Thursday, July 31, 2014

al-Falaq visits the Doo Gallery: Read Georgia Nutts On Location



For the Love of Munny:
Put Your Munny Where Your Mouth is at Doo Gallery

 For our bi-weekly meeting of Saturday, July 26, 2014, the Georgia Nutts Guild decided to hold court at DooGallery, where facebook friend, Lacye A. Brown of Applehead Toys was hosting the Put Your Munny Where Your Mouth Is art competition.  Local artists would seek to gain prestige and a pot of money for the winning contribution of a "Munny" figure, suitably dressed up, pimped or tricked out according to each's own personal vision.  I'll admit to having had no idea what Munny or MunnyWorld were before this, even if it makes me look as unsavvy and reclusive as I, probably, am.  The MunnyWorld figures are small, plastic featureless dolls acting as a blank slate for DIY hobbyists and other creatives, an open canvas in 3-D waiting to be given a personality through the addition of sculpted embellishment, painting, what-have-you.  

The scene was a little different from what we expected:  we thought a room full of artists would be at tables, stands, whatever, toiling over the face-needy dolls, all taking shape in real time.  It ended up that most of the artists seemed to have already made their works and submitted them, as they were all neatly exhibited before the event even opened.  So it was just Yvonne Walker, Ana’GiaWright, Dap Tales and I (your friendly neighborhood alFalaq) and a couple other artists at tables working what creative magic we had in mind on the spot.  At first it looked as though we might suffer the scrutiny of a certain oddball status.  There were a couple of sideways glances alongside the query as to why writers were inclined to enter an art competition for artists.  C'mon guys -- a picture might be worth a thousand words but we were there to REPRESENT that Literature Is ART, Too!!!  So, with pens in hands, we stitched together clothes and features for our little figures from a fabric of dialogue snippets, descriptive phrases and lines of poetry from our collected works.  REPRESENT, WRITERS OF THE WORLD!
 

There were lots of intriguing works lining the walls of the gallery, operated by Doug, whom we met (Super nice guy), ranging from the macabre to the fanciful.  I walked around taking it all in as DJ Martian Kites laid on the atmosphere from his workstation.  A contribution from Henry Gonzales illustrated "How to Train Your Dragon to Drive" while just ahead, Slowturtle's piece literally puzzled over "Illuminated Awareness".  "Children of the Watermelon", by Rich Strohmeyer was a real eye catcher, as was (Beth Garland Strachan) Rotten Daughter's grisly alternate ending to the Red Riding Hood tale, "What Big Eyes You Have".  I was swept away by the drink goddesses from Blazon Brickhaus,  "Amaretto Sour" and "Mai Tai".  Kevin Hatchett hung out with us for a while, taking time to get us up close and personal with his monochrome, robo-apocolyptic "Dread".  Lacye (Applehead) of course was putting on show too, with her giant "Mr. Bigglesworth" and "Naughty or Nice",  which has been featured in our Inspired Works of Fiction short series, which will be included in “In a Nuttshell, Vol. 2” available in August.


 




Despite the seeming cold start, things definitely got warmer as more and more folks; artists and attendees alike; shared excellent conversation with us concerning what the GNG is about and what the Georgia Nutts aim to do: To become ever better writers and Promote The Arts.  I knew it:  People DO still like to read!!  Even pub-crawling zombies, like Cara Caravan who can be seen posing with her nicely crafted work (I'm sorry, Cara!  I didn't get the name of the piece...Bad, al-Falaq!  Bad!  Bad!!) are into the word, man.  So don't get left out!  Read!  Today!!  At readgeorgianuts.com, of course.  Or anywhere you like.
Check out our finished product!
 






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