Art for Everyone, an Executive Summary

Free Art Friday, Atlanta

(AKA: FAFATL)
1/21/15
Ricci Justis

Artwork created with group led by Evereman and Ms.ATL

Art for Everyone, Free Art Friday: ATL

Get outside the gallery walls in Atlanta and you will continue to experience an abundance
of art. Start walking around, noticing random spots and you will
discover unique gems for the taking. Jump off the subway, park
Catlanta, above, is waiting for a new home.

your car, stroll in the park, take a bike ride, hang out in

neighborhood hot spots and you will find art just for you. You can do this because of the
dedicated artists of Free Art Friday, Atlanta (FAFATL). Free Art Friday (FAF) is a global event
for anyone to participate in. A participant could be an art maker or an art taker. The idea is that
art is made then placed anywhere and found by anyone. Riggle asks us to imagine an art
practice that instead of delighting merely the refined sensibilities of an elite few, has the power to
engage, effortlessly and aesthetically, the masses through its manifest creativity, skill, originality,
depth of meaning and beauty (2010, p. 243). Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr are social media
platforms participants use to publicize art drops and finds around the world. This is how this
event moves from imagination into reality becoming global while embracing the local.
Roots of FAFATL
Artists make a drop in their own neighborhood or others, spreading their local flavor.
Travelers and locals by capricious chance or determined deduction find drops and take them as
their own. FAFATLs specific goal as stated on their blog is to get people out and walking around
their local Atlanta neighborhoods.
FAFATL began in 2010 shortly after FAF began. According to the Free Art Friday blog,
My Dog Sighs is the galvanizing force of the Free Art Movement. He coined the phrase Free
Art Friday and started its Flickr account in 2006. FAF displays artists work on their blog and has

copyrighted it to the individual artist. The art is free for the taking, but efforts of the FAF
community have been made to protect the intellectual property of its practitioners.
Getting to Know the Artists
Artists participating in the FAFATL are showcased on their blog
as well, but it is taken a step further. Podcasts created by artists and
about artists are published on the blog to allow everyone an opportunity
Mr. Blockhead is hoping to get picked up.

to get to know individual artists better. In the blog you will find artists

such as Blockhead, Ms. Blockhead, and Negative Neal who conduct interviews with each other.
Interviews explore why and how individual artists do what they do. The interviews review
unique stories of how the artists work with each other and in their own space. Intimate details of
their individual challenges and collective struggles are discussed. These dialogs move on to
reveal how these tensions are overcome. Specific stories illuminate the relationships that build
the FAFATL community. While listening to these interviews their personalities and values are
shared. Sharing with others the ways and whys they do what they do defines the FAFATL scene,
if not also the FAF scene in general.
Perpetuating the Passion
Artist sharing workshops are a part of FAFATL. They are committed to offering
community connections and creative creation time. One workshop I attended was held by
Evereman and Ms.ATL at Riverwood High school in Fulton County. This workshop was
designed for art educators so that we could practice FAFATL with our students. This was aimed
to promote art for everyone across generations. While at the workshop we learned how to create
weather proofed art that can hang almost anywhere. Evereman shared his passion for everyone

to have art of their own. He spoke of how this desire motivates him in his creative pursuits. His
protg is Ms.ATL and she shared her enthusiasm for new techniques and new artists
incorporated into the FAFATL experience. Ms. ATL explained her struggles in discovering what
she wanted her icon to be. She shared that she tried multiple icons. Some were technically too
visually complicated to be achieved on the mass scale needed for her to be a prolific FAF artist.
She finally found her image and now helps others with their quests for an icon.
Classes are publicized through the FAFATL blog that will benefit anyone who would like
to learn techniques for FAFATL creations. These classes are held at the Atlanta Printmakers
Studio with FAFATL artists as instructors. Wood cutting, linoleum block cutting, and screen
printing techniques are offered which lend themselves to mass production. Mass production is
desired by many FAFATL artists.
The artists have culled their material and tool sources. The blog page shares what artists
use which tools and where to find them. In addition, blog posts share alternative objects and
materials that can be used. Upcycling is a popular approach to attaining available materials. Art
is for everyone and made of everything. FAFATL informs participants about their options so that
they can have more freedom in their creativity which they can share with the community.
From Community and For Community
FAFATL maintains charitable donations through an online program, WUDWERK. This
donation organization sells limited edition work. With each sold piece, a portion goes to a
charity. With this effort FAFATL bolster its relationships with home community, Atlant.

Take it to the Streets: A conclusion

The streets of Atlanta have been transformed into an ever morphing street gallery for the
taking. That gallery is local but travels the globe touching others with the flavor of Atlanta.
FAFATL has grown relationships of artists and art lovers through a variety of initiates that make
the movement personal, immediate, and impactful. The future of the movement is in the hands of
its makers and takers. Based on their dedication to its current trajectory, the future looks bold and
beyond boundaries!

Resources
Catlanta. (n.d.). Catlanta [Mixed Media Artwork]. Atlanta, GA: Atlanta street pole.
Free Art Friday (n.d.) About FAF. Retrieved from http://freeartfriday.blogspot.com/p/aboutfaf.html
Mr. Blockhead. (n.d.). Mr.Blockhead [Mixed Media Sculpture]. Atlanta, GA: Atlanta tree.
Riggle, N.A. (2010). The transfiguration of the commonplaces. The Journal of Aesthetics and
Art
Criticism, 68,243-257.
Wilkes, N. (Producer). (2014, March 28). Mrs.Blockhead. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from
http://www.fafatl.com/2013/11/13/podcast-episode-15-negative-neal/