the retrieval project

Hi everybody! This is Jenny. I’ve been interning with Mati for the last few months, and loving every minute of it! She is super encouraging as I’m (artistically) a late bloomer. She’s been so supportive and inspiring. I’m amazed that she finds it helpful to have me around. I feel like we’re playing and having fun. I enjoy the time away doing something out of my norm, and am learning so much. We eat good too… great little spots all throughout the mission district in SF.

My husband Joe and I have a big project going on right now and Mati graciously asked me to write a post here to let you know about it.

A little bit of background…. my husband and I, along with our four kids, moved from California to Minnesota and back within a six month time period. It’s a long story, which you can read here, but in a nutshell, we had to leave our belongings in a storage unit in MN when we came back to CA in January and have not been able to set aside the money needed to go back and get it yet.

The Retrieval Project is a daily art project created in effort to raise the funds we need to “retrieve” our stuff. 

Joe is a tattoo artist and paints mostly with watercolor.

Jenny is a mixed media artist. 

“Pursuit” by Jenny Swanson

We have made a list of 50 titles, all having to do with moving, transition, journey, California, Minnesota, etc. For each title, Joe and I will both do a painting. Each day we will list two paintings (one title, his and hers versions), until all 100 paintings are out. There will also be a few extras thrown in here and there, so you might want to check in often!

We began the project on August 1st and are already feeling the love of the community of family, friends, artists, bloggers, etc. We’d love it if you would pay our site a visit and leave us a comment to let us know you were there.