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| Breaking the fourth wall to pieces... Found Art's Got Gingham from 12 years ago. |
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| Gingham makes you warm and fuzzy. |
1st March, Twenty-Twelve (Montreal) Now that
Found Art [see here] and its adherents have well-and-truly entered the mainstream it's about time we unearth some of it's roots. For sure it has a lot in common with
Folk Art [
see here] and
Outsider Art [see here] and the lines of demarcation get blurry when artists employ original materials in a combination with found articles (and then use words like 'demarcation'). However, some of the legitimization of the Found Art Movement must surely have come, in part, from the army of elementary school teachers out there in the trenches egging on their students to recycle cartons, toilet paper rolls, carpet off-cuts, Popsicle sticks and chicken-wire into sculptures. Usually these sculptures are of rather abstract shapes that might, with a heavy squint, look like something recognizable.
Got Gingham is full of art teachers champing at the bit to get in front of the kiddies of the world and encourage them to do delve into this great thing called Found Art.
Meanwhile it seems these days just about every Street Artist, Calligrapher, Spoken Wordsmith and anybody who knows how to hold a drum in one hand are able to dream up some kind of 'workshop' and thus get themselves into schools in order to grab the imagination of the next generation of up-and-comers...
Not a week goes by without receiving some press release about the great inroads some of these artists are making into the realms of
Service Learning [
see here] within the modern education system, so why not all us here at Got Gingham? No need--take a look at these gorgeous efforts from the young'uns of Montreal on display at
Le Biodôme de Montréal: FOUND ART... it's Got GINGHAM!
So if you can read this, and you've got Gingham, thank a teacher.
More Biodome action:
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| This guy's on the metro readying to go to work... |
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| ...for his job as poster boy at the Biodome. |
The Streets are full of Winter Gingham...
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| Shopping with your girl? Totally bearable if you've Got Gingham. |
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| Takin' your lame-ass friend out for coffee because he's broke? |
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| Perfectly agreeable diversion, as long as you've Got Gingham. |
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| Trying to get rid of last year's artwork at Expozine? No problem if you've Got Gingham. |
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| Trying to raise the price of your artwork at Expozine? Got Gingham and you can make 'em pay. |
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| Bored while out shopping with your friends? No problem, just stare out the window. |
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| Pulling off a heist and don't have the right driver? We've got your man, and he's Got Gingham. |
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| Life just one big hot potato? Not if you've Got your Gingham Mits about you. |
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| Who says winter isn't colourful? Sure, if you ain't Got no Gingham. |
And finally, Montreal Street Aritist Allison Gonsalves snapped for us this masterpiece from where else, but Place des Arts in Montreal. Lo and behold, here she has lovingly captured one of Montreal's least-known style icons, waiting for the Number 80 bus. Not too many people can pull this look off. Not too many people can grab a Gingham Get like this without ruffling a few feathers, so chapeau Allison. You got gumption, you got gall, but best of all, you Got us some Gingham.
Today's caption: "That's not all, folks."is a rip-off from a popular Hollywood dream factory, hoping you see how Gingham seeps into every aspect of the living universe and hopefully plays into your new appreciation for Found Art and a renewed use for garbage. It is brought to us by the Coalition to Save the Arboreal Rain Forests and a guy at the back of the Number 80 Bus in Montreal.
Found any art? Has it Got Gingham? Send it to gotgingham@gmail.com
