tinderbox

tinderbox, originally uploaded by Witty Screen Name.

I took these pics with my cell--so they are crap--but the Punk House exhibit at the Firehouse Gallery by Abby Banks and the Tinderbox Collective is not crap.

I first learned that this exhibit was going to happen from a waiter in Portland, Maine, who plays in a band called "Over a Cardboard Sea," and who knew impressively specific details about the life of Irving Berlin.

This is what is written on the wall, which made me happy:

"There is a line on the sidewalk in Burlington where somebody sprayed paint out of a water bottle. The paint runs right into the heart of downtown, and then stops. That line is important. It reminds us that the people who dare to leave their mark on the world never left town to live in the pages of art books or magazines, that they still live down the street.

"The art that's most alive has never been in a museum at all--it's the stencil sprayed in a total of ten places ever, the one-of-a-kind present for your sweetheart that you stayed up all night to make. It's your kid's wild drawing, stained with juice and taped to the wall. It's the joke your friend told you that told you the gut-busting laugh that saved your life.

"There are a million points of entry to a world of creativity and love. Start here, if you feel like it. All you need is your friends, and the friends you have yet to meet, who are out there wishing for you. This world will remain a terrifying struggle, but it's one that you won't have to face alone.

"We hope you will take our installations as an invitation. You are cordially invited not only to make the most heartbreakingly beautiful things in the world, but to decide for yourself what beauty is. Don't take our word for it, or anyone else's.

"Make yourself at home.

"Love, the Tinderbox Collective and partners in crime."

Punk House
August 1–September 19
Firehouse Gallery