Everything Is Better Together

OK.  Maybe not EVERYTHING…but the right combination of things and/or people do, on occasion, add up to something much more than the sum of their individual parts.

My good friend Tzaddi and I have been talking (scheming might be a better word 🙂 ) about working on a project together.  I don’t want to spill the beans and spoil the surprise, but I will tell you that it plays to both our strengths and witty natures and I am SUPER EXCITED about it.

This won’t be the first time Tzaddi and I have collaborated artistically, but it will be the first time in a long, long while.

Back in 2003, before Tzaddi moved to the Sunshine Coast, I hosted a couple of art days in my studio.  We worked side by side at one of the studio tables, a stack of 5″ x 7″ heavy water-media paper and a variety of drawing and collage materials between us.  We would each start a sheet and work on it for a spell and then either trade off or put the piece aside and starting a new one.  We worked on multiple pieces, trading back and forth until we deemed pieces finished and put them in the TA DONE! pile.

Here are a few of my fav’s for your consideration (with Tzaddi’s permission, of course)…

High Single, 2003.

Executives In Motion, 2003.

So Big, 2003.

It wasn’t long before we were also using 6″ x 8″ unbleached cotton rectangles as grounds, too (can’t imagine whose idea that was  😉 ).

Real Fast, 2003.

From that evolved collaborative narratives that resulted in eccentric anecdotes.  We are both equally quirky in our writing styles (if it wasn’t for the handwriting on the original, it would be almost impossible for me to attribute which part belongs to which author) and many a snort-and-chuckle was emitted during the penning of these tiny tales.

The cat had begun to do some very strange things. 

It started with hiding Shirley’s underwear.  Shirley wasn’t all that worried at first.  She had heard about his kind of odd behavior in animals, especially if they had suffered a recent and profound trauma. 

It was when she came down into the kitchen one morning and saw a bunch of her panties artfully arranged and spelling the world “SCALAWAG” that she knew it was personal. 

When Tzaddi moved away and we stopped having shared art afternoons, the Co-Labs went into a storage box.  Every few years I’d stumble upon them during a studio purge and would be thoroughly delighted in experiencing them all over again.

I’m looking forward to working with Tzaddi once more – taking an occasional break from all the navel-gazing (or in my case, bat-gazing) – and reveling in the wonder that comes from creative, collaborative play.

Do you have a peer that you enjoy collaborating with?  Please share your experience (or even an image!) in the comments below.