How do you make a creative community project suitable for Covid times? Back when lockdown commenced, this was the question that stimulated my idea for Art ALIVE!
I found Alan Baker’s stunning artwork in by chance when I was given a trial subscription for Country Life magazine, and was absolutely delighted when I was given full permission to reproduce it with my own poster design (and here my friend Ruby, from Meraki Design Studios, helped create the perfect final image). Then the printed poster was cut into 100 tiny pieces; our volunteers had to scale up their mosaic piece to the given size, matching lines and colours with as much precision as possible, without knowing in the least what the final image would be. What started out the size of a large book ended as big as a garage door! The Grand Unveiling took place at the heart of the village, outside the Corner Stores, in early September.
Janet and I piecing the 100 tiles together.
The moment of revelation!
What we see in this delightful patchwork of colour and joy is how each individual contribution is vital for the whole. From teenagers to great-grandparents, men and women of all ages joined in. This is what community is all about, and it is what we love about Kimpton. Aren’t we lucky?
Thank you to all you artists, and to everyone who supported Art ALIVE!
Carolyn B and Carol L, encouragers
Bob and Mick, Bench Working Party, supply and build of stand
Artscape Harpenden, card supplies and laminating services
Sanjay and Anita, exhibition space
Janet and Juliet, jigsaw companions
Juliet and Wendy, photographers
Alan Baker and Country Life magazine, permissions
Meraki Design Studios, poster design
The men of the Bench Working Party march the huge and heavy frame with the newly mounted mosaic to the exhibition space in Claggy Road.