Painting Cans

By browsing the amazing resource that is My Pageflake Page (which I blogged about here), I discovered a blog post about a group that has put together a contest for artists who paint smashed/flattened cans. Art News Blog reports that the group from Spain, Confusion Group, is asking artists to send in painted cans that if chosen will appear in a book of photographs of the cans and will also be exhibited in an art show in Madrid.

The Confusion Group's blog states their purpose: "This initiative aim to encourage the use of this medium, whose use in the everyday is limited for the time of the consumption, for the creation and dissemination of independent art." (Also stated on the Paintingcans blog.)

The contest is open to all artists, not just artists from Spain, so even those of us who just WISH we were super good artists can participate. The deadline is Halloween 2008, giving us lots of time to come up with some really good ideas and hopefully some painted cans worthy of being chosen by the Group! Here are the guidelines for the contest, taken from the contest blog:

"Use the can as a blank canvas, express yourself on it, and send it to us. Just follow the specification:
Keep the “easy open” for hanging it.
The perimeter of the can is the limit.
Do not use filled cans, it must be crushed.

You can be part of this project as individual or as group, from any field, from anywhere of the world.

Deadline: your painting cans will be accepted until October 31th, 2008.

What you get for? Your painting cans will be part of the digital gallery in paintingcans.com with you contact details, and the price. If you work is sold you receive 70 % of the price you decided.

Also it will be part of an art goup show in Madrid (Spain) and published in a book that you will receive a copy. We can not guaranty that your work will be selected for the book, please accept our apologises if it is not published.

The artist will be paid by Paypal (if you do not yet have a Paypal account, get one free at www.paypal.com).

The artwork that the artist submitted to paintingcans.com remain the property of the artist, on the condition that paintingcans.com has exclusive rights to print the works in a book. We are not responsible for the content submitted by the artist.

The address that your submission needs to be sent is:

paintingcans.com
Apartado de Correos 203.030
28080 Madrid
Spain"

Still not quite sure if this is cool or not (IT IS!)? Check out these pictures of painted cans featured on the Paintingcans blog...

Left: Delata by Rafael Bertone
Middle: Untitled 2 by Martin Bochicchio
Right: Eye by Martin Bochicchio

So if you think you've got the skills the compete with these fine artists, go chug some soda asap, crush your can, and paint away! Ya never know, you could be the next Jackson Pollock!