Performance Project: Validation

My performance is a video documentation of the time I spent standing on my street corner on the outskirts of Bucyrus with a sign reading, "Honk if this is art."  For some reason, this is the first thing that popped into my head when I learned about this assignment, and it stuck with me the entire day.  What really pushed me to do it, though, was when I told my mom about my idea.  Her first reaction was, "What? That's not art!"
So, I made my sign and walked out to my street corner, which is in the middle of a pretty rural area.  There are fields and a barn right across from me.  I believe my environment played a huge role in the reactions I received.  I stood out in the cold for fifteen minutes at least and only received one honk and a thumbs up from a little old lady.  A few others waved, but most just kept driving by.  Also, I'm sure it probably took some people a little while to even figure out what I was doing and had already passed me by then.
So, does art exist if the artist claims it to be art?  Or does the work only become art if others validate it as art?  These were the questions that I was trying to explore.  Art is very subjective.  If I had been on a busy street corner in San Francisco or New York, I probably would have received numerous honks.  In the rural area of Bucyrus, Ohio, though, I probably only got honked at because of my effort of standing out in the bitter cold.  Abstract art is always under question of its validity.  My art in this instance was all about validation.  That one little old lady brightened my day with her honk.  Without it, I probably would have felt the need to try my sign on a different corner or just talk about how no one around here understands abstract art.  But that one little lady gave my piece validation and showed me that even in the most rural, traditional area, abstract works and performances can be validated as "art."

Cumulative Acts Proposal

I have always been fascinated with buttons.  Over the past few years, I have made a habit out of making birthday and holiday cards for my loved ones.  My special trademark I always include is a button.  I incorporate them in various ways and experiment with new uses for them with each card I make.  Though this project was very open ended and I could take it in a lot of different ways, I kept picturing something made with buttons.  In my head I saw a piece of clean, white Bristol paper with a silhouetted image made of buttons and a scripture or phrase below it. 
I will draw a basic outline in pencil of the silhouetted image, so I have a map of where to hot glue buttons.  I will add a couple buttons each day.  I will take at least one picture each day of the development of the image. The documentation and the probability that I will most likely have to add multiple layers of buttons will show the time put into the work. 
I plan on framing the final product and hanging it where I can see it everyday, because I know I'll love it! 
I already went out and bought lots of buttons, because I was running low at home.  I think I want a multicolored sparrow on a branch.  The saying beneath will be one of my favorites, which is also on the front of my diary.  It will read "His eye is on the sparrow And I know He watches me."  I will write the phrase in something equivalent to a MicronPen.
This piece will be very me.  The buttons are all my favorite colors, the background will be clean and simplistic, the bird will have a vintage feel to it, and the saying will be about God.  I'm excited!