My Summer Plans: Learning to Love You More

The best art and writing is almost like an assignment; it is so vibrant that you feel compelled to make something in response. Suddenly it is clear what you have to do. For a brief moment it seems wonderfully easy to live and love and create breathtaking things. In a sense, these are assignments - in the same way that the ocean gives the assignment of breathing deeply, and kissing instructs us to stop thinking.

I was introduced to learningtoloveyoumore.com about a year ago. Created by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher, this website is comprised of work made by the general public in response to specific assignments. Participants accepted an assignment, completed it by following the simple but specific instructions, sent in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and then their work was posted on-line. "Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments was intended to guide people towards their own experience." The project lasted from 2002 to 2009 with over 8,000 participants. The results were not only posted on the website, but featured in exhibitions in museums (The Whitney in NYC, to name one), galleries, schools, senior citizens centers, radio shows and film festivals.

While this project has been expired for nearly three years, I have been compelled to begin my own LTLYM blog / experience. I've chosen about 30 of the assignments posted on learningtoloveyoumore.com (I've opted not to do every single assignment due to a lack of resources...or I just didn't feel like doing some of them) and will be completing them over the next few months. Anyone is welcome to join me in completing and reporting on any and all assignments!  


Also, since I abandoned my first attempt at a personal blog, I intend to use this as my artist website once I've completed all the assignments. The title of my site comes from a quote by Andy Warhol:

An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.

The further and further I get into my practice as an artist and as a future art educator, the more I understand why I chose this. The purpose of art - something that took me years of searching - is to allow us to take part in what I believe is a fundamental longing implanted into human nature and that is the desire to create. It's not something that vital to our survival, but like water and air, provides sustenance to the unnecessary in life - the desire to love, to hope, to change, to grow.

Usually when I tell people that I'm studying art, the first thing they ask is, "So do you like to draw and stuff?" The first part of that question is easy to answer. Do I like to draw? Sure. It's the "and stuff" part that is so much more important. Unfortunately it would take a lifetime to explain to someone my reasons for engaging in the art world, what it means to me, and who I am becoming because of it. But hopefully I can start explaining here.