Thursday, May 24, 2012

Welcome to my new blog that documents my trip tp Ptuj, Slovenia, to participate in the artist residency of the ART STAYS Festival of Contemporary Art, 2012. I have been invited to do the residency, exhibit the work I do during the residency and give an artist's talk. I'm very excited about this opportunity to visit a new country and to show my work on an international stage.

I am taking my son, Owen, to work as my assistant on this trip. He will be my technical support, my go-for and he will document the whole process. In fact, I expect you will see more of his finger prints over this blog than you will mine once we are in the full swing of the process.

The plan is to fly to Berlin on July 15, where we will meet up with my old friend, Marek Schovanek. Marek is an exceptional artist who is playing a curating/artist role in ART STAYS. I'm very excited to see his work in Ptuj. Marek is going to play host in Berlin, and then we will drive down with all of our supplies and gear to Ptuj - about a 10 hour drive.

Before all of this, I have been trying to raise money to pay for this opportunity. ART STAYS is paying for about 1/3 of my travel costs and room and board, which is great, but I still need to raise about $4000. (CDN) to cover Owen's airfare and incidental stuff. SO - I've embarked on an indiegogo experiment. indiegogo is a crowd funding web tool that allows individuals and groups to raise funds for their cause. In exchange for "donations" people get "perks." I'm approaching it as a way to reach a lot of people to sell my work. I'm not really comfortable thinking of my work as a commodity, but it is my currency. I'm not sure if people are more moved by supporting my cause, or by the fact that they are getting a great deal on my work. For more information on my indiegogo campaign click on the link to the right, or paste this url into your browser: http://www.indiegogo.com/bendarrah-ptuj

After 24 days I am a bit past the half-way point of my $4,000. goal. This means I have sold over 20 works on paper to some wonderful people with great taste in art.

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