Group art project at the Navy Yard

The mastermind behind the project: Arianne King-Comer

During the lunch hour each day last week, Navy Yard artist Arianne King Comer invited passersby, local artists and well, anyone, to participate in the final phase of the creation of her Conversation Tree. Arianne’s a batik artist, and she helped folks ink their thoughts, poems, sketches into fabric that will become the bark and leaves on her oxidized wire, solar-lighted tree, which is a part of The Future is on the Table international art project coordinated by Gwylene Gallimard and Jean-Marie Mauclet. The tree and portions of the batik will be on display at City Gallery at Waterfront Park and the Gibbes Museum, respectively, in September.

I observed the process throughout the week, and on Friday, finally decided to try my hand. While it was intimidating to follow so many of the talented local artists who contributed to the batik, it was awesome to learn more about the batik process, and participate in this public art project. Check out Jeff’s batik depiction of Storehouse Row below!

A portion of the batiked fabric which will be used as the tree's bark

10 Storehouse Row artist Michael Gray taking part

Contributions by 10 Storehouse Row folks

Amateur work 🙂

Recognize it? It's Storehouse Row!

Arianne, M, and Karen with the fabrics