OUR STORY: A DESIRE TO SHARE INSPIRING CREATIVITY

During a trip to a friend’s cabin, another friend gave me a nugget of encouragement, that for whatever reason landed with me. The friend said I should start a blog since I was always telling him about the latest album I was loving, concert I had been to, or far out art piece I had encountered. He said, “I’d read your blog, man!” At that point it was 2009 and “blogs” were already happening. Anyone with some perspective and an internet connection could publish, eroding the gatekeepers through the digital revolution, and giving folks like myself an outlet.

The friend who suggested I write a blog didn’t even know I was much of a writer (I don’t think), but after a few months of chewing on the concept, I started a blog in February of 2009 and called it IPaintMyMind.

I Paint My Mind, taken as 4 words, just like any other fun language combo, sounds cool. As a drummer and a poet, the way those words came together just moved me. I’m also hugely inspired by the way words can be linked to break open new ideas, create new possibilities, and even come together in a cadence that makes the sum so much more potent than the various parts. ‘IPaintMyMind’, taken together, ticks that box in my humble opinion. The word combination came from the lyrics in a John Frusciante song, which goes as follows:

“I paint my mind just ’cause I’m alive | And if you see me roaming the hillside | Won’t you come along?”

To me, these lyrics always signified an innate human desire to express ourselves, to create, to make, to divine new solutions, and to do it together, in community. They are emblematic of the incredible activation, bond, and connection that occurs when our aliveness reverberates in others, steadily adding to the massive creative & artistic snowball humanity is responsible for. As the blog grew a readership, connected with more artists, and gained momentum, myself and a few friends began hosting art shows, live music, and film screenings in spaces around the city. Those events continued from 2010 – 2013, then increased in frequency and scope when we opened a gallery space in the Fall of 2013.

Just prior to that we had received roughly 20 pieces of art from various artists as Thanks You’s for having featured them on the website. Shortly thereafter, I saw the film ‘Herb & Dorothy’, which is about a couple that lived in Manhattan and spent one of their salaries on art and the other salary on living expenses. Once they were older, their collection began to tour the world to be shared with people everywhere. It was a lightbulb moment for me.

I started thinking about the incredible impact that a growing, accessible, rotating art collection could have if shared with communities in perpetuity. Recontextualizing the art experience would be a central tenet by displaying it in a unique way, breaking down barriers to stodgy art, and creating more opportunities for Chicagoans from every neighborhood to be inspired by art. That birthed what is now the Shared Walls Program, which leases IPMM’s growing art print collection to businesses at a fee, then uses that revenue to provide FREE art exhibitions, curriculum, and artist workshops, to deserving yet underfunded community hubs, like schools, libraries, parks, and youth centers.

The model for IPaintMyMind’s Shared Walls Program ensures that artists earn real dollars on the front end, while IPMM accumulates an asset that not only increases in value, but also perpetuates the program and the mission while sustainably funding our continued program expansion without the typical pitfalls that belie most small to medium sized nonprofits.