Isaac Bluefoot

What is your favorite art medium to work in, and why?

My first love was paint, but in the past decade, I have found my favorite medium to work in is community. I want to make art that engages people and becomes a part of their lives. I find that line between life and art to be not so definable and I want to blur it for everyone whenever possible. I love the way I can connect to an audience with my puppet troupe, the Kinetic Paranormal Society. In a gallery setting the typical viewing time of a painting is 1.5 seconds, but during a puppet show, people are motivated to invest more of themselves just to find out what the puppets are talking about. Soon they may find themselves emotionally siding with one character or another, and in that moment the puppets become as real as anyone else, alive in the imagination of the viewer. And yet transforming the viewer from spectator to participant is the true objective of making life art. The puppet show takes this indistinction of life from art further by racing in the Kinetic Grand Championship. The puppets have raced for the past eight years becoming active community members themselves. Another way I engage the community is through the Bogglebang Scavenger Hunt. A nine day team race of creativity and riddles held every September for the past five years. I feel that there is something immeasurable to be gained by creating massive community sized trust building exercises. To do this I have teams solve riddles that lead them around the Humboldt Bay to find clues to solve puzzles, all while staging photos based off creative prompts. It is nine days of overwhelming ridiculousness that you aren’t expected to finish, just like life. Perhaps, my favorite way to engage creatively is with my card deck, OmenQuest. I created it in 2007, as a means of playing games with cards depicting archetypal land formations to play games with few rules and no to lose. There is little else I have found that engages the hearts and minds of people as these unique games. It’s like some kind of magic takes effect. Yet honestly, trying to fund the printing of the decks has been my greatest struggle of the past decade. I’ve participated in business plan competitions, grant applications and fellowships and am at this point ready to venture off into what I consider to be a bit frightening, a Kickstarter.com campaign from Humboldt, a county that is all too shy with the internet. But ever since this March, as I have taken to sharing this card deck and its games everyday and have found there is an absolute hunger for it. Maybe I need not be afraid. I ask each person I play with who feels the significance of OmenQuest to not only contribute to the Kickstarter campaign, but to do it as close to the first hour of the campaign as possible at 1 pm PST on the 2nd of October. I fear Humboldt may not be able to fund the entire campaign over the course of the month, but if one or two hundred of us are there in the first hour it could be the kind of impact needed to effect the algorithms of the internet. I feel this is truly a moment when Humboldt culture could have a positive ripple in the world by sharing a game born here that is all about having fun without the expense of anyone losing.

When did you first figure out that art was important to you?

My oldest memory is when I was two, spreading red watercolor with a No 2 paint brush. I knew then that changing the world through art was my very purpose for living. Haven’t veered since, save for some parenting. But they are two talented artists themselves, so no, haven’t veered since.

Who is your art mentor?

Looking at the influence the Kinetic Sculpture Race has had on my life, there is no doubt Hobart Brown has made an unmistakable impact on my work. Perhaps it was happenstance that I started dressing like him, perhaps not.

Buy the game for yourself at omenquestcards.com.

Finish this sentence: My art is my...

My art is my comfort zone, my salvation, and the gift I have to give.

What advice would you offer someone just beginning their exploration of their own artistic self?

If your heart is engaged, you are moving in the right direction. If your taking action and creating than you are moving at all. From there I suggest you always carry a pad and drawing tool every day and also, some OmenQuest really will help anyone needing creativity.