We’ve had a lot of art on the walls at South of Shaw. In fact, since we opened, we’ve hosted 55 different art displays. But I think the one hanging in the pub right now might be the most impressive one we’ve ever had.
The Wyze Fools art collective came to us with a pretty simple idea. Let’s gather a bunch of artists, give them each a pizza box, and let them do whatever they want with it.
Everybody started with essentially the same thing. But there was absolutely no predicting where each artist would take it. They painted them, cut them, folded them, sculpted them, glued things to them and, in some cases, transformed them so completely that the pizza box almost disappeared.
That’s one of the things I’ve always loved about art. The unpredictability of it.
You can give 40 creative people the exact same starting point and get 40 completely different ideas. Each one comes from somebody’s imagination, their experiences, their personality, and whatever strange path their mind decided to take when they looked at that empty box. And there’s something about seeing all of these physical pieces together that really speaks to me.
Creativity touches people in ways that are hard to explain. When you know somebody imagined something in their own mind and then used their own hands to manipulate it until that idea became a real thing sitting in front of you, that’s incredible.
Maybe you understand what the artist was trying to say. Maybe you don’t. Maybe they weren’t trying to say anything at all. It’s that interpretation by the viewer that finishes the circle and creates that relationship between artist and audience.
Creative art is very much alive and thriving here in Fresno. Forty artists took something as ordinary as a pizza box and turned it into something none of us could have predicted. That’s creativity and community. And that’s one of the main things I love about having a place like South of Shaw.
If you haven’t seen the pizza box display yet, come check it out. It will be gone in just over a week. Pictures are great, but this is one you really need to see in person.
Meanwhile, in Clovis…
A quick update on our second location: we’re just about finished with plan check and getting ready to start demolition any day now. It’s been a long process getting to this point, but we’re finally getting close to the part where you’ll actually be able to see things happening.
We’ll have plenty more to share once the dust starts flying.