Holiday Parade was a Success

SUCCESS!

First, a big thank you to all the students, parents and friends who came out to support Reston ArtisTree in our first public performance.

Seven of our dancers performed for the crowd and were well received. Thank you Miss Amanda and girls for a great performance.

The weather was beautiful and not too windy, which made carrying the banner much easier. Thank you to all the people who added their personal touch to the banner and Marco for sharing his artwork (PLU), canvas, engineering skill, and guidance in the construction of the banner.

Thank you to Larry for the photos.

And finally a huge thank you to Margo for registering for the parade, herding cats, and helping it all come together for a fabulous day.

Collaboration and Flow

This evening the posts are flowing! Margo was working on some script before she decided to document the process instead. Unfortunately there are no photos of the effort, but you will see her work in the upper right corner.

I sat back and watched the right and left brain artists battle it out. Fascinating to say the least.

The idea of being in the Reston Holiday Parade came about a few weeks ago. At that time we batted around a few ideas, and there were some grand schemes! Over time, we kept refining the ideas, until today when we actually put it together. The final idea was influenced by the t-shirts (no pix until after the parade!) that we picked up this morning.

We are about recycling and reusing, so Marco's banner from the first Lollapalooza at Lake Fairfax makes a return after 18 (!) years. With the banner, t-shirts hot off the press and looking around at what we had, the final idea was constructed.

We figured a way to 'carry' the banner (bamboo) and added more art. You can see what I am talking about from the two previous posts.

All very exciting, at least for the five of us working this evening. Tomorrow, we will add more doodles and make final preparations for the parade.

We hope to see everyone at the parade, 11 a.m. Friday.

Kids Start Doodling

J creating.

It's 9:00 p.m. and the kids got right to work creating their own doodles for the parade banner.

J and Greg collaborating.

Z posing.

Countdown to the Parade

Marco and Greg have been busy preparing the artistree banner to carry in the parade on Friday.  In the true spirit of "use what you have," Marco has recycled his 18 year-old PLU banner (long-time Restonians may remember seeing it from Wiehle Avenue as you approached Inlet Court).  PLU is Marco's character who represents Peace, Love and Understanding.  

On the other side of the 8' x 10' banner is a blank "create here" canvas, where anyone is free to doodle.  It's a giant version of the "create here" t-shirt, which is a larger version of the "create here" canvases you'll soon found in your favorite Reston hangouts.  

Groundworks Takes a Field Trip

On Wednesday, November 19th, many of the Groundworks dancers met at the Reston Community Center's Center Stage to see Doug Varone and Dancers in concert. They were joined in the audience by a contingent of Ms. Studd's GMU students. Throughout the performance, the young dancers sat in rapt attention as they watched artistry in motion. The Varone dancers' combination of athleticism, artistry, energy and expressiveness made for a truly engaging and memorable performance. Many thanks to the Reston Community Center for arranging this experience for our students!

Long Time Coming

After several months of saying, "We should have a blog," I decided today would be the day to actually start it. (Hey! Did someone slip some Adderall in my coffee? Thanks!)

With this blog, we hope to keep interested (and interesting) people informed about artistree's various projects, including the search for a permanent space, new classes, special events and art happenings in the area. We'll also post photos and videos of our artists in action.

This will also serve as the gallery for our "Create Here" project. Soon you may find one of the miniature canvases we've strewn about Reston. These canvases come with some cray-pas and instructions to "Create Here". Our hope is that those who come upon these little art kits will create original works on the spot, leave their work for others to enjoy and email us a photo of the finished work. (An artist may even leave a note inviting others to add to the work.) We'll post the photos and try to track where these works end up.

Our first big special event is coming up this Friday! Please come see us in the Reston Town Center holiday parade. Members of all the branches will march along -- some dancing, some skateboarding, one filming -- and all promoting the "Create Here" campaign with their blank canvas t-shirts. Young dancers from the Groundworks Youth Dance Ensemble will be performing at the grandstand area. Maybe you'll even find one of those nifty little canvases, if you look hard enough!