope to help you discover what this wonderful bit of generosity, love, fun and Random Act of Kindness(‘s) is about. Stick with me .. you might just want to get involved in this. 

I hadn’t  heard of this myself until a few years ago when I saw a really fabulous artist interviewed on TV (here in the UK) about it.  

It all began over ten years ago with a British Artist who goes by the name of  My Dog Sighs (who was the chap being interviewed).  The moment the interview finished I knew I wanted to join in with this bit of ‘lovely’ in a world which seems to be increasingly unlovely.  But one thing has stopped me.  I don’t ‘do’ Facebook or Twitter, and in order to get the word out about your own particular piece of ‘Free Art’, you need to be able to give people clues about where your piece(s) of free art can be found so that they can go on a type of Treasure Hunt to find it.

Facebook scares the heck out of me.  People seem to get verbally bullied beyond belief on these social networking sites, and I’m just not the sort of person to get involved with allowing that sort of conduct.  But … I want to get involved in this Free Art Movement!  Catch 22 situation. 

So .. I’ve begun my adventure and joined Facebook – but I haven’t figured it all out yet.  I’m still trying to work out how to use the darn site.  Boy, is it confusing!   I will also look into joining Twitter and see if I can find a group in the area around where I live.

Here’s how Free Art Friday works:

• Create a piece of art
• Write on an attached tag “Free Art, to take home and enjoy” ~ adding the artist’s name, email or web address is optional.
• Place your piece of artwork somewhere in public, indoors or out.
• Some people make a game out of it and leave clues on Twitter.
• It’s NOT an exclusive group or movement.  ANYBODY can join in.

There are now Artists across the world making their own art and leaving it outside, somewhere noticeable but slightly hidden, for others to discover, and take,  free of any charges or from any costs to themselves.

There are no real rules as such – which is a joy.  The only ‘rules’ are:  that the art has to be exclusively free art and you need to make sure that the work is easily removable from where you’ve left it,  and does little or no damage to its environment.  Oh … and it doesn’t actually HAVE to be a Friday either.  (It just started as this, and it’s kind of grown into an any day free art)

Some artists will put out a painted canvas or mixed art canvas, others use materials found on the street, – such as cardboard, bits of wood, or a tin can – which is popular,  but your only limit is your imagination.  Many free art Friday participants’ work is fun and good-natured, which cheers up the folk seeing it (maybe on their way to work in the morning) and also, obviously, bringing a smile to the face of the person who claims the Free Art for themselves.

Artists have been leaving their art for others for many years, but My Dog Sighs can be credited with galvanizing the Free Art Movement when he coined the phrase “Free Art Friday“.  After several years he started his Flickr Group (in 2006), and you can find the My Dog Sighs website  HERE.  (it will open in a new page).

This is a typical ‘notice’ which can accompany a piece of free art.  There is a ‘global’ Art Abandonment page of Facebook, where artists all over the globe post photographs of the art they’ve abandoned, and where people who have found a free piece of art can say on Facebook that they’ve found something & post a photo of the item, or they can email (see the email addy at the bottom of the hand out above).

If you’d like to  view the Art Abandonment Facebook page,   CLICK HERE.

 

Below is an article from a newspaper I found on-line which talk about F.A.F in Gloucester (in the UK): (if you right-click on the photo and choose ‘View Image’ it will open up into a bigger picture for you)

So … now you know a little bit about Free Art Friday …  does it make you want to take part?  Does it bring a feeling of joy knowing that you could do something lovely to make someone else smile?   And …  they won’t have to pay a penny for the wonderful gift from the heart which you made.  Would it make you smile to find your own piece of Free Art?

 

a blow up of the hand painted feather on the can art, ‘The Message’

The photograph above is a painting on an empty, washed and cleaned out, tin can, which would normally have gone into my re-cycling bin.  However, I took a hammer to it (outside on a rock) and flattened it, and made sure that there were no sharp corners.  I then primed it and painted the background, then painted a white feather on it.  A feather from an Angel, perhaps?  I’ve called it  ‘The Message’, and only the person who takes the art will know what the message that feather brings for them.  I framed the can in a box frame.  It’s destined to be my first Free Art Friday piece of art … once I’ve figured out how to navigate Facebook and Twitter. {Cobwebs sighs}

 

But …  Free Art Friday art doesn’t have to be a painting. Artwork could be something knitted, crocheted, painted, printed, stamped, sewn, drawn or any of hundreds of different artistic things.  It could be a scrapbook made from loo roll tubes,  a card,  a Tag, a painting on canvas/cardboard/bit of MDF/Wood/etc, or maybe a key ring you’ve made, a bookmark, a stone you found in the garden and painted with patterns etc.  An ATC or ACEO.   Anything … anything you can make, is your own artwork.

Artwork placed on the street for a member of the public to take home and enjoy.  Go on, make someone’s day!

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