Collaborative Project with Elsie Edwards
introductory letter:
Hello!
We are two artists who are working to continue our art practice, to be beholden to each other, and to build rich dialogue and emotions in a community and friend setting. Coming out of graduate school, we seek to extend and affirm our promises of communal work and desire. This is then an announcement of our artist collective, so we are no longer beholden to just each other, but to you as a viewer, and now as a part of our community as well. We wish for this group to help continue with the structure we are used to from graduate school, so that we don’t fall out of practice, but to be a better and healthier space than graduate school was.
In order to build consistency and hopefully a larger community, we will make a few promises. First, we will release a monthly art drop. This will be writing and/or artwork that relates to a theme we have decided on working on and researching for the month. If you would like to participate, we can release the monthly theme along with the art drop so we can work together and discuss as a larger group as well. Second, we are committing to open sourcing the artwork and writing. We value participation above all else, and believe that knowledge should be denied to nobody. We do hope to build up subscriptions in the future (so that we can feed ourselves), but we hope we can balance access and the necessity of income. Because…
Our last promise presently is to take it upon ourselves to exuberantly embrace what we learn along the way. As Rick Rubin writes in The Creative Act: A Way of Being:
“To live as an artist is a way of being in the world. A way of perceiving. A practice of paying attention. Refining our sensitivity to tune in to the more subtle notes. Looking for what draws us in and what pushes us away. Noticing what feeling tones arise and where they lead. Attuned choice by attuned choice, your entire life is a form of self-expression. You exist as a creative being in a creative universe. A singular work of art.“
We want to thank you for giving us this chance already. This group is for us, but ‘us’ can be you as well, and the power of desire is felt strongest when employed within a community. So please feel free to partake, reach out, discuss, and enjoy yourselves.
With much love,
[[desiremedia]]
[[[elsie edwards & lyndsey gillespie]]]
collaborative projects seen through:
cycles of futility
mimicry & mirage