"We live to create..."

El Travo Collabo hits the road! I just finished my section of the FIRST panel [16 x 20] and now the birchwood panel is set to begin it's 453 mile journey to Long Beach where my good friend, and heterosexual lifemate, CrashnBurn McGurn will attack it with her psychedelic-rock-n-roll painting skillz! 

My section of the panel is pretty simply, I just had the image of giving an inanimate object a breath of life, so I went with a super stylized bleeding heart with my signature gold rays in the background. Pretty simple this round, so next time i get that wooden baby in my hands, I'm going to have to really push it.

Travo Collabo contributor, Forest Stearns [www.draweverywhere.com], suggested that I consider a canvas scroll instead of a panel for the 2nd round. At first I thought "no", because I wanted to keep every thing uniform, but now that I think about it, a scroll is much easier to handle and ship AND it would give artists much more space to work with... thinking about it... hit me up and let me know what you think.

Creamos para vivir y vivimos para crear. [We create to live, we live to create]

ELROD

And so it begins....

Today is the official start date of the project, and so I will begin my part of the panel collaboration. After I finish my part, the panel will fly down south to my homegirl in long beach. pictures coming soon....

Getting ready to take off...

All the wheels are in motion and the Traveling Collaboration 2009 project is getting ready begin! For anyone who happens to stumble upon this blog, let me take a moment to fill you in on what this is all about.

I have been living in the Bay Area for close to a year now, and since moving here from Southern California, I have been amazed by the large quantities of art that is produced in this city and I have had the opportunity to connect with some of the most talented and absolutely prolific artists that I have ever met.  Meeting all these wonderful people has made me miss my Southern Cali [where I'm from] friends and artists more than ever and so this begins the story of "El Travo Collabo". I decided it wasn't enough to simply kick my own ass into painting-mode, but also decided to involve as many artists as possible. 

In case you are wondering, the title of the project is simply my spanglish take on the term "traveling collaboration". I'm a lazy latina who never bothered to learn/speak the language correctly, please excuse it. Funny enough, "TRAVO" translates to " I UNITE"... how do you like them apples?

The basic idea of the project is that a series of panels will be sent back and forth between artists who live in the Southern California and Northern California areas. It's kind of my way of uniting the two areas and connecting artists from different backgrounds. All artists involved range from fine artists, illustrators, wall scribes, body inkers, stencilists, imaginists, and then there's me. Once a panel begins its journey, it will first be prepared and sent out by myself, starting in San Francisco. Its next stop will be the doorstep of an artists in the LA area. That artist has exactly 2 weeks to do their part of the panel and ship it off to the next artist on the list [back up in Northern Cali]. This circulation will continue until the panel is completely covered and the panel is then labeled as "retired" and removed from circulation. A new one will go out in its place and will continue the circulation. A goal of 10 panels within one year is our objective and this will all result in 2 art shows; One in SF, and one in LA. 

It will be exciting to watch the panels evolve, as each one will have traveled thousands of miles and each will have its own story. Check back often as each artist will photograph the panel once they have completed their part and all photographs and commentaries will be posted here.

Thanks for reading, thanks for participating, and thanks for creating.

ELROD