Mission Statement of a non-club? Hmmm

Art & Soul... Hmmm where do I begin. It started with several of us who were former Rose Camastro-Pritchett art students. (Rose, formerly Rose Mentestti, was my high school art teacher. How that's for weird?) Anyway, when Rose left town and went to Chicago, we found that none of us were doing any art anymore. So, we started meeting together for the sole purpose of encouraging each other to work. So, I guess our unofficial mission statement is "Encourage each other to DO the work we love and help each other grow as Artists." We meet once a month, in the summer, we meet at Madison Park and in cooler weather we tried to meet at each other's house. We dropped meeting at each other's house because we each tried to "entertain" to much and have "tea" parties. We have cut all that and focus on the work now. We show up with a couple of recent works we have done and we will critique each other, focusing on the why and not the "how to" in our work. Our group now consists of Bev Ward, Jacque Kirlin, Jewel Gwaltney and myself.

OK, now here is the honest part, we have never had any intention of "growing a club" or creating a new guild or something. It's all about "us." This may be purely selfish and self serving, but not all groups need to be for "everyone." Sometimes, us four and no more is OK. If we stay small and grow ourselves, then we are more able to go outside and help others grow. I see this as a small cell group that could splinter into other cell groups, but works best by staying small. this keeps the group free of club rules, dues, meetings, committes, and other non-productive, time wasting stuff. We are free to do our real mission, "Encourage each other to Do the work we love and help each other grow as Artists." Simple.