The Summer 2007 Art Source contains a profile of this year's Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement recipient, Programs and Information Services updates, as well as the following feature article, and much more!

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Feature Article:

Back to the streets: Franklin Joyce (electricbaby) and Juli Morey Speak with David Mendoza

When Franklin Joyce (aka electricbaby), projection artist and community activist working in Seattle and Bali, was asked to contribute to Art Source, it became a great opportunity for him to meet Bali resident David Mendoza, co-founder and visionary of Artist Trust. David has resided in Bali for nine years and continues to support progressive community efforts and the arts at home and abroad. These are excerpts from a discussion in David’s beautiful Ubud Garden with Franklin, his partner Juli Morey and David.

David: Do you conceive of electricbaby as a collective or do you separate it as your business, as Franklin Joyce artist—I ask because you say “we” when referring to your work.

Franklin: electricbaby projects are always collaborative, but I am the one who loses the most sleep over them.

Juli: It’s a rotating cast of characters. electricbaby used to be Franklin’s moniker for all of his art installations, largely based on collaborative pieces. That explains the ”we.”

Franklin: South Park Lights is the latest example. With support from the Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and Seattle Public Utilities, I created a permanent projection installation for the new South Park library with a rotation of graphic images inspired by the community organizations, history and relevant issues of South Park. The goal was to create an artwork that allowed the community to represent itself. I spent a lot of time getting to know the folks and going-ons of South Park, creating two years of content. Afterwards, other artists are invited to create the next current, relevant, South Park-inspired graphics. The community loves it and OACA submitted it for consideration in the Public Art Year in Review!

David: And the business side is…?

Juli: We’ve made a joint effort to hijack Franklin’s name electricbaby as well as his website, for a greater cause with the same ambition.

Franklin: electricbaby and friends have designed some very cool laptop sleeves. The electricbaby laptop sleeve collection supports an organized effort to pair artists with non-profits, bringing visibility to our heroes in the non-profit community (available at 
electricbaby.com).

David: So you would no longer apply under electricbaby to do a public art project?

Franklin: Yes, I do, but I’ve grown. To accomplish the scope and volume of projects electricbaby is taking on, with the level of artists we are collaborating with, requires the infrastructure, distribution venues and income base of a company.

David: Juli, what is your background?

Juli: At all those art events filled with artists, I’m the girl that actually paid the five bucks to get in and bought the print.

Franklin: There’s that ongoing joke about Seattle having all artists and no audience.

Juli: I’ve been the viewer, and now with electricbaby, I get to step in and interact with all of the people I admire in two worlds. Plus I get to work with Franklin and support the vision.

David: So, Franklin, when did you arrive in Seattle and did you see it as a move towards a good place to pursue artwork?

Franklin: I arrived in the early ‘90s working as an engineer, making short films and taking advantage of public-access television before moving to 911 Media Arts. This lead to installation opportunities, residencies at home and abroad, gallery and museum shows and finally back to the streets and public forums.

David: That was just when I was leaving Artist Trust. Did you have a sense that Seattle was a good place to be as an artist?

Franklin: The Seattle art community and the city continue to be super-kind to me with grants and opportunities—great for everything I have my hands in.

David: You’ve said that you engage your art with other non-art, non-profit projects. Can you give an example of your work here in Bali? Or Seattle?

Franklin: In Seattle I am a longstanding participant in the Service Board (tSB), a youth mentoring program. About two years ago, we asked a Seattle artist, Parskid, to do a sticker design for tSB. He was becoming known for his street images of little-misunderstood youth characters, which immediately reminded me of the Service Board’s misunderstood youth characters. His design was unanimously well-received by the kids and we’ve since printed 8,000 Parskid stickers, plus t-shirts, hoodies and banners. Now electricbaby is replicating that success by inviting 30 favorite artists from across the states to create sticker designs for non-profits local and dear to them. We will be doing all of the sticker production as a gift to the non-profits the artists support. This will be followed by a gallery tour to create some strong press for all the organizations and artists involved.

David: And in Bali?

Franklin: We just completed a project involving Che Jen and Kenji Hirata of the NYC Barnstormers collective—big heroes of ours—and a Balinese non-profit org called IDEP, which was trying to get their recycling education program off the ground.

David: Which is desperately needed here. That’s funny because I was on the board of IDEP until just recently. They’re wonderful people.

Juli: Kismet.

Franklin: It’s a small world. IDEP needed transportation to move their recycling from villages to processing centers. We provide that, incorporating Che Jen’s and Kenji Hirata’s art to bring visibility and press to IDEP. The idea is that other people will notice and create a cycle of continued support for the program. And it’s working!

David: Do you know all the meanings of IDEP? The acronym is Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture, but the word “idep” in high-caste Balinese also means, ”the ability to think on a higher creative plane,” which is really a more accurate meaning of what IDEP does and what so many of us are working towards.

Find out more about electricbaby at www.electricbaby.com.

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