Humboldt Happenings Over the winter I was invited to particpate in an art event put on by the empire squared art collective located in Arcata, CA. The concept was to involve the public in the arts. It’s not an easy task with the state of the arts today. It’s a simple fact that the majority of people really don’t have time. Paintings are too slow and lack the special effects that keep a viewer interested nowadays. The ‘Average Joe’ doesn’t have the opportunity to view art because he usually doesn’t get out to the galleries. Instead of waiting for the public to come to the art, the idea was to bring the art to the public. Using various found objects as painting surfaces, the spent hours in a zen power session creating about 70 paintings all roughly about 8" x 15". The subject matter varied from tag style art, design, collage, landscape to imaginative subjects. From midnight till 5am the group went walking (and stalking) around the town of Arcata finding and hiding places for the artwork. Apart from being attacked by water balloons, hiding from the police, climbing telephone poles, and finding every conceivable place to present the work -The evening passed by without any major incidents. The group awoke bright and early around 1pm and went to survey their work. Most pieces were still there, but some of the easily accessible ones were missing. Some of the works were in spots that were easy to grab, but they matched their surroundings so well that no one realized that the work didn’t belong. Others looked like someone just happened to be left around. Those were the interesting ones to see missing. ‘It was sort of like a social experiment,’ said Maddrey. ‘We placed some works in places right by doorways or on stairwells, others we hung in trees. I was curious if people would actually take them or if they would assume that the paintings belong to someone else. Although it was our intention to give the works away, no one else knew that. So in a sense some people probably felt that they were stealing the works, but they took them anyway.” The group plans on another art expedition in the coming months. Possibly in a town near you.