John Kotula Presents:
Collaborations
John will be turning 80 in May, May 14th to be exact. He considers reaching this milestone a great accomplishment. He likes the way age is expressed in Spanish: Yo tango 80 años, I have 80 years, because it suggests ownership of all that time and experience. John wrote himself a set of guidelines for how he wants to live in his eighties. The first on the list is “Its all about connections to other people! Double down on family and friends. It should always be a priority to spend time with people you love and who love you.” The works he is presenting at Hera follow that guideline because they were all created in collaboration with other artists. He spent time with other artists, in some cases a lot of time, discussing collaborative art making, deciding on a project to do together, then completing it. There were false starts, abandoned projects, and mid course adjustments. All of it was great fun that involved much laughter and joking around in support of serious intent.
John’s collaborators include visual artists Casey Weibust, Ana Flores, and William Schaff, a playwright, Jim Luken, two poets, Martin Lepkowski and Anthony DiPietro, a ceramic artist, Craig Crawford, a quilter, Deborah Drew (his wife), and a videographer, Teal Miglioccio (his great nephew). This line up is subject to change.
An expanded version of Collaboration will be presented at Out Of The Box Gallery and Studio on Jamestown in May.
