What is the relationship between the New Jersey (VAL) BUMPER to BUMPER and the R2001 eARTh Poster show? (Making a world safe for our children)  The eARTh Poster Project for Earth Day
http://artday.org/modules/xfsection/article.php?articleid=1
 

Story Time:. Personal experience. A few years back I attended a seminar on aggression control techniques: Exploring new and positive ways to respond to situations.

Quite a few people turned out! A few hundred, large room. I wasn’t alone in wanting to explore new ways of problem solving. All morning there had been excellent and upbeat speakers. Then the gears kicked up a notch and the speaker asked alternate rows of people in the audience to turn around and sit squarely facing the person behind us.

The person I was now staring at was a hefty six ft tall and somewhat pear shaped and smooth faced. I am a mere 5ft 50'ish woman. We were sitting at desks. As we resumed our seats facing one another between us was the desk surface.

We were instructed to arm wrestle and to keep score. I am a person who does not relish physical contact with strangers, such as hugging at church gatherings. BUT, we both groaned inwardly or outwardly, knowing in advance the outcome of this fiasco. Both of us caught up in our own un-comfortableness and the challenge of the next few moments..as there was a set time for this experiment. A bell rang to begin and five minutes latter another went off to stop.

We all turned back and settled down laughing, glad that was over and hoping that was the last of their novel personal contact ideas for the day.

Counts were asked for..and I had a learning experience which has colored my days since. Some scores were "one", then of course "two" or "three" and then the shock.."100", "200"...

We were so busy and so many people, unless you were next to those who had thought of something different, it was missed..

How do we think of answers where we all win on this shrinking earth with limited resources?

Art is a reflection of the times at hand and can be a search for new solutions. R2001 is responsible for a surge of creative activities. How do we create and nurture situations where experimentation can flourish?

In New York right now the artist Christo is getting ready to unfurl a project in Central Park for which the planning began 27 years ago.

The practice of art in our lives teaches us patience, seriousness of vision, imagination and tenacity..

R2001 is a unique experiment.

Which brings to mind the famous magician Houdini. One of his acts was a body prone on a table on the stage. A number of people were invited to come up from the audience and by extending a finger beneath, at the count of 3..lift

up! up! would go the body to the amazement of all.

Together we can levitate ideas..

bodies of work..

and take a lead with other leaders in solution finding.

All over America magnetic ribbons are in multiples on the backs and even sides of vehicles..(Support Our Troops) I don’t want to get into a political discussion here. That isn’t where my mind is going. Thanks to the Internet. We can take giant leaps over local politics and unite in new ways. As we come into this new territory we bring old ways with us. When I attended the seminar years ago I walked in with one set of ideas and out with another. About the same time period we received an e mail from one of the founders of R2001. At that time, that was a unique experience to receive positive encouraging words. Here were words from afar that our web site was being witnessed and welcomed to join with others.

The arts are a perfect place to experiment to make our environment a welcoming place for ideas.

Years ago VAL was invited into R2001. Since then a digital show has evolved from 25 States, 5 countries and about 40 artists and the work sent by these artists has been levitated by many, many people locally through persistence, tenacity and a dream.

The Digital show was one of many shows. Two medical students invited artists into the medical school and the first year our shows were met with nit picking and censorship. A year followed where the students showed nothing but empty frames. The following year we received a letter of invitation and a budget. Show after show and project after project has followed. Ideas are growing like seeds in hotbeds, a greenhouse..

 

We are welcoming the R2001 eARTh Poster project to UMDNJ as a kind of coming home.. It is with pride we can also welcome the show into the Bumper to Bumper show while it is at the University of Medicine and Dentistry or any time after.

 What is the relationship between BUMPER to BUMPER & the eARTh Poster show

The eARTh Poster Project for Earth Day
http://artday.org/modules/xfsection/article.php?articleid=1
 

Making a world safe for our children requires a world which welcomes and is receptive to our children’s highest dreams..we are the rich sediment to grow those dreams. Their roots will take off from where we leave off, reaching into new areas we cannot fathom.

Bumper to Bumper encourages the sprouting of ideas..where we can all see them, out on the road, in movement, where everybody is..jury yourself in.

 

BUMPER To BUMPER has evolved from R2001

thank you! VAL, Judy Wray