Too Hot to Play Outside

 

8/12/25 Collaborative artworks by MJ, Roy and Tina

With temps projected to hit the low 90s, Roy, Mary Jean and I decided to take our art play date indoors. Meeting in Caffe Ladro’s comfy AC, we spread out our mixed media tools for some collaborative art-making. With an approach similar to our exquisite corpse experiments, we each started a sketch by any means we wanted (from life, from imagination or from photo). At the end of the time limit, we rotated the sketches, and the next person continued working on the piece. Unlike traditional exquisite corpse, where the work done previously is concealed, we could see the entire work, which made the exercise both easier and more challenging. After the third round, the piece was deemed completed.

For the first series, we rotated the materials initially used along with the piece so that each piece would retain a cohesive look. For the second series, the materials were a free-for-all, so we could use whatever we wanted.

Completed collaborative pieces. Roy gave the bottom piece to our Caffe Ladro barista.

Completed collaborative pieces

All of the finished pieces were way more vibrant and colorful than any of us would typically achieve on our own. We all photographed each stage so we could see how the pieces progressed. In the photos below, I show the first stage of the two pieces I started; scanned above are those finished pieces. One challenge was simply stopping so that the next person would have some space to fill!

The throwdown photos show all six pieces we completed. What a kick in the creativity pants!

Look at how much this one transformed!

Shown here are the first stage of the two finished pieces
at top of post.