Collaborations For Shared Resources
I grew up in a family that wasn’t mine. I was kind of like adopted with love to my aunt and uncles who were all engineers. Cousins that I grew up with were also focused on math, sciences and engineering. I struggled, every year to compete with them in grades but I would always be second, third or fourth place. Yes, that is a real thing though not sure if it just made me feel worse :D
I loved the arts. I just did. I loved making it, drawing, colors and painting. But nobody else in the family did. Through learning math and art I found myself in the field of design. For years I wondered where are my people at! Where are all the painters and artists? However, knowing how to do math, did help in design. As I learned I equally enjoyed making something that is fully functional, works and is beautiful :) Like a real Marie Kondo kind of sparks joy.
During my time in San Francisco I explored that a lot hoping to love the two different pieces of myself completely.
I am so grateful for the friends and co-workers who joined in to explore that together and made me feel less alone. My friend Ann and I organized a series called Sip & Sketch; where we would create art in tech companies and at the YMCA. I didn’t know it then; but I know now that I did it hoping to find people like me; who were also interested in both art and engineering.
The world of public arts is still unfortunately not well funded at all, compared to the amount of money in tech. I joined a fellowship called Emerging Arts while in SF that was funded by the city. They gathered twenty five public workers such as teachers, program directors and gallery managers. Once a month we met at a warm public space that is donated by the city. Depending on where we got space sometimes the gathering was in SF, but sometimes we would need to travel to Oakland or other parts of the city like the Tenderloin. When I opened the fridge in those spaces I usually saw neatly packed lunches and maybe sometimes I saw milk. This made me feel shocked. Compared to the daily fresh free meals I received working in tech and all the free snacks. It just felt confusing how different those two worlds were. How can this be, if both worlds needed each other that one didn’t have the same as the other? Experiencing those two worlds I often felt guilty for having so much for free yet knowing there is another part of me that also belongs to a place that doesn’t have the same resources.
I wonder what will happen to us in the future? I hope that both worlds come closer together. I think they are. I’ve seen more collaborations between the arts and tech companies in the last year. Such as commissioning large murals and more artwork in tech spaces. I guess we’ll see.
Wynne