Get artsy: Here’s how

By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com

LAS CRUCES — There are only 11 days left in For the Love of Art Month. Have you done anything artistic?
Busted a move? Painted a picture? Sculpted something? Written a poem?
If you feel blocked or pressed for time, I have some ideas.
Get out your most artistic outfits and accessories and prepare to strut your stuff. You can always take an artistic fashion risk and join the absolutely unofficial For the Love of Art Month Wearable Art Promenade and Parade (FLAMWAPP) on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in downtown Las Cruces or today or next Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on and around the Mesilla Plaza.
The times mentioned are already popular community gatherings for the Las Cruces Farmers & Crafts Market and Mesilla’s Mercado, so people will be ambling around anyway and you’ll have a ready-made audience for your performance art.
Just don those artsy duds and promenade — or hop, waltz, salsa, tango, two-step or breakdance, if the spirit moves you.
This is an all-arts event, so you’re also welcome to sing, play a musical instrument, or recite a poem or a soliloquy from your favorite play or movie as you promenade. Since I declared the first FLAMWAPP a few years ago, minstrels have become a common sight at the LCFCM. There’s no charge and you might even want to make it a regular thing, if you enjoy your FLAMWAPP musical performance.
Visual art is key for the FLAMWAPP, so bring your most artistic game face (henna, temporary tattoos and any other kind of face painting will be welcomed) and your most wonderful wearable art.
Think you’re too old? Check out the “Advanced Style” film trailer on You Tube for inspiration. (Or find my column online at lcsun-news.com to watch.)
Notes one stylish senior: “I dress up for the theater of my life every day.”
Wear anything that makes you feel artistic: a beret, a cowboy hat with a beaded hat band, a silver concho belt, a hand-woven shawl, a painted shirt or jeans, an old broach, necklace or ring that belonged to an arty ancestor, a braided friendship bracelet your kids made at camp.
You’ll get extra points for unusual combinations, double scores for original one-of-a kind wearable art clothing and accessories made in our territory, and gold medal status for wearing anything you’ve created yourself.
Not that anybody will be keeping score. Art is its own reward and FLAMWAPP is pure arts for art’s sake.
Dress up the kids, dress up the dog.
Promenade.
Unconditional art, like unconditional love, has no limits.
If you still feel you need authorization, you can blame it on a FLAM founding muse: Me. I’ll never forget that memorable day on a colorful Mesilla Park patio with Kelley Hestir, Myriam Lozada-Jarvis and other creative souls who would later start ArtForms, sponsor of the first For the Love of Art Month in 1998.
In its early years, FLAM included spontaneous art happenings and wonderfully artistic and nutty events like an Art Car Parade and a multimedia banquet with place settings created by top local artists, plus exotic, artistic food, and ballerinas, flamenco dancers and kicklines cavorting around the tables. By the time you read this, the second annual FLAM flashmob should have surprised crowds at the Las Cruces Convention Center.
FLAM has burgeoned and flourished, but we all need to do our part: eternal vigilance and innovation is the price of liberating our artistic natures.
If there isn’t already an art exhibit or happening planned at your favorite office, community center, restaurant or place of business, there’s still time to create an exhibit with your photos, paintings and arts and crafts. Do strange things in the name of art. Doodle on an agenda. Breakdance in the breakroom. Start a song at a staff meeting. Commit random acts of art wherever you are.
Do it For the Love of Art.

S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at (575) 541-5450. Follow her on Twitter @DerricksonMoore.