the wednesday group

The Wednesday Arts Section was an idea born out of Anthony’s, and my, frustration at our whimpering self-motivation. What little of it we had often folded at the introduction of anything else that seemed pressing. So together we thought, what better to hold ourselves accountable to productivity and creativity than to band our “Wednesday group” together and lead them through a rough, informal art course? Because I’m a blogger, and I am motivated by seeing progress recorded through time, my instinct was to put our works up on a humble blog.

from left to right: Pamela, Shannon, Amy, Sarah, Stephanie, Anthony, Scotty, Tony, and Kiana.
One of our larger turnouts :)

What is the Wednesday group? Since 2009, a small group of friends and I have been meeting weekly at my house to enjoy each other’s company. It began as a recurring dinner party, but after the labors and financial burdens (from cooking for six) became too heavy, we downsized to dinner parties that take place only once a month now, but we still meet for board games and M&Ms (actually — only Sarah inhales the M&Ms, but her resulting sugar highs are fun for all) roughly every Wednesday. The size of the group fluctuates — the minimum is two, and the maximum has been as high as nine or ten — but the core, founding members have stayed the same: Wednesday group gatherings began with Shannon, Anthony, and me (Pamela).

At the time of this writing, our weekly attendance roster include, aside from us:

Stephanie (my sister), Sarah, Tony, Charlie, Yuko, and Terry.

This isn’t to say that all eight of us are going to contribute to the project all the time. The mission of our collective is to create a space for us to exercise our different talents (be it written or visual) and place them together, united by theme and by virtue of attending our Wednesday gatherings.

Because I also occasionally but regularly host CouchSurfers from anywhere, occasionally out-of-towners do make cameos at our gatherings. They are welcome to contribute to this collective, but not expected to — like anyone else, even if he or she does regularly show up knocking at my door on Wednesday evenings.

The general idea is to come up with a theme per week and see what people come up with. Versatility is encouraged, as well as innovation. It is always interesting to embark on a loose set of guidelines and see what artists come up with.

The hope is that working together on this project, we will all benefit from regular exercise of our crafts and talents, and perhaps will build an impressive portfolio that we’ll be proud to display to the public.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, most of us do freelance work. ;)