MANT FARM

LBW (Lost Boy Wandering), Lazzlo, Hotpants, Ice King, Homegrown, Papi, ,Therapist, Berkley, Also, Legasurous, Muffy, Weeza, and many more with their self guided names make up the Sober Free Society, a creative crew that is starting a new dialogue about the social dimension of art.

This social dimension emerges from the creative incubator of Burning Man an art event held annually near the town of Gerlach, Nevada and uses a dried up lake bed as its canvas to build a city in a flash flood of 50,000 citizens and then in the desert heat it evaporates away leaving nothing more than a creative wake that can be seen across the world in music, photos, public works and the founding fabric of a sustainable 21^st century culture.

What makes the Sober Free Society unique is their ability to work together as a community. This mix of Millennials is breaking down, refining and rebuilding the art and social paradigm with a simple belief that creativity and self expression is a required evolutionary step forward and like the flame that creates the candy coating on a crème brulee the Sober Free Society is today’s cultural coating of community optimism.

This year Burning Man awarded them their second consecutive honorarium grant to build MANT FARM a human scale working vivarium – a “place of life” – that serves both as an interactive community playground and a laboratory in the desert to observe and study critical ideas in community. In 2009 they built a piece called ‘Evo-Wall’ that was pre-installed in Pioneer Square during art walk and invited the neighborhood to sign their names to the wall.

The MANT FARM will be a place to study the intelligence of the ‘Mants’ as they build bridges, dig subways, move mountains and a place to consider the ideas of citizenship. Does the ‘Mant Farm’ require a government to be organized? Do its participants become citizens? Do they need laws, customs, and civic systems? Watch them mature from individuals into families and into communities.

As one team member likes to declare. ‘It is complete boredom that leads one to the brink of genius.’ And it would appear that Burning Man is there playground and they are building the largest toy for everyone to play on.

Follow Mant Farm on Twitter. Click Here.

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"Imagine" by John Lennon

Artist Community 2009

421 E. Thomas

I bleed out my salted wounds,

Carthitic in the cold, exposed to

My own soul & it's desert dunes.

Today as many days before, as many

Times before, as many lives before.

I wander too explore, too find, too discover

A world unchanged & full of change.

Beneath the stars & beneath the moon,

I walk a path so familiar, yet all the faces

Are no ones faces.

I travel towards another day, I travel

towards another time, I travel towards

another life.

A life unknown, a life foretold.

It is life with its attention to

details with its intention for detail

that I follow.

@rtchival

University of Washington Mural Artists - 2004

Sherry Markovitz - Bellevue Arts Museum

Having arrived at the Bellevue Arts Museum Art Show a day early I was hoping to get some work done. Unfortunately none of the artists had arrived and the ones that had were too busy to talk. So, I ventured to the Museum and was delighted with the show. I may even have been inspired not to ever go big game hunting as every one of these wall mounts was extremely exquisite and much more exotic then any Alaskan moose or caribou. 

Pedro Lynch - At Ease - Warren G. Magnuson Park

This public art installation at the entrance of the park upon daytime viewing is a bit like expensive graffiti. However upon my first viewing at night I was surprisingly delighted with the additional feature. A beautiful and thoughtful piece. Thank you Pedro for making my late nights at the office a little more fun. 

Il' fait en complait

It may be hard to make out. But on that red barn is a mural of five beluga whales, 8 ft by 20 ft from 1992 last seen on Whidbey Island.  It is heavenly in disguise and was commissioned by my dear mother. 

It was lost from the family but then found it's way home at Bailey's corner.  For those marine art lovers this is a lost treasure waiting to be found.  

My page of city arts. . . .

This is the page that I designed for the July Launch issue of Seattle City Arts.  I am currently working on a full spread for August so keep your eye out for this hot second issue. I am not sure who is reading this non-sensical no-non-sense. 

But, for those of you who wear many hats in your scrappy company. The Blog has just become my new best friend thank you google and blogger. Of the many hats I wear the most contrasting are that of designer and copywriter. Talk about a spin on the left brain right brain, let's try using our entire brain. There is a great concept. 

It has recently been explained to me how my best qualities are wrapped right up with my worst qualities. Ain't that the shist of it. . . . . .  So here is my little rant to warm up my writing brain for what will be in the August issue of City arts. . . . the for shiznat get rid of and expunge the R.A.P. out of my written literary tongue. Fo-sure. . . . .  n don't yoo forgat fo-realz-y.

One of my new dream homes.

Talk about indoor-outdoor, bar-b-que fiastco. D - are you looking at this and taken notes. This is what I like, Green grass growing inside my house. Maybe even a tree or two.  For those of you who do not know my best friend from college, he is now a freaking artchitect for the raddest firm in the world. Word up. Straight two and a three. . . . This hizzy is a a spizz spout. 

Artificial Intelligence

Being one of the youngest of the Gen Xer's and the oldest of the Y Generation. What I have come to realize is that I am the first to have grown up with a personal computer since IBM released them to the masses. I was about five years old and my game of choice was Frogger. 

This Red screen is a photo I captured with the camera on my I-Phone. The intended image was of a poster in a coffee shop that I found quite appealing. However apparently my I-phone or as I like to explain to people my pocket computer decided to state his personal opinion. 

I love this picture as I feel that it is my I-phone attempting to express himself. Much like that of a two year old who is still learning to color with his box of 64 magical colors of crayola crayons. 

I often explain to people who have issue with their computers that perhaps if they treated their computer more like a person they would get better results. I have other examples of my computers doing what I would consider above the call of duty computing. IE - the computer performs a task without any instruction from me and it is helpful. The equivalent is if my pet cat started doing the dishes while I was at work. 

619 Western - June

619 Western offers a great opportunity to discover and uncover emerging talent. If you love the hunt for art this a location that takes commitment and dedication. I have been attending every month for four years and I would say that I find an average of one new artist per month who has great potential in this building. A great breeding ground for hot, Seattle talent.

David Weed

Seattle, Pioneer Square, First Thursday Art Walk

The Artchival team had a fabulous time at Seattle's First Thursday. This was are debut in town and we were received with open arms and enthusiasm. Thank you everyone who I worked with last night and know that we are busy editing footage and will be in touch shortly.

I found that place last night. I was so happy and excited documenting our local art scene. What excites me even more is the capability to share it with the rest of the world. A believer that art makes the world a better place providing an avenue to share it with those who are not able to access it is an honor.

I have spent the better part of my career exploring the different art scenes throughout America and have seen how different and wonderful every cities scene is and there are so many incredible and talented artists working all over. That sharing their work with each other I believe will only make artists and their art work that much stronger.

It has been my dream for a long time to travel the world as an explorer searching for emerging artists and then bringing them back to share with my friends in Seattle. Well, thank you technology that dream is becoming a reality. I have never known how this fantasy would unfold nor do I know the course and direction that it will take me. But, I do know that this adventure is revving up for very exciting times.

I do hope you enjoy this little blog and check it regularly as I will be very busy spending the rest of my life filling it with content and more content and more content.

@rtchival