The Itinerant Artist Project (IAP) is a

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

-based project with strong public outreach and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

dimensions, devised and undertaken by Western NY landscape painter Jim Mott. The IAP is based on the principles of gift exchange discussed in

Lewis Hyde Lewis Hyde (born 1945) is a scholar, essayist, translator, cultural critic and writer whose scholarly work focuses on the nature of imagination, creativity, and property. Early life and education Hyde was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He ...

's seminal work, ''the Gift''. The project involves locating (by various means) a series of voluntary hosts around the USA, touring by car from host to host, and at each stop painting several small location paintings, offering one in exchange for the

hospitality Hospitality is the relationship of a host towards a guest, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill and welcome. This includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, ...

provided (room, board and occasional conversation for 2–5 days). Motivated by a concern that the spheres of art and everyday life have become too disconnected, to the impoverishment of both, the IAP experiments with radically resituating the individual artist's painting practice, usually into the households of strangers. In

collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The ...

with his hosts, Mott sets up a

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...

but supportive context within which to operate. Mott sees this as a temporary but valuable break with social and professional convention—on the understanding that money, while ultimately necessary, distorts the relations between art and

imagination Imagination is the production of sensations, feelings and thoughts informing oneself. These experiences can be re-creations of past experiences, such as vivid memories with imagined changes, or completely invented and possibly fantastic scenes ...

, artist and public. Among other things, the project explores the function of art as gift and the effect of a

gift economy A gift economy or gift culture is a system of exchange where valuables are not sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. Social norms and customs govern giving a gift in a gift culture; although there ...

on creative productivity. Since its beginning in the spring of 2000, there have been fifteen IAP tours, covering over 25,000 miles, with stops at approximately 125 locations in 35 states. In a total of thirteen months on the road, the IAP has generated over 550 small

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...

s (oil on panel). The IAP uses painting as a means of promoting, enhancing and celebrating direct human interaction in a virtual age. Although the project's focus is the integration of art into everyday life, primarily through situating the artist in other people's households for a sustained period, recent tours have involved spontaneous bartering, including the trading of art for meals, commercial lodging—and a speeding ticket in Missoula, MT.Cross Country Painter - an American Story with Bob Dotson, NBC Today Show, Jan. 2, 2008

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References

{{reflist #Will Paint for Food, by Ray Sikorsky, Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 16, 2007

#The life and times of a cross-country artist, by Melissa F. Pheterson, Rochester Magazine

#Cross Country Painter - an American Story with Bob Dotson, NBC Today Show, Jan. 2, 2008

#Itinerant artist trades paintings for room, board and speeding ticket, CBC Radio, Nov. 1 2007

#Small Art's Giant Appeal, by Maja Tarateta, Art Business News, April, 2003

#A Harvest of Other Views, by Jim Memmott, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Feb. 18, 2001.

External links

The official Jim Mott and IAP website
Public art