Press Release - The Ultimate Test

The Ultimate Test

Six Masterpak TitanStrongBoxes are about to embark on the trip of a lifetime

Masterpak has joined forces with the International Art Alliance to aid them in their ambitious art project titled ‘Palimpsest.’ The goal of this project is to explore the connectedness of six international artists and their collaborative pieces.

During this project, each artist will use their unique artistic style and materials of choice to add a layer to another artist’s painting in an effort to build a cohesive and physical representation of the group. They will collectively create six artworks (with each artist contributing a single layer to every painting), resulting in a total of 36 layers. Throughout the project each artist will document his or her ideas, adding to the story of each piece.

Masterpak has partnered with the group via six of their TitanStrongBoxes® to help them securely ship their paintings around the globe using traditional “snail mail.” Due to the project’s logistics, each box will be protecting a painting during at least 6 international trips.

“We have long promoted the resilience of our StrongBoxes and the protective capabilities of our packing system, but real-world opportunities to point up their eco-friendly reusability are not terribly common. So when this collaboration was brought to our attention we saw a chance to participate in a cross-continental art-world odyssey,” says Masterpak president Peter Clancy. A single shipping box for each painting is not only convenient but also saves a lot of time and packaging material that would otherwise be destined for landfill. In addition, the boxes will become colorful artifacts in their own rite as they accumulate addresses, stickers, and markings - and a scuff or two along the way.

“Having the extra protection these TitanStrongBoxes provide will take away a lot of the stress that comes with shipping artwork internationally.” ~ says founding IAA member Stéphanie McLean.

And you will be able to follow their journey! The artists go live on Facebook every Thursday at 3:30 PM EST (12:30 PM PST), giving their audience the opportunity to get to know them individually and as an entity, to become familiar with the project, and to not only view the process but to witness the unboxings of the paintings as they make their way from studio to studio.

The project will culminate in a physical exhibition at a Vancouver, BC gallery, where the International Art Alliance members will finally meet each other in person for the first time and discover whether their pieces complement each other to the same extent as their personalities do.

Artist backgrounds:

Cheryl Willcox - an accomplished oil painter and art teacher who creates oil paintings that celebrate the beauty of the natural world. Based on Australia’s NSW Central Coast she studied classical drawing and oil painting at Watts Atelier California USA and was coached by Stefan Bauman of The Grand View.

Lara Spadetto - an Italian contemporary artist currently living in the UK who deeply feel the desire and the need to transmit harmony and balance with her paintings. Everything lives in perfect equilibrium, nothing makes sense without its opposite. Lara studied advertising illustration in Milan and lived in Barcelona and Dubai before re-locating to the UK.

Rose L. Williams - a visual artist and certified expressive arts therapist who uses botanical components from the environment to create art that reflects the fundamental human instinct to connect through nature’s healing energies. Her love for printmaking developed during her time studying under Mircho & Janina Jakobow at the University of the Fraser Valley.

Ross C. Berman creates graphic artwork that strives to raise the spirit and connect people with their experience of the Divine. Ross earned his BFA in Illustration at Massachusetts College of Art. He has also studied with Stuart Cubley and Pat B. Allen and Rabbi Adina Allen. Ross is one of the country’s leading facilitators of the Jewish Studio Process.

Stephanie McLean - a lifelong self-taught painter who has been involved in creative endeavours throughout her life, strives to capture the electric energy of performers in her paintings. Stephanie holds a BFA in Music from Concordia University.

Denise Buisman Pilger - an artist, expat and traveler who paints with memories to capture and preserve those fleeting perfect moments. Denise has a Bachelor of Art degree from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, she has lived and created in the Netherlands, the United States, Japan and Canada.

Contacts

Masterpak:
Jim Feichtmann
T: (646) 443-7210 x 223
jf@masterpak-usa.com
 
The International Art Alliance:
AUSTRALIA
Cheryl Willcox (North Avoca, Australia)
artist@cherylwillcoxart.com
 
CANADA
Denise Buisman Pilger (Saint Jerome, Quebec)
denise@denisebuismanpilger.com
+1 (514) 431-4613
Stephanie McLean (Toronto, Ontario)
steph@stephaniemcleanart.ca
 
Rose L. Williams (Vancouver, British Columbia)
rosewarrior64@gmail.com
 
UNITED KINGDOM
Lara Spadetto (Buckingham, England)
laraspadetto@gmail.com
 
UNITED STATES
Ross C. Berman (Los Angeles, CA)
rosscberman@gmail.com