GISH
Gish is a unique scavenger hunt/ international social experiment/ creativity and art (project)/ cosplay/ weird/ with conscious acts of kindness and fundraising. It happens for a week in August, and is designed to bring people together from all over the world, to raise money for significant causes and support change for good. In 2019, we raised $230,000 to help people who have lost their limbs to unexploded ordnance, cleared dozens of family farms to deactivate bombs remaining from the Vietnam War, planted more than 10,000 trees and collected more than 5,000 items for migrant refugees in need. During the Pandemic (over a weekend “mini-hunt”) we funded 515,000 meals for kids in need, and raised over $187,000 for the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, to help defend against systemic abuse of black people in the American justice system. The August 2020 Gish participants raised over $150,000 to support US criminal justice and humanitarian relief efforts, protected thousands of families from malaria, and fed over one million meals to kids in need.
i am proud to share the art and strange (things) i created during my experiences with Gish.
Gish 2020
Girl with the Pearl Earring has just taken a shower, wrapped her favorite towel around her head, and is cutting her toenails.
Item #91: A board game for bugs, because bugs get bored too. i found a snail. While i appreciated the snail’s willing participation, he pooped all over the board. No snails were harmed during this photo shoot.
Item #61: “Home 2020.” Staying home has taken on a whole new meaning during this Pandemic. i’ve realized that creating art and inspiring the imagination of my daughter is my way of surviving the weight of this unprecedented time, and the mundane everyday ‘what’s the point’ same-ness of being home. i’ve featured a few of our home-made Pandemic projects here, including about a hundred painted butterflies that my daughter and i have been painting since March. This piece is a symbol of the contemporary struggle during shelter in place, and how our creativity will set us free.
Item: Find 10 things that are yellow and organize them into a pretty photo.
Item #130: Create a bedazzled portrait of your favorite celebrity, and share it on social media with #YouDazzleMe. My favorite is Jensen Ackles. He is amazing, and definitely dazzles me.
Item #41: an antisocial butterfly. i’m not really sure why i put honey in there.
Item #24: Mysterious Swamp Creature in my yard, inspired by the art of Sophie Prestigiacomo. Here i am, emerging from the depths of the Pandemic, covered in the elements of survival- textile threads that feed my art-soul.
Item: Weave a tapestry that depicts an iconic scene from Supernatural. i chose to needle felt “the fall,” as it is a truly powerful moment that impacted me.
Item: Using forced perspective, take a photo of yourself with your pet, so that together you look like one creature.
2020 Mini-Hunt
Create fashion from items in your junk drawer, an intimidating “dust bunny,” and a Haiku, to describe a silver lining to the Pandemic.
Gish 2019
Create a stained glass window depicting a person who is famous for being famous, and who has over 1 million twitter followers.
i chose Kim Kardashian for this item, although i didn’t know very much about her when i began this creation. She wore this extremely squeeze-tight dress to an art opening event in NYC- it was designed to look like water. Apparently, it was extremely painful to wear- she said it felt like thousands of needles stabbing her everywhere, and it was so tight she could’t breathe. However, she ROCKED the dress, and was absolutely stunning. i used felt in shapes that i might use for a stained glass window- if you can tell, there are tiny tiny pieces, uniquely shaped to fit together- and was extremely time consuming, but one of my favorite pieces of this Gish.
Depict a tragic event, using ordinary household items. i chose to depict an ICE detention center. The miniature people are painted on individual grains of rice.
Woodstock is celebrating his (50th?) anniversary, but he has put on a little extra weight, has had botox, and doesn’t quite look his absolute best. He lives in Hollywood, and thinks of himself as an actor/ writer/ director, even though he is currently out of work.
Item: Create a Faberge egg- that, when it opens, reveals Trump and Putin in an embrace.
Item: A “B.r.E.a.D Bug.” - i did eat some of the bread after it was photographed.