ART 45
AMYCHRISTIAN
The Beat Goes On The Band Art Project, now in its third year, started out as a school project Stephanie Forbes was a senior at Greenbrier High School and literally had three days to decide on a topic for her senior project, a requirement for graduation. “I knew I wanted to do something art-related but I had no idea what I was going to do,” said the girl known to her father, and now everyone else, as Sunshine. “I was painting one day and listening to my iPod and I noticed that my paintbrush was literally moving to the beat of the music. I noticed the correlation and decided I wanted to do something that combined music and art.” Of course, Stephanie already knew that music and art go together like pb&j. She had begun painting and drawing on guitars in 2008, the year before her senior project was due. “It’s really funny because it kind of wasn’t even my idea,” she explained. “I was doodling on paper one day and this guy I knew, Scott Sizemore, asked me to paint his guitar and I freaked out. I always liked the idea of doing it but I never thought someone would trust me with their guitar. Honestly, if Scott hadn’t asked me to do it, then I don’t know if I would have ever started.” Stephanie, who also sings and plays guitar — “I’m not that great at it, but I do try,” she says — decided to do something a little different from her classmates who, a lot of times, learn a new skill or job-shadow a professional person for their senior project. “I chose to host an event,” she said. She called that event the Band Art Project and it consisted of live music played by a band while, one by one, 13 artists joined the musicians on stage to create a work on canvas inspired by what they heard. The project was a success, garnering Forbes the Senior Project Award at Greenbrier and inspiring her to continue the event. This year’s Band Art Project will be held Saturday at Freedom Bible Church. Though successful, Forbes admits she had a difficult time that first year getting artists to participate — not because they didn’t want to, but because they were hesitant about the time restrictions. During the event, each artist is given one song to start and finish a work on a 30x40 canvas, a monumental undertaking for many who were used to having days, if not weeks, to complete a painting. “I had to do a lot of convincing,” she said of that first year. “I had about three artists turn me down because they didn’t want to make a fool of themselves.” As a participating artist herself, Forbes said she couldn’t blame them. “It is nerve wracking and scary, but I tell the artists that as soon as you get on stage everything disappears,” she said. “It’s just a moment that you’re completely inspired by the music and it doesn’t matter what you create because it’s all beautiful. It’s just you and the canvas; everything else disappears.” She then added that almost all of the participants found the time limits freeing rather than restricting and ended up loving the Band Art Project, as evidenced by their continued participation.
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This year, the number of artists has risen to 16, while the bands participating are up to three (four if you count Forbes herself, who will sing one song). “Every artist who did it the first year is back again for the third year and participated in the second one, too,” she said. “It is a nerve-wracking thing, but it is also a special thing and it’s not as bad as they think.” Bands performing include The Industry, The Mood and Eleventhour, and artists include Jay Jacobs, Ruth Pearl, Miles Kilpatrick, Jordan Tejeda, Jack Lowery, Carrie Brooks (Forbes’ high school art teacher), Cathy Tiller, Lane Peters, Leonard Zimmerman, billy s, Brian Stewart, Jesse Lee Vaughn, Andy Bullard, Blaine Prescott, Rob Forbes and Austin Peters. As always, the completed canvases are donated to Walton Rehab, which will sell them April 12 during their annual Undercover Artists Show to raise money for Camp To Be Independent, a summer program for those with brain injuries. Forbes said that, last year, the canvases from the Band Art Project raised approximately $2,000 for the camp. Though spectators won’t be able to buy any of the night’s work, Forbes said a new component of this year’s Band Art Project is the $20 Art Room, in which those interested can pay $20 and choose from any work provided by artists participating in the show. Plans are already underway for 2013’s Band Art Project and Forbes, who recently bought Broad Street’s Gaardensity Gallery, says she hopes to move it downtown. Regardless of where it ends up, she said her plan is to make what started as a school project into an annual part of Augusta’s calendar of events. “A lot of people don’t continue on with their senior projects. I didn’t even know I was going to, but it came to be something that I’m so passionate about that I did,” she said. “My intent is for it to become bigger and bigger each year and for it just to become a part of Augusta.” Third Annual Band Art Project | Freedom Bible Church, 207 North Belair Road Saturday, February 25 | 7 p.m. | Free | bandartproject.com
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