Make Your Mark
Make Your Mark was a small, temporary installation put outside of the Citadel Mall in Colorado Springs, 750 Citadel Dr. E, Colorado Springs. The piece was a collection of five blank canvases and six permanent markers on a repurposed dining table, a sign hanging off the table reading Make Your Mark. I was inspired to present this piece from a short video that stated “If you put a man in front of a blank wall with a marker, he will draw,”. I understood this as a means of saying that people desire creativity and art, that when presented with the opportunity people will create. The purpose of Make Your Mark was to open this opportunity of creativity and expression.
This project, I would consider to be unsuccessful in the traditional sense. My ideas and thought processes did not line up with my capabilities and final product, nor did it garner the results I had hoped for. However, what I did achieve was evidence towards the idea that people will draw or create when given the chance to do so. I had my table and canvases set up for nearly 45 minutes before a shopper leaving the mall stopped by and questioned my setup. After explaining what I was doing, he asked if he could draw something, and drew a standard, yellow smiley face. My older brother, who had helped me set up, also wanted to draw on one of the canvases, sketching out his truck. I had few interactions outside of these, some people asking if I was going to draw, what I was doing and what it was for, but nothing past the two drawings I had received.
Because of these two drawings, getting people who to my knowledge hadn’t drawn in a long while to put something on canvas, was enough to give me hope to try this again, with better results.
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If I were to attempt this again, I would like to better think about what I want to present people with, what I want to say with this piece, and to create a more appealing display. As well as looking for a more fitting location, finding where in a location to place a work like this would greatly help in gaining the attention it needs and the results that I want.
