I’d never really thought much about creative collaborations until 2 Creatives in our Kick in the Creative’s Facebook Group collaborated on a piece of work.
Collaborations with Creatives with complementary talents
Kim Lewis (poetry) Kim Hine (painting)
It was a collaboration that happened when Kim Lewis was inspired to write a poem when she saw a painting that Kim Hine had done for our challenge 31 Animals August. Kim Hine loved the poem and decided to combine her image and Kim Lewis’ words into one piece.
More art and poetry
Devon-based artist Rhian Wyn Harrison collaborated with a poet Becky Nuttall. Rhian said “Becky Nuttall wrote a poem that I then created a piece inspired by it. It was about snails invading the garden at night! It was really fun to do. It was for an exhibition called Words and Pictures. Poets and artists were randomly chosen to work together.”
Writer and Illustrator collaborations
Mike Young (Youngman Brown) Your Creative Push and his sister Christina Moyer brought their skills together to create a children’s book. Mike, a writer write the book while his sister an elementary art teacher created the illustrations. The Adventures of Tidy, Messy & VeryMessy, is a project that had been in the works for a decade. It finally came together when Christina discovered an art style that she wanted to use for the book.
Collaborating for a joint Event
Artist Rhian Wyn Harrison (mentioned above) has also collaborated with her friend Lee Pover, a 3d ceramic artist twice on joint exhibitions. Their latest exhibition in Dartmouth has a common nautical theme which ties it together well. Fish and Ships Twice. Rhian concentrated on seabird/fish artworks to complement the 3D pieces Lee creates. Rhian said, “It worked very well, as not competing like with like styles”
Collaborations which spur you on
Sandra Busby and I not only collaborate on the Kick in the Creatives Podcast website and Facebook Group, but we’ve also recently co-written a children’s story. We did this in a slightly unusual manner. We started with an overall idea over a tooth fairy who wanted to quit her job. Then we took it in turns to write 250 words at a time, so neither of us ever knew exactly where the story would go next. Without doing this as a collaboration I would have got bored and never finished the story. It was a bit like a gym buddy, those days when you really can’t be bothered, you show up because you’ve agreed on it with your friend.
Visual artists collaborating on joint paintings
My friend and artist Jo Richardson “Two years ago I organized my son’s year group to do a buddy bench, as our school emblem is a dolphin, the sea was the theme. Each of the 109 kids did a part of the painting. Did I show this to you before? We will be coming up with another project this school year for my younger son’s year group, I have a few ideas already!!”
Artist Sheryll Pond “In high school, me and another art student did a huge painting backdrop from Moody Blues cover. It was for a modern dance performance. It was such fun. I’ll always remember that and it would be fun to collaborate on something again.”
It seems to be much more common to work on joint paintings as students. I remember working on a joint mural with 2 other artists when I was at school too. I wasn’t aware that this happened as much with adults, but Morwhenna Woolcock shared a project where a few artists come together to create collaborative paintings.
Collaborative Painting
“Collaborative Painting UK facilitates opportunities for groups of artists from different creative backgrounds to work together on producing a single work of art.”
What a cool idea! I really can’t imagine what is would be like to work this way and make one cohesive piece of art, but it would definitely be interesting to try.
Quirky collaborative projects
I have mentioned designers Jessica Walsh and Timothy Goodman
on the podcast before. They come together to do all sorts of quirky collaborative projects. One such project was Quotes on Shit.
‘We all use so much shit. We collect shit, buy shit, steal shit, trade shit and then throw shit away. So what happens with all this old shit? Is there a life after it leaves our hands? Shit winds up in our garbage, on our streets, in our landfills, and in our junk shops. We feel bad for this abandoned and rejected shit so we’re rescuing these objects and breathing new life into them by giving them a voice with words. We want to turn old shit into new shit, and give them a second chance to be loved and help find this shit a new home.”
It would be interesting to know if the duo would contemplate doing these sort of projects on their own, or if the fun comes from doing them together? These sort of quirky projects must help them stand out from other designers.
Would you take part in a collaborative creative project?
Keep an eye on our website and sign up for our newsletter for future creative collaboration challenges.
Follow Us!