Beautiful Times
My name is Hyland Mather, I go by X-O as my artist name. I'm the long time owner of Andenken Gallery. I'm undertaking a project with my artist friend, Amanda Marie...some of you might know her under her moniker seeyouthroughit or Mando.
This summer we are headed out on an 'ART' road trip from Colorado to New York, but as we do it, we want to support some causes that we both believe in...so we've dreamed up 'Beautiful Times'.
Simply put, our children are worth protecting, and so are our wildflowers. Pretty hippy stuff actually. ;)
We've picked a pair of organizations that deserve our efforts and we aim to make contributions to each through your support and our hard work.
The Morgan Adams Foundation (pediatric cancer research)...
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (self explanatory)
Morgan Adams does an event that both Amanda and I have contributed artwork to, called ARTMA, it's an art auction aimed to raise money for pediatric cancer research. We thought with Beautiful Times we could go a step beyond our usual donation and do this murals tour.
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center...neither of us has ever worked with them before, but the cause is noble and we're both sorta mega into the theme right now. Plus, Mando is a true green thumb.
That's the bones of the idea. We want to do a cool tour and we want it to benefit some worthy causes. We've got good walls and project places lined up in Denver, Boulder, Philadelphia, Beacon, and NYC. We've got great allies in all those places. The project site is: beautifultimes.net
If you like what we make and you like the idea of helping out some deserving causes, we might be a match for your contributions, plain and simple.
What is in it for you, What is in it for us?
Well for you...basically we've got some perk tiers, and they range from $20 for a screen printed postcard and a generous thanks to $650 for an original Amanda Marie painting on paper.
We are trying to raise a total of $35000 USD...this isn't too much money really, but it will help these causes.
Here is how we see it breaking down...We want to do 7 or 8 mural / installation projects on our 3.5 week trip, all along the way we will be documenting the project with video and pics and building awareness for the causes we are supporting.
But being realistic, it's gonna cost a sizable chunk of the pledges towards the total goal just to do the projects...travel, accommodations (though mostly we'll be couch surfing and vanpiring) , food, paint, tools, mural making supplies...it all adds up.
In the end we hope we can reach our goal to donate $7000 to $12, 000 to each of the charities.
If we don't reach our total goal, we'll bite the stoopid bullet...for every penny that comes in at least half goes to the charities...
Why Why Why?
We're going to go out and do this project anyway, it's fun stuff, it's Beautiful Times. We are going on a road trip and we're gonna make art. The point is, we can do this in a way that benefits some other people, some deserving people. You know, Street Art, Urban Art, Graffiti...it's got a strange vibe in a lot of people's minds...which is fine...totally fine. But, we want to show what a strong community can do behind a couple of artists that have positive goals with worthy causes in mind.
I've been working on big good projects for a long time and we always seem to make them work. We hosted the Manifest Hope show at the Democratic National Convention when Obama was trying to get elected the first time in 2008. Last year we worked with the Dutch Consulate in New York to bring 20 artists together in Miami for an amazing mural project called Caleidoscoop. Beautiful Times is just the latest in a chain of positive projects that stretches back more than 15 years.
Risks & Challenges
I'm a little nervous about bringing our vision outside of our normal realm of our regular 'street art' community. We're going to be working with urban farmers and gardeners and all kinds of folks we might at first feel a bit estranged to. Amanda grew up on a farm so she'll get in the swing soon enough, and I've worked in all kinds of places from dishpits to the north slope oil fields, from hockey rinks to ice cream shops...I'm pretty sure I can settle into a groove with almost any kind of person, but it is a bit 'off compass' for us...and that's part of the challenge and fun. I just hope they like what we make.
The other big challenge is emotional and creative exhaustion. By the time we get done in New York...one of the cities that we must truly kick ass for...we're either going to be totally wiped out or totally in the groove. All we can do is hope that it's the latter.
Other Ways You Can Help
Help us spread the word and point people to this indiegogo campaign. We have a cool lil project and it's just what it says it is 'Beautiful Times' . As we work on this project and we make it succeed, it then becomes an inspiring example for other artists who want to hit the road and do it in support of their own ideas of something good and beautiful.