Becky Iker + Bill Ross + Ten Years in the Making

This is a fraction of the pieces Becky Iker and Bill Ross have completed in the last ten years.  A couple will be featured in "2 + 2 = 5:  Collaborations" opening April 29, 2011 at Thunder-Sky, Inc.

Alive + Well = Collaboration

Bill Ross and Becky Iker:  Over the years Bill and Becky have created close to 50 paintings together.  Becky does the drawings and Bill does the painting.  Above:  one of their pieces...



Collaboration Is alive and well via V&V’s “Double Vision II” and Thunder-Sky Inc’s “2 + 2 = 5”

It is great to see Visionaries & Voices (V&V) continues to embrace and celebrate ‘collaboration” as a way to make art with their one night exhibit and fundraiser called “Double Vision II”. For me, making art is probably the only real form of magic that exists in the world. Artwork that emerges from collaboration can be more powerful than a solo project. In fact, collaborating can change your life.

I know this because in my early art school days, my painting instructor, Sue Johnson, randomly assigned me to collaborate with another art student. That student was Keith Banner. We became great friends and continued to collaborate from that point forward. In fact this May will mark our 21st year together as a couple.

So when it came to developing V&V back in 2002/2003, one of the cornerstones of the enterprise had to be, you guessed it, “COLLABORATION”. Bringing artists together with and without disabilities was a way to move things forward. Shows like “We Come in Peace” and “Same Difference” at Artworks and even “Pop Life” at the former UC Gallery on Sycamore were all vehicles showcasing the power of collaboration. Our training as artists and our jobs as social workers helped us to synthesize into “Culture workers”. Collaborating became a way to see results more quickly.

In those days and still now, collaborating can do a lot of “culture” work. When two artists come together to create regardless of backgrounds or history or issues, perceptions can change. The community can be made richer, more colorful, more, alive. Artists who may otherwise go unnoticed can be more quickly woven into the fabric of a larger conversation, a larger art world. Artists who may feel they are accomplished or established can be challenged or inspired in a new way. New techniques, imagery or ideas can develop, barriers can be eliminated.

What I have grown to appreciate over the years is that collaborating can be extremely difficult, but when it works it is great. A truly brand new piece can emerge that would not be possible without the other artist’s involvement… a new vision, experience or clarity can be derived. It can be exciting stuff. It can be more than the sum of its parts.

At our new gallery "Thunder-Sky Inc” we have not forgotten about the power and importance of collaboration. Stop by any Saturday and you may find a collaborative piece being made. In fact at the end of April running through mid June, Thunder-Sky Inc’s ninth exhibit will feature “2+2=5”. This show includes a number of collaborations, both new and old by such artists as Brian Joiner, DJ Maes, Donald Henry, and even Raymond Thunder-Sky himself. Artists who are no longer with us but are very much alive in the works they left behind or inspired.

Break Down

Collaboration breaks down the ego and the mechanics of making art; it supplies a new way to figure out how to invent the wheel.  It also allows for biography to be erased, so that eventually only the collaboration, and not the singular artists who created it, become the focus of interest and inspiration.
 
"2 + 2 = 5: Collaborations" opens the last Friday in April at Thunder-Sky, Inc.  If you make collaborative works, contact us about possible inclusion in this show.  thunderskyinc@gmail.com. 


Above:  collaborative work by Becky Iker and Bill Ross...

Yet to Be Born

This decade has been a strange experience in loss for me. This Friday 10-22-10 marks the 8th anniversary of my mother’s death. I found out she had cancer in June of 2002. That same day I found out Raymond Thunder-Sky had cancer as well. He passed away 10-29-04. The 6th anniversary of his passing will mark the first year anniversary of the opening of Thunder-Sky Inc.

In January of 2008 I lost my father and in Sept 2009 an artist Keith and I championed, Donald Henry, passed away suddenly. The recent passing of Brian Joiner shook me more than I thought it would. I thought knowing this was likely based on his condition would have lessened the effect.

I ran across a piece I wrote about “Vision and Mission” which I shared with all the staff at Visionaries & Voices on 10-22-08. In it, I tried to address how the death of my Mother and loss of Raymond Thunder-Sky shaped the urgency of what we (Keith and I) were trying to accomplish.

Here is a little bit of it:

I consider art as a great equalizer. When artists collaborate, it is one of the best ways I know of to step outside yourself and become a part of a larger conversation and a larger art world. The “Guernica Project” Antonio Adams and Brian Joiner are currently finishing up is a great example of what I am trying to say. Using one of Picasso’s most famous works as a spring board into a new work, Antonio and Brian are creating a work neither of them would be able to accomplish on their own.


As a co-founder of V&V, I appreciate your struggles and am proud of your accomplishments. It is my hope, my dream, my vision to someday see V&V serving the Raymond Thunder-Sky’s, the Antonio Adams and the Brian Joiners yet to be born.

I closed with this:

Today 10-22-08 my Mom would be 76 years old and Raymond would have been 58. Let’s make it a point to live our lives no matter how long or short with a sense of “Vision and Purpose”. Helping artists achieve a greater sense of their worth in this life is mine.

Top:  Donald Henry and Bill Ross
Bottom:  Becky Iker and Bill Ross

Jet-fueled Ping Pong

It never fails somehow. Seeing Antonio Adams' and Tony Dotson's works together always reminds me how two plus two equals five. Their works play off and with each other in so many ways it's like watching a jet-fueled ping-pong match between Green Lantern and a stick-figure King Kong on a Saturday morning cartoon while listening to Prince sing all his greatest hits, with a Happy Meal on a TV Tray in front of you. Not kitsch, but a deeply felt nostalgia. Comic and tragic and melodramatic but with a straight-edged sense of wit.

Thunder-Sky, Inc. is here at the Atlanta Folkfest through August 22, and our booth is at the back of the North Atlanta Trade Center space, but still Tony and Antonio's works seem to be humming a loud and happy tune.

We're also featuring Dale Jackson, collaborative paintings by Bill Ross and Becky Iker, and a few Kevin Whites.

Above: close-up of a wall of Tony and Antonio's smaller works & the booth itself with me sitting there checking email.