Mosaic the Market: Project Journal Page 5

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Recycled Art Workshop And Competition	Recycled Workshop and Competition August 27th and 28th 2003 These days were fun. Really fun! It was wonderful to watch all the imaginations and creativity flow into great pieces of recycled art. 22 participants designed and built their own recycled treasures out of materials that would have ended up in our landfills.
"Use what you have"	Piles of junk and stuff were laid out in the center of the workshop and participants were asked to choose a selection of items to start with. These photos were taken to show what they started with, to what they ended with. The results were wonderful
Two of our main participants in the first Community Unity project were a new family that just moved to Victoria this summer. They both spent many hours at the mosaic project and the mother has become the Lead Volunteer for Mosaic the City. It was wonderful to be able to support this new family with Victorian community hospitality. They even started inviting their new neighbours. Great!	Elephant These workshops provide the opportunity for anyone to participate, meet new people, make new friends, feel like they are at home.
	Through out all Mosaic the City project the idea is to bring people together in a creative, relaxed atmosphere. It is so wonderful to provide the opportunity for people of all ages, cultures and back grounds together for one common purpose- Community Unity.
The other great value is to bring families together to have fun. These three stayed most of the day working on their various creations. They ate their lunch together on the bench beside the workshop and just were, with us, all day. It was a wonderful way for this family to spend their day.
Robot	Community Unity is the idea that strangers can come together under one premise- to have creative fun.
Allowing people to "use what they have" encourages the idea of just because its broken does not mean its garbage approach to art.	It is amazing how many things we easily throw way because we can no longer use it for its original purpose. These types of workshops help educate on how to create something out of nothing and have fun too.
Here, a lady takes an old broken speaker box and some various other supplies and starts her creation. What an amazing transformation, from broken speaker boxes to a light box surprise and a person in a box.	Box Creations It is so great to watch people working together on a common goal. Here, Peter, a local artist, helps to get the speaker boxes apart, so the creativity can start. Later in the project, this participant's mother joins to start creating her own treasure box of sorts. Again the project brings together families creatively.
Junkputer To watch someone take a pile of junk and let their imagination go crazy is fabulous. It was really an interesting process to observe participants take their stack of stuff and create their own piece of recycled art. Cool.
Throughout the workshop volunteers help participants turn their ideas into reality. What a wonderful process.	Stro-Crane
Some of the participants had such wonderful ideas and creativity it took them both workshops to complete their works of art. This lady took an old '70's lampshade, many cool old broken nick-knacks, other old shiny things and tons of imagination to create her "House of Fun."	House of Fun This piece blew us all away. It has moveable parts, an interactive kaleidoscope of sorts, and other funky details.
	People just loved it and had to take a moment and explore this true "recycled treasure." Totally the purpose of our recycled art workshops.
It was really a joy for Shylene to share her understanding of "use what you have" approach to art. Throughout the workshops Shylene gathered new understanding of the value of this method, and how it could be taught to others.
	People really enjoyed themselves in these workshops. There were no rules to follow and lots of opportunity to learn and share with one another. It was a great way to encourage an open-minded approach to creativity.
Lady on Wheels It was so fun for Shylene to watch some of these recycled art creations evolve, as most of the recycled materials came from her own collection of "stuff".	Shylene could remember where each piece of these puzzles came from and could tell a story about all of them. The range of recycled mosaic pieces go from unutilized gifts to unused precious items from the junk drawer. Donated items from relatives...the pieces we "just can't throw away"...are all collections for the sculptures...all a little part of both Shylene and the community. This proud artist poses with their finished work.
	A few local artists lent their support through out the project. It was important to Shylene to have the validations from the artistic community to be sure she was going down the right track. The response to the recycled art workshop was so positive and supportive that Mosaic the City is hoping to host another one soon.
The workshops were barely long enough for some of these creations to completely evolve.	Quite a few of the more enthusiastic participants took their uncompleted works home to continue working the magic of the piece. All participants were reminded to continue to only "use what they have" and no one should purchase or break anything to create with.
Some of the creations participants made were traditional and had a crafter's flair.	While others took many elements and mixed them together to create something neither traditional or craft like.
But both took "what they had" to create a piece that was little bit like them.	The character of a person can be mimicked in their work, especially when the imagination is made to work so hard.
	Information was listed about the workshops throughout the summer in local newspapers and magazines. Plus posters and handouts where spread out throughout the city to bring awareness to the idea and the workshops. Many of the participants came to the project through this information.
A few of the participants were only passing by the workshops and got sucked into the fun.	These two visitors from Edmonton came to use the broken pay phone, but after waiting a long time they noticed some enticing materials in our pile of stuff. So before long they had postponed their planned adventure up island to stay and create art with us.
	The atmosphere we want to encourage around Mosaic the City project is one of relaxation, comfort, friendship and okay love too :)
The Rock Solid Foundation's Kim Coyle and volunteer Ron, came down to lend their support and creativity to the project.	Another goal of the Mosaic the City Initiative is to bring local organizations, societies and groups together to share and learn with and from one another.
Styro-Man One of the material that we are constantly being bombarded with is Styrofoam. This is a common used packaging material, which is almost impossible to get rid of. At the project there was a large container of pieces of Styrofoam so Shylene decided to make her Styro-Man.	She used an old broken plastic lawn chair, a toy farm house, a plastic fish bowl filled with stuff and tons of hot glue to create this strange man.
The finished projects looked great together on the table. What creativity, what imagination!
It was a blast. Keep collecting all that 'too good to throw away stuff'' and watch out for our next Recycled Art Workshop :)	Thanks to all of you who shared your energy, creativity and time to hang out at our Community Unity Project :)