by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
There’s an old saying that “too many cooks spoil the broth.”
Based on the enthusiastic reaction from people who visited the Museum of Contemporary Art during First Wednesday Art Walk, that adage doesn’t apply to “Imagination Squared: The Creative Response Experiment.”
An installation of more than 900 five-inch-square paintings, each by a different amateur or professional artist, the exhibit in the museum’s Atrium Gallery began as an idea and grew into a community project.
Local artists Christina Foard and Dolf James started the project by asking colleagues who visited James’s studio to paint one of the small boxes while they were there. The boxes were then hung on a wall in a grid pattern to create an evolving work.
One thing led to another and eventually the decision was made to build hundreds of the boxes, give one to every local artist and exhibit the collection in a public place.
For the purposes of the project, the definition of “artist” was anyone with the imagination to create a square and the courage to have it displayed with hundreds of others for all to see. Foard and James used Facebook and Twitter to promote their idea and the final product debuted at MOCA Wednesday.
“There are artists represented from 7 months old to 97 years old,” said MOCA Manager of Communications Elsa Conway. “The project truly went viral into the entire community.”
“Imagination Squared: The Creative Response Experiment” will be exhibited through Nov. 14. For more information, visit www.mocajacksonville.org.
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