rejection, seems to be going around- On to the Next Thing then

Hello Tereza,

The Arts Commissioners don't have any specific ideas but we'll keep you in mind.

Thanks,

Mary


February 28, 2009

Dear Mary Yelanjian and Redmond Arts Commission Office,

I am an artist and a resident of Redmond wanting to participate in the arts of this community through a public art piece. Currently in my second semester of graduate school, I am focusing on public art as a topic for this semester and exploring how to integrate my practice with the community.

In these economically challenging times as in times of any crises there is at the same time great potential in that there is a pause, a settling of debris, to reflect and rethink our values; time of restructuring and reevaluating. We are responsible for creating the economic system- we too are the ones who can uphold it, alter it, and demolish it. The question we are facing then is what kind of system do we as citizens want to promote?

Pondering this question is what I have started centering my art around. Art has a potential of showing us another way of being, another way of living. The answer may lie even farther than our own scope of understanding but we can start envisioning the possibilities. (Please view my slide show at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31808466@N06/sets/72157614175822764 It is a sight specific piece from Montpelier, Vermont.)

I would like to organize a similar piece to the one in the slide show above, here in Redmond on any public wall or sidewalk that has substantial traffic. I would pose a similar question: Please write down what it is you truly want. Then I would ask the viewer to write down an answer, which I would then trace and possibly enlarge and then blur into the background to make room for more wants. I would work on site for the duration of the piece up to one month. In the end, we would see the abstract landscape of our wants and simultaneously with the documentation of the process, I would develop a slide show for the city of Redmond similar to the link above.
Please let me know if there is such a possibility, space for this public art work here in Redmond.

Thank you for your time, Tereza Swanda