Forest BB

Is it cool if I do something with one of the tables? Either a rectangular one in the main room or a square one in the red room.
I'm into the idea of letting the idea for what the design is, grow out of the Forest by adding bits of imagery ( drawings/bits of writing/collage/paint/whatever ) as and when I feel like. I'm hoping doing most of the work in the and having the freedom to do this as and when will make it easier to collaborate with people who happen to come by and give it a nice warm Foresty feel. I'm hoping another art project will grow from this somehow.
My tin of varnish says it dries in twenty minutes, so as long as I stick with the table for twenty minutes after I finish or a leave a large clear "this table has varnish drying on it, do not touch" sign it will be cool. I'll post this on the visual arts section too.

O.k. We are good to go with the table. This project is an open collaboration. After asking most of the people in the cafe, who seemed like they were interested we decided to base the design for the table loosely around the concept of peace. There is going to be a sun in the middle and the sunrays will be segregated into pieces that anyone is free to contribute their ideas to. Ideas being drawn, paintedl, written, comic, poetic, political, whatever. Hopefully one piece will inspire the next in a sort of artistic synergy. The pieces that go together best get stuck down on the table. The varnish only takes fifteen minutes to dry, so if we felt like it we should be able to another layer of pieces pretty easily. That means we can afford to be completely free and spontaneous.
We're going to start making a cardboard space rocket for the counter tommorrow too, if anyone wants to help. The rocket's peace-fuel is blasting out of the bottom. That's where you leave your contribution. Your piece on peace. Pieces most likely to be used in the table are the ones that are the most harmonius with the other pieces.
We're going to let the time spent doing this inspire a cool design submission for the back wall. At the moment we're imagining the sapce rocket flying through a back wall done in stylee Outer Space Graffitti art. and some UV designs.
This is going to be good, yeah?..
Emma, Jay and Me will be at Forest on Friday from four ish.

i was thinking about this the other day when I was cleaning the tables. I noticed that Magda's table is from 05, and I know the baby head one is a couple months older as is the Exploading Horse Car one.

So, I think maybe it would be better and more dada to paint over one of the existing arty tables as I like haveing some plain wood ones and would hate to see them all disappear under varnish.

Am i crazy? Anyone want to authorize the Danny crew to have at their table? It seems the baby head one is the oldest and could be the first to fall...? Objections, comments?
ryan

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

Yeah, I'm down with that. I'd say baby head and then exploading horse car - whichever they'd like to take a crack at.

If a table design is really deteriorated then it's worth thinking about doing a new one. But don't talk about it as if it's just a paint job. These designs are people's art. Have some respect.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. I don't want to kill someone's art work, unless they most definately don't want it any more. Maybe people might want to hold onto their tables, give them to friends or sell them to make way for new designs?
There is a guy called Kenny who works uplfting the excess from charity shops who said he'd be happy to make drop offs to Forest if we need anything, so I guess we have an un-limited supply of furniture and bric-a-brack. I'll put his no. in the volunteer book incase anyone has any particular ideas of stuff we could use.

From what I understood from Kenny, it isn't necessarily an unlimited supply of tables. It was more of a 'I'll keep my eye out'??

In some cases, I think we are talking about deterioration, Magda. In other cases, it is time for a change. Sorry if the conversation sounded disrespectful, but I don't think anyone was intentionally suggesting that the table-top artwork is nothing more than varnish.

Lots of good artwork get replaced with something new at Forest. I thought the policy was to make sure the artist gets ample chance to record their art for posterity before it happens? Change is the opposite of death, and all that?

hey maybe you could sell off some of the painted tables and make way for new ones? Or otherwise I'd like to get my hands on them and replace them with plain ones? The wall mural is fine to paint over cos you can't remove it, but it seems strange to just paint over something beautiful when the option is there not to? Please don't, I'll have them!!!

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Our big brother's got no heart,
when I get my chance I'm going to punch him in the nose, in the nose, in the nose

Some of the table decorations are much more valuable than the tables they are painted on. Free tables are 2 a penny, so we could give away/sell the decorated tables and let artists decorate new ones, rather than just painting over lovely artwork.

I suppose in a way, painting over art makes it more precious, and the better the painting, the more of an artistic statement you are making by painting over it. And art created for the Forest should maybe stay in the Forest and not be taken home.

But it would be sad to lose forever some of the tables we have.

Also, don't we already have a table with a sun in the middle and various things round the edge?

Okay, so we won't paint over anything unless sufficiently deteriorated. I know some of them are starting to look a little rough, but I'm not sure if it's quite time to paint over them...

I was just thinking the other day how sad it is that the 'count the animals' table is looking so rough these days. That is such a fine work of art.

in the 555 in portugal every item in the space is for sale. if you like a lampshade, you can make an offer.

maybe we should consider that policy.

as far as tables being easy to get. we lifted those tables out of negotiants. many tables have come and gone into the cafe since but i do think these are the nicest.

of course, all due respects to the artists and the time it takes to make something look good and cool. however, all the curent tables (excepting the newest) are looking worse for wear and a shadow of their former glory.

i would be fine selling off / auctioning tables and giving cash to artists.

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

I could try to retouch and revarnish my animal table.

That sounds good, Magda. I would like to see that table returned to its previous glory...

i love that 555 policy! we should absolutely implement it. right now.

also - aren't there a couple decent quality square tables of ours either in the hall or in the balconies?

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"We all tend to idealise kindness and tolerance, then wonder why we find ourselves infested with losers and nutcases." Sebastian Horsley

'the exploading horse car - story 2' retail value is £5555, regardless of condition.

in fact the destruction of the piece thru time is part of the piece, i had been hoping that people would destroy locks on it, and that it would bring dragonflys, but that always seemed unlikely.

my next table based piece 'the exploading car - story 17, the battle of edge and the girl who always says 'no'' is scheduled for july, i am reluctant to move it forward, due to my crazy timetable...

aaxxx

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Maybe it could work? But it will be a kaleidoscopic blend of mysterious shadows and rainbow hued-dreams seen through compassionate tears.

have a look upstairs at the other tables and maybe get people to paint those. the negotiants tables are lovely and rare. maybe we can have a store of cool tables which, naturally, get moved around, destroyed stolen whatever? you know?

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www.ryanvanwinkle.com

if you want to take tables from the hall, please can you run it past me first? i realise that some of the furniture that's in there may have originally belonged to the forest, but now it's part of what people expect to be able to use when they hire the space. i really don't want it to just disappear one night.

the bigger issue being: the hall isn't just storage space. the landing isn't just storage space. the lobby isn't just storage space. the balconies shouldn't be the sort of storage space they are. please can we cease leaving furniture lying around? PLUS would anybody be interested in a massive balcony clearout before the festival? it would be so nice to have that space clear and useful, if only for [a sensible kind of] storage.

i'll post that last bit somewhere else if anybody would like to point me in the right direction.