If you know me and have had art-related conversations with me, you probably already know about my undying love for Jon Rubin’s work. I can’t help it! He’s… a bright example of the generosity that art can initiate and encourage. His work is, at times, an illustrative way of conveying a variety of sentiment and statement. Sometimes his projects are light and teasing, ironic or cheerful. Other project seem heavier, attempts at minimizing the gap between artist and friend.
OK, hold on for a sec. Almost every week you’re going to hear this from me: it’s fine to disregard or ignore my commentary! Sometimes I get caught-up with writing and start liking to hear myself talk more than I like getting a clear point across. So scan over my words if you’re bored, just MAKE SURE you take a few minutes to actually LOOK at Jon’s work!
Take the time to read about a couple of his projects. Seriously, they’re each strikingly different, and whole-heartedly entertaining/inspiring. For those of you a little too lazy, here are a couple of his projects, photos & summaries borrowed from Jon’s website.
FREEmobile
Seattle Arts Commission, 2003
Every weekend during the summer of 2003 a custom modified 1968 Chevy step-van, with the word FREE boldly painted on it’s sides and a funk-based soundtrack coming from it’s speakers, toured through one south Seattle neighborhood (Hillman City) much like an ice cream truck. But instead of selling ice cream, the van hosted local residents or families who shared, for free, what they like to make or do with their direct neighbors.
Each weekend a different neighbor drove through the neighborhood in the van handing out free homemade stuff like hand-printed t-shirts, a personal coffee mug collection, homegrown pansies, and crotchet bookmarks, or free personal services like: hair braiding, psychic readings, bike repair, dance lessons, bird calls, and personalized poetry.
The project publicly acknowledges the idiosyncratic hidden talents and resources of the neighborhood. Like a moving museum that goes out to meet its audience, the FREEmobile was a dynamic venue for exhibiting and distributing local folk culture. The truck also became the stage for a weekly interactive performance. By allowing neighbors to share what they are naturally passionate about, the FREEmobile presented a comfortable way for people to meet each other. Each host individual or family was introduced to a larger segment of their community and visa-versa. The FREEmobile also presented a model for bypassing the commercial market system of mass-produced goods and services by keeping the entire project local and homemade, handmade, or homegrown.
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Photo album
Dublin Arts Commission, CA, 2004
For this project I visited 10 families in the town of Dublin, California and went through their photo albums with them. For each household I selected one photograph to be enlarged, mounted on plywood, and placed on the family’s front yard for four months much like a political endorsement poster or billboard.
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Eternal Happiness Flying Through The Sky
Pittsburgh, PA 2007
Custom designed posters with the statement Eternal Happiness Flying Through The Sky printed in watercolor ink. The text is designed to wash and fade away over time, leaving just the brightly painted background and the memory of the statement. 100 posters were placed throughout the city of Pittsburgh.
The last one gets bonus-points for utilizing screenprinting. But the other two are definitely my favorites of his projects.
You can read a neat little review about one of his early projects, Market Street Art in Transit, San Francisco, here.
One last thing: a friend of mine & artist, Terrence Boyd is working on a Rubin-helmed project, Waffle Shop; Terry produces the radio show. You should check out their website, and go here to read a great article about it that ran in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette. It’s an awesome project, organized by awesome people.