Sunday, September 30, 2012

Art Abandonment, Part Two

Over the course of several days, I abandoned all six of the altered matchboxes I glued, painted, and sewed for this project.  I have now posted them all in the Facebook group  Art Abandonment.




#1--On Wednesday I left the first one on a bench in Colonial Williamsburg, Va.



I watched this woman with a lot of bags sit down right next to it and she didn't even notice it!  *Sigh*  After that I decided to make the rest of them more prominent by adding a fluorescent-yellow index card with the words "Free Art!" to the packages.



#2--On Thursday I abandoned the next one near the hand of a famous American...



...Thomas Jefferson, also in Colonial Williamsburg (which shall henceforth be referred to as "CW"!)



#3--On Friday I walked unnoticed to the upper floor of the public library and left this matchbox on a computer keyboard in the Art section.  (Clever, huh?)  There was no one else upstairs, so it might have taken a while to be noticed.



#4--On my way back to the car, I stopped outside the library in the pretty area with fountains and a pergola.  I left this matchbox on the seat of a chair.  There it is, on the chair on the right.



#5--On Saturday my daughter Jenna came with me as I returned to drop off the last two altered matchboxes in CW.  Can you see this one on the bench in front of Jenna's knee?



#6--I left the last one on yet another bench in CW.  I think the best way to abandon art in a crowd is to sit down and casually set the art beside you; then wait a moment to be sure no one is looking at you, and walk away.  (You want to be sure no one is looking so they don't yell "Hey lady, you forgot something!" and come running after you with the art!)


So far there haven't been any e-mails saying the art has been found.  It would be interesting to continue doing this just to see how many I have to abandon before I get a response!   Of course, the point is to set the art free with no expectations other than the hope that someone will find it and love it.  Getting an e-mail from the finder would just be icing on the cake.

5 comments:

TinaW said...

I love the last photo of you just sitting there looking innocent. Wouldn't it be a nightmare to have someone run after you with the art? I've abandoned several objects so far with no response but I'm still hopeful each time I leave something. The process is so much fun!

Alexandra Abarca said...

Hi Leslie, your idea is great, well I hope you will recibe a email soon.

Have a nice week.

Ale
Costa Rica

craftmates said...

What a great idea Leslie! I would love to find one of your "free art".

Unknown said...

hey leslie---so nice to see you and jenna!
the free art card inside is right on i think and leaving an email so that the art can be tracked is great.
i LOVE the photographs! heeeee heeeeee!

LimeRiot said...

I would be thrilled to find one of your little treasures, Leslie! I think adding the "free art" sign was a good idea to bring attention to it.