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Finding Ways to Make the World a Better Place - One piece of art at a time
From http://www.madison.com/communities/found-art/ :
What if there was a way to heal the world -- to bring joy and peace to the planet -- and all it required was a few slips a paper and few minutes of your time? This healing won't happen in an instant. It is not a wand-waving magic trick. For Shari Vogt and the participants of the Found Art! project, these slips of paper are one small way they can make this world a better place.
Found Art! encourages people around the world to share their poems, favorite quotes, illustrations, collages, paintings, stick-figure drawings, etc. with the larger community. This can be done using little slips of paper, sometimes in the form of manila mailing tags. Others use plaster, fabric, or yarn to weave their creations. These mini works of art are left in public places -- tied on to trees, left on tables in restaurants or hospital waiting rooms, left in books being returned to libraries -- or given to friends, neighbors, strangers who look like they could use a smile. Those who find the art log into the Found Art web site to find out more about the project and the artist.
This is not a project solely for "authors" and "artists," Shari insists. This is a project for everyone! Poet Muriel Rukeyser once said, "A work of art is one through which . . . the artist is able to give [her] emotions to anyone who is prepared to receive them. There is no such thing as bad art." Vogt agrees wholeheartedly and adds that art is an expression of the soul. When souls meet, people change and the world changes.
"Each piece of art represents one hand reaching out to another -- not just another of the same class or gender or age or race or belief," Vogt explains. "Art is left in public places for anyone to find. This erases physical boundaries, judgments, prejudices." Vogt believes that this project will introduce neighbor to neighbor. People will "interact," maybe only virtually, with people outside of their normal comfort circles.
How will this heal the world? "If you know something about your neighbor's soul," Vogt says, "you might be less inclined to cut her off in traffic or throw trash on his lawn. You'll begin to see others as "us" rather than "them." We are more alike than what we are able to see on the surface. The only way to see this is to share little parts of our souls. And by sharing these parts of our souls, we unite, become one, and heal our planet together."
Shari Vogt, the founder of Found Art, can be reached at shari@found-art.com or (608)276-9208.
Found Art
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