Calling All Artists

My name is Tommy Ryan and I am an artist living in West Rogers Park. I have ALWAYS been involved with art of some kind. Whether it is painting, drawing, paper mache or my passion, photography.

The goal of this blog is to see how many people I can "recruit" to be part of "Art in the Park".  I would like start this and make it an annual event. The goal is get all of the Rogers Park artists together to show off their art, to see other peoples art, to get the children of the neighborhood interested in art and best of all, to get to know the artists in your community.

My idea for Art in the Park started when i moved into the "Manor Park" buildings right on the edge of Indian Boundary Park. After days, weeks and months of shooting pictures from my frontroom overlooking the pond, the idea hit me! This park has inspired so much of my artwork, has it inspired others? How many other Artists sit and "create" while watching this park, this city from their windows? How many others out there come and sit in the park and watch the world go by and then go home and "recreate" those thoughts that went through your head while you were in the park?

I was thinking of having the "First Annual At in the Park" on the property of my building. (Which has already been ok'ed by my landlord who is an art lover himself)

Just come and set up a table to showcase or even sell your art. How about showing your fellow artists some new techniques or unusual materials you use? Are you good at caricatures? How about playing your acoustic guitar and belting out that song you just wrote?

Not only am i an artist, i am also a step dad to two beautiful little girls! My stepdaughters are 11 and 4 years old and i try my best to instill the love of art into their lives. Last year their mother (Carrie) and i taught a few art classes at the oldests school. Their art program was cancelled so we went to school a few times last year and did some crafts with the kids. My biggest goal in life is to introduce art to every child i possibly can. As i sit here and write this post, both the girls and the oldests best friend have sketch pads on their laps and big buckets of drawing materials next to them. The youngest loves my new found love of paper mache and i often hear "Tommy, can we paper mache something today?" The oldest loves to write. You can always find her curled up in our big comfy chair with a book or notebook in her hand. Their mother and I encourage art in any form. Whenever they have friends over, that is first thing they ask "Mom! Tommy! Can we do a project!?"

So there it is folks! What do you think? How many of you would be interested in doing some "Art in the Park"? How many of you would like to learn and teach others a new craft? How about meeting the other artists in your community? What do you think? Please send me ANY suggestions you may have!

Whew! That was a long post! And on a sidenote, i am not much of a writer so most of these posts will be written by my better half, Carrie while i sit by and dictate!!

So come on everyone! Send me some suggestions!