Look. Slowly.
440 Gallery in Brooklyn, NY is participating in Slow Art Day 2012- see more info
Image source: www.shaneeart.com
Category Archives: Blog
“Phantom Tattoo” by Gene Davis
Look. Slowly.
Image source: http://denverartmuseum.org
Denver Art Museum is participating in Slow Art Day 2012- see more info
Slow Art Day Logo Design, the back story
In early 2009, California-based designer Richard Kramer met Slow Art Day founder Phil Terry in New York while attending the Gel conference. Richard took an immediate interest in Slow Art Day and offered to join the volunteer effort to grow the movement. After the meteoric growth of Slow Art Day over the next two years, Phil knew it was time to create a new logo and website to facilitate and support the goal of growing to thousands of events around the world. Given Richard’s background in design and digital media, he was a perfect fit for the job.
The process of designing the logo was a truly collaborative effort between Phil and Richard. Phil wanted something that communicated the many facets of Slow Art Day: art, global, community, grassroots, and slowing down. He knew the logo needed to become an instantly recognizable mark that would translate across all types of media. But how do you capture the abstract concept of slowly looking at art in a single visual image?
Richard began by exploring a few concepts that centered on people looking at and engaging with art and the emotions that come with it. Here is a sample of first sketches:
After further discussion and collaboration, Richard took these initial sketches and created three distinct logos:
Immediately, the iconized turtle in the far right logo caught Phil’s attention. Not only was the turtle a unique and easily recognizable image, it held kinship with the Slow Food Movement, which uses a snail in their logo. Richard began to explore options with the turtle including the iconized and character sketches below:
Once they settled on the image, it was time to select a meaningful color palette. Phil solicited help from his wife, Lisa Dombrow, whose lifelong love of art and her slow-looking practice originally inspired him to start Slow Art Day. Together with Richard, they chose a palette from the Vincent Van Gogh painting, “Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe (1889).” They thought the color palette from Van Gogh counter-balanced the whimsy of the iconized turtle and brought more serious attention to the practice of looking at and loving art, while the shape of the turtle’s shell evoked the global nature of the movement.
The new logo was launched with the revised website and in time to support Slow Art Day 2012, on April 28th. We look forward to it becoming a recognized global image as the Slow Art Day movement continues to grow.
“Transparencies with Blue Movement” by Raymond Jonson
Look. Slowly.
Image source: http://www.harn.ufl.edu/collections
Harn Museum of Art is participating in Slow Art Day – see more info
Look slowly. “The Return” by Manuel Izquierdo
Image source: www.pam.org
Register here for Slow Art Day Portland 2012: http://slowartportland2012.eventbrite.com/
“Days and Nights, Dawns and Dusks, East and West, North and South, Mine and Yours” by Ken Fandell
Look. Slowly.
Image source: http://mcachicago.org/exhibitions/collection
Voices” by Lynn McCarty
Look slowly.
Image source: www.nancyhoffmangallery.com
Slow Art Day – A Valentine for Art
Slow Art Day officially takes place this year on April 28th. But perhaps it should be held on Valentine’s Day each year, because Slow Art is really about loving art in a way we often share with loved ones.
Spending slow time gazing into a loved one’s face, seeing all the detail and finding surprises and insights is how we get to know another person. It is the same with art. Spending time and slowly looking gives us insight, surprise, joy, wonder, understanding, perhaps bewilderment, and most important our own experience that effects mind, body and something deeper.
Slow Art Day is a worldwide shared experience where on the same day every year small groups of people gather to visit an art museum or gallery in their city or town. Instead of the usual few seconds of looking at a piece of art, Slow Art Day participants spend 10 to 15 minutes or longer viewing each piece of five or more art works that were chosen by volunteer hosts. The participants simply view art on their own, without a docent or art historian to fill them in, thereby experiencing their own thoughts, feelings and insights. Participants can look at the art, sketch, journal, meditate, or what ever works for them (as allowed) to get to know the art. Then after viewing everyone gathers for an informal lunch and discusses their experiences of slow art.
Right now there are 47 sites around the world that will have a Slow Art Day experience in 2012. More cities will join before April 28th. Slow Art Day started in 2009 with four people at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Last year hundreds took part at 90 locations, on all continents, even Antartica. All the hosts are volunteers, there is no cost beyond admission and lunch. Go to the Slow Art Day website, look for your city and sign up. If there is no Slow Art Day listed where you are, volunteer to be a host. I have been a host, along with my friend Kelly Larson, for the last two years. We again will host the 2012 Slow Art Day in St. Louis at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. Hosting is very little work, and lots of fun.
Here are some photos from previous Slow Art Day events, from around the world.
And perhaps the best for last is the three year old painting. Here’s what was said by the Slow Art Day host: “Best Slow Art Day picture EVER. One of the participants of Slow Art Day sent me this picture of his 3 year old daughter after they both attended yesterday. She had never painted before, but immediately after they left she wanted to paint so he bought her paints, a canvas and an easel. Slow Art Day just inspired someone to start painting at 3 years old. It doesn’t get any cooler than that.”
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This blog post was published originally on Valentine’s Day 2012 at Creativity For The Soul blog, by Linda Wiggen Kraft
Towards Disappearance, II by Sam Francis
Look slowly
Image source: Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org
Lisa Quinones, Slow Art Day Serbia host, opens exhibition
Lisa Quinones, 3-time Slow Art Day host in Serbia, just opened an exhibition of her photography, “Balkan Odyssey, a Photo Exhibition by Lisa Quinones.”
The exhibition is at the Hellenic Foundation for Culture Kneza Milosa, 14, Belgrade, Serbia and will be running through February 3, 2012.
More information here: http://livinginbelgrade.com/event.php?id=58
Phil