Giant Mobiles at Storm King and Socrates Sculpture Park 10/2012
We invited visitors to the sculpture park to build large mobiles out of fallen branches, leaves, and found objects. The mobiles were hung onto one another from the trees and portable flag poles combining into huge balancing collaborative creations.
freestyle art at queens mueum of art nov. 2011 "plastic bag installation
Visitors to the Queens Museum of Art were invited to add to a giant installation sculpture made of plastic bags.
"Object Garden" at Socrates Sculpture Park
We set in motion the creation of a giant field of drinking straws. Visitors to the park were offered as many colored straws as they could use, clear tape, and paper clips that they could use to "plant" their plantlike, creations in the ground. An organic garden of inorganic materials sprung to life. Thickets of neon creations dotted the landscape as well as rows of wheat-like stacked straws.
3D Stained Glass Art Installation- Queens Museum 3/13/2011
We installed a web of string from ceiling to floor, filling the center of a large, naturally lit gallery. Visitors were invited to choose from a buffet of large rolls of Colored Transparent Materials and cut out shapes to hang onto the web. A 3D stained glass installation was created that played with the light in amazing ways.
Home Art Ceremony; Potato Prints
I invited over a group of friends and had everyone carve their own print-blocks out of potatoes. Then, in a candle-lit ceremony we each, one at a time, walked in a procession to a pedestal displaying a white sheet of paper which we pressed our ink covered potato onto. Here are the photos and the prints we made. A ceremony of art-making with friends.
Articles about Free Style Arts
Write ups about Free Style Arts
Giant Paper Castle at the Queens Museum of art 12/2010
Greg and John building a castle with visitors to the museum using colored paper and hundreds of posters from 1979 with inspirational images like waterfalls and doves flying out of the clouds.
8.5" x 11"- Typing Paper Sculpture at The Queens Museum of Art
Free Style Family set up a participatory sculpture where visitors at the museum were invited to help buid a large sculpture made entirely out of 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper and scotch tape.
Free Style Arts Books
Books By Free Style Arts. Best to watch directly on flickr (bigger pages).
Participatory Tree Sculpture- Socrates Sculpture Park
Free Style Family was invited to do an art piece at the Makers Market this past summer at Socrates Sculpture Park. We set up a participatory sculpture where the audience helped build wooden trees and then over the weekend covered the branches with colorful leaves and blossoms.
Giant Participation Based Found Object Sculptures
These sculptures were built on street-corners all around NYC by hundreds of people walking down the street.
The Giant Musical Instrument Jam- Vernon Blvd. L.I.C. Queens 8/26/09
People in public places all around queens were asked to help build and play musical on, a giant xylophone with large keys of wood and metal. Over 50 drumsticks were available...
The Giant Musical Instrument Jam- Queens Museum of Art 9/6/09
People in the museum were asked to help build and play musical on, a giant xylophone with large keys of wood and metal. Over 50 drumsticks were available...
Free Style Family Slides
Paintings and Sculptures created collaboratively and many times with hundreds of people in public. NYC 1998-2004
The Giant Musical Instrument- Around Queens
More photos of the giant xylophone art piece that people walking by could either play on with hundreds of available drumsticks or help build.
"String Sculpture"- Queens Council on the Arts Event #4 in Long Island City
Aaron, Greg, and John set up an art project where they wore giant X's on their bodies and became the frame for a giant interactive string sculpture. Here they caught the lunch crowd at Citibank headquarters walking by and convinced many of them to take colored string and weave it into the web. The piece quickly became thick and beautiful. Sponsored by the Queens Council on The Arts.
"String Sculpture"- Queens Council Intervention #3 in Long Island City 8/27/08
Aaron, Greg, and John set up an art project where they wore giant X's on their bodies and became the frame for a giant interactive string sculpture where they got people walking by to take colored string and weave it into the web. The piece quickly became thick and beautiful. Sponsored by the Queens Council on The Arts
Free Style Family at Glasslands in Williamsburg
Free Style Family has presented many projects at the performance space, Glasslands in collaboration with it's co-owner Brooke Baxter.
"String Sculpture"- 2008 Mobile String Sculpture sponsored by Queens Council on the Arts Sunnyside
Aaron, Greg, and John set up an art project where they wore giant X's on their bodies and became the frame for a giant interactive string sculpture where they got people walking by to take colored string and weave it into the web. The piece quickly became thick and beautiful. Sponsored by the Queens Council on The Arts
Remote Control Art at Shea Stadium sponsored by QCA 2008
Free Style Arts set up large canvases outside of The Met's Stadium right before a big game. Remote control cars with markers attached to them were set on the canvas and people walking by were invited to draw by driving the cars. An amazing multicolor abstract line drawing was created.
"String Sculpture" Queens Council Art Opening
Our opening featuring the Mobile String Sculpture and photos of people building it in public places. Queens Council on the Arts sponsored the public interventions over the summer.
Second Sunday at Glass Lands Gallery November 11, 2007
This particular evening's activities featured performances by: Kurt Kaiser and Batter Recharger
Sept. 2007 SPONTANEOUS SCULPTURE Sponsored by a grant through the Queens Council on the Arts, Sunnyside, Queens
Sept. 2007 large collaborative sculpture sponsored by QCA through the NYSCA Sunnyside, Queens
Sept. 2007 SPONTANEOUS SCULPTURE Sponsored by a grant through the Queens Council on the Arts, L.I.C., Queens, Jackson Ave.
People walking by were invited to rumage through our bins of materials and add to a giant sculpture.
August 2007, SPONTANEOUS SCULPTURE Sponsored by a grant through the Queens Council on the Arts, L.I.C., NYC
People walking down Vernon street in L.I.C where suddenly approached and asked if they would like to add to the sculpture. Using large plastic tubes, clear tape, and specially selected objects a giant and wonderful sculpture was constructed from by the many people who participated.
Socrates Sculpture Park Halloween Celebration October 20, 2007
Two pieces were enacated at Socrates Sculpture Park in October 2007. "Jack o lantern balloons" involved wearing a table that had little pieces of colorful sticky foam in jars on it. People were given orange helium balloons and invited to create a face on their balloon. The Human Canvas was also in action with Aaron wearing a tyvec suit, getting everyone to stick colored foam peices in a collage all over his body.
March 2007 fort sculpture comissioned by Lagurdia College New York
People walking by were asked to add this fort sculpture using cardboard and other materials provided.
March 2007 t.v. tracings comissioned by Lagurdia College
People walking by were coaxed into posing in front of a security camera. Another person was then asked to trace the person on the video screen onto a transperent film. The tracing were then put on display. Even the security guards got into it.
March 2007 paint on t.v.s comissioned by Lagurdia College
People walking by were coaxed into creating a painting on a stack of televisions on a pedestal.
March 2007 human canvas comissioned by Lagurdia College
Free style artists wore blank canvases on their bodies. The canvases had paint cups and brushes attached. People walking by were asked if they wanted to paint and at least a hundred did.
spring 2007 "Choose Your Own Adventure" installation at the Glasslands Gallery williamsburg NY
Visitors to the gallery were invited to use art supplies provided to make a little scene to add to the giant diorama installation that filled the space. they used found objects, toy characters, tape, string, and glue to build their scene on any of the many diorama surfaces set up around the gallery, covered with green grass and tiny architectural trees. Throughout the show hundreds of photos were taken of the changing landscape, and projected on the walls of the space.
Sept 2006: Human Pedestal at GlassHouse Gallery
Glasslands mastermind Brooke Baxter stood as a pedestal and free style family got the audience to add build a sculpture on her using provided materials.
fall 2006 human canvas sponsored by Queens Council on the Arts NY
Free Style Artists wore canvases on their bodies and convinced people from the community walking by to paint using the paint and brushes attached to the canvases. This public interventionist sculpture is entirely mobile. The finished paintings were then put on display in a QCA sponsored art show.
fall 2006 human canvas NYU research prototypte brooklyn NY
Free Style Artists wore canvases on their bodies and convinced people passing by to paint using the paint and brushes attached to the canvases. This public interventionist sculpture is entirely mobile.
Aug 2006: Remote Control Art in England w/ Mark Seiltz
The cars the whizzed, the cars they drew, the fun was has, by all - not a few.
June 2006 make your own zoo animal socrates sculpture park new york
Visitors were involved in building their own sculpture of a life size zoo animal. Materials provided were cardboard, construcion paper and tape. Following the project many of the animals were displayed in a Free Style Art show.
may 2006 the human canvas comic book miss williamsburg Brooklyn NY
John Cloud models a human comic book suit where party goers are gently coaxed into drawing pictures for the comic book or words in the voice bubbles. A suit is created that tells an abstract and interesting story of the evening.
Oct 2005: Make your own fairy tale costume
Fairy Tales reconsidered; featured John Kaiser of free style arts peice where manaquines are set up in the gallery and visitors are invited to use clothes from the racks, as well as fake mustaches, earing, etc... to dress and redress the characters, thus revising the traditional stereotypes hidden in societies most innocent places.
fall 2005 long brush painting at The GlassHouse Gallery williamsburg
People were invited to come up on stage from the audience and add to a painting using a 10 foot log brush.
July 2005: String Sculpture at Socrates Sculpture Park
People walking through the park were offered a long piece of colored string and invited to add it to a giant sculpture by tying it in the trees and stretching it to other strings.
summer 2005 3 dimesional Sunset Collage
People walking through the park at the summer solstice were coaxed into cutting and adding transparent colored material to a giant hanging collage. As the sun set it lit the collage aglow.
summer 2005 card house art installation for queens museum of art in Battery park
People walking by were asked to add to a giant card city sculpture. They were given playing cards, tape, and wire, and hundreds added their own touch.
June 2005: Paint Golf, Commissioned by Queens Museum of Art
We enticed people walking by to add to a painting by playing golf with a ball dipped in the paint color of their choice.
June 2005 : Rome, Built in a Day at Socrates Scuplture Park
People walking by were offered cardboard and tape and were invited to add to the creation of a giant fort.
fall 2004-spring 2005 Remote Control Art at the Queens Museum of Art
Free Style Art exhibit at the Queens Museum of Art featuring remote control cars with markers attached to them. The cars are set on a canvas in a large low vitrine and the viewers can drive the cars around with remote controls, and "Draw". Each week the canvas is removed and hung on the wall behind the vitrine and a fresh blank canvas is placed under the cars.
string sculpture for QMA at culture fest 2004
People strolling through Culture Fest 2005 were coaxed into adding a peice of colored string to a giant sculptural installation. Commissioned by the Queens Museum of Art.
Remote Control Art
A large canvas is set up in a gallery or public setting. Remote control cars with paint markers are set on the canvas and people walking by are coaxed into driving the cars and "drawing" on the art piece.
The Human Balloon Animal
People walking by are coaxed into attaching a balloon animal to a freestyle artist. The artist is wearing a special harness with pockest for the balloons but quickly balloons are tied to balloons and before you know it the artist is not visible anymore. There is just a giant, beautiful, moving sculpture that asks people to be the artist.
The Human Canvas
A Free Style Artist arrives at an event or public location wearing a suit that can be painted or drawn on, or two canvases on their body. The "Human Canvases" coax people walking by to paint or draw on them, getting everyone involved in a a fun noncompetative art project that becomes a unique documentation of that day.
ARTicipation workshops
P.S.1 MoMA, the Queens Museum of Art, the New York Hall of Science, the New York Parks Department, and Socrates Sculpture Park are just some of the museums and institutions that have featured Free Style Arts projects through their education departments. "Free Style Arts Association has participated in numerous family programs at the Museum providing interactive art activities that are thought provoking, participatory, and playful." Laura Groskinsky, Queens Museum
In school and after school arts-in-education classes
Free Style Arts workshops have been taught to hundreds of students at many schools in the New York City area. Programs are available for special needs groups, E.S.L., parent programs, and staff development. All workshops can be integrated into the curriculum being currently studied by the class.
Classroom T.V. Station
Click the link here to see some example cartoons made by students... www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHKXya8ocXo Using digital video cameras and sound recording equipment students make A T.V. show, news show, animation, music video, advertisement campaign, or documentary.
Classroom Art Museum
Students create their own contemporary art museum featuring murals, abstract paintings and sculptures, portraits, costumes, puppets, picture books, large installation sculptures, and more.
Visual-art assembly performances
Free Style “Arts on Stage” assembly show has been performed thousands of students at many schools throughout the NYC area. click this link to see a 3 min. video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC_00DrC4g8
Hands-on art-making field trips
A field trip with Free Style Arts is the best way to experience being a public artist first-hand.
After-school arts workshops at The GlassLands Gallery
For students in grades 4-12. Free Style Arts after-school workshops connect top local artists with serious students and school groups at The Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg Brooklyn.
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