Musicians collaborate. Dancers collaborate. Screenwriters collaborate. Yet, the visual arts are not prone to collaboration. Andy Wachs, life-long friend, fellow artist, and co-owner of Bend’s hottest new gallery, BICA, wondered why. In fact, we both wondered why, at a party at my house in 1984.
We agreed. There are no reason painters or sculptors shouldn’t work together, then we started slinging paint. The results were—they weren’t good. A hodgepodge. Pure mud.
But it was fun.
And we’ve been having similar art sessions ever since. For years, the results weren’t very good. But I looked at it as an exercise more than a production. And a great exercise at that. Solo painters can plan. They have only themselves to react to. But that can entice complacency, allow deliberation, kill spontaneously.
Having a collaborative art-session changes all that. You make a move. Then it’s their move. Yours. Theirs. Yours. Theirs. A volley. And just as you see something pleasant emerging—a direction you want to take, it disappears. You can’t fall in love with little bits of it. You have to relinquish expectations to the process.
It may not produce great art. But it will make you a better painter. I guarantee it. And eventually, you either get lucky, or learn how to harmonize with someone else’s aesthetic.
After years of our occasional impromptu art sessions, we finally did a couple good ones. Andy has one. I kept this one: Grid Panel #1.
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