OFF-WHITE: A J20 Community Engagement
This event, collaborated by community involvement and inducted by Theia Ruby Sofrae, Kailey Shea, and Erwin Laiho on January 20th, 2017, is about engaging with one another through artistically cherishing our diversity and tuning out political separatists who don't consider artistic expression an important part of education. Everyone who participated was color matched and painted a stripe of their own skin tone on the tunnel wall crossing under 13th street in Gainesville, FL. The result became a representation of our collective identities as a body of individuals interacting and coexisting with one another.
Home Culture: Celebrating the Space that Breeds a Creative Life
Home Culture Press Release: An Interview with the Artist
Ariana Aragon of Gainesville Scene: "How would you describe the show and its format to someone who is completely unfamiliar with your work and your home?"
Theia Ruby Sofrae: "This is a unique exhibition in that it provides context to the life of the work and the life of the artist. The entirety of the home will be available for viewers to explore. The setting isn't in a white walled gallery and there is more to the show than just what you can look at. The home is a body and these walls are worn with lived experience, with love, and with pain. To show art in an environment rich with community, creativity, and comfort is what I aim for because this is a type of space where art breeds and incubates. It is important to feel safe and open and to find freedom within the walls of a home. Home culture isn't afraid to be intimate and is curated by people who know the space with a depth that only daily life can offer."
Ariana: "Tell us about the works of art that will be showcased at the event and what parts of your life it highlights."
Theia: "The art in this event is an accumulation of work I have made throughout my time studying for a BFA in painting at the university of Florida and simultaneously living at the 311 house. This, along with artistic collaborations as well as art of others who have contributed to the home in the past three years help touch on the body of the home. Some of my works I am not proud of, they show an amateurism that I wouldn't care to highlight, but I have found that by accepting the things I've done or decisions I've made without shame is the way that I am able to separate myself from them emotionally and experience true growth. I wish to highlight that growth. With the inclusion of many collaborative paintings and projects, I hope to share the open sense of trust and appreciation that all who participate must willingly adopt in order to enjoy the process and when that is the case the outcome is always captivating. The home will also be filled with music by our actual neighbors and local band called 'just neighbors' and feature an ongoing participatory family meal that will allow anyone to feel a part of the community within this home."
Ariana: "What role does home culture play in your decision to take on a nomadic lifestyle?"
Theia: To be a nomad is to have a different sense of what home means. I know that my body is home and the 311 house has offered a safe outer shell for learning the importance of community and art over the past three years, maybe that's why it's called the "carriage house". Fermenting in the 311 house has grown my internal culture strong enough to set out into the freedom of minimal possessions. Throughout my travels I hope to gain more knowledge in terms of how to sustain an intentional community in the future. Home culture is my giving of thanks to the people and space that have nurtured my being before I dive from the nest and take flight.
Ariana Aragon of Gainesville Scene: "How would you describe the show and its format to someone who is completely unfamiliar with your work and your home?"
Theia Ruby Sofrae: "This is a unique exhibition in that it provides context to the life of the work and the life of the artist. The entirety of the home will be available for viewers to explore. The setting isn't in a white walled gallery and there is more to the show than just what you can look at. The home is a body and these walls are worn with lived experience, with love, and with pain. To show art in an environment rich with community, creativity, and comfort is what I aim for because this is a type of space where art breeds and incubates. It is important to feel safe and open and to find freedom within the walls of a home. Home culture isn't afraid to be intimate and is curated by people who know the space with a depth that only daily life can offer."
Ariana: "Tell us about the works of art that will be showcased at the event and what parts of your life it highlights."
Theia: "The art in this event is an accumulation of work I have made throughout my time studying for a BFA in painting at the university of Florida and simultaneously living at the 311 house. This, along with artistic collaborations as well as art of others who have contributed to the home in the past three years help touch on the body of the home. Some of my works I am not proud of, they show an amateurism that I wouldn't care to highlight, but I have found that by accepting the things I've done or decisions I've made without shame is the way that I am able to separate myself from them emotionally and experience true growth. I wish to highlight that growth. With the inclusion of many collaborative paintings and projects, I hope to share the open sense of trust and appreciation that all who participate must willingly adopt in order to enjoy the process and when that is the case the outcome is always captivating. The home will also be filled with music by our actual neighbors and local band called 'just neighbors' and feature an ongoing participatory family meal that will allow anyone to feel a part of the community within this home."
Ariana: "What role does home culture play in your decision to take on a nomadic lifestyle?"
Theia: To be a nomad is to have a different sense of what home means. I know that my body is home and the 311 house has offered a safe outer shell for learning the importance of community and art over the past three years, maybe that's why it's called the "carriage house". Fermenting in the 311 house has grown my internal culture strong enough to set out into the freedom of minimal possessions. Throughout my travels I hope to gain more knowledge in terms of how to sustain an intentional community in the future. Home culture is my giving of thanks to the people and space that have nurtured my being before I dive from the nest and take flight.
