Welcome to Yum City

Greetings 

Welcome to Yum City. My name is Melinda Tidwell and I am the Mayor of Yum City.  I am also an artist, self-trained, and this community is my attempt to help people like me grow and thrive as independent artists.

A Little Background

During my self education, I had a lot of learning to do and it took years. Foremost, at least in 2010, it was very difficult to find out what abstract art is “about”.  Art departments didn’t teach it, nor did most workshops. So I just starting doing collage, somewhat aimlessly. I had no idea what was good and what was better. When I stumbled across a textbook on the principles of design applied to art, it was a revelation to me. It turns out there really is a lot to know about developing your visual language—- it isn’t just raw intuition, you can combine that with training. Then feedback. This was key. Showing my work to an experienced artist’s eye sent me leaps forward. I learned about using books as an art material and fell in love with them and the process. I also studied art that I liked on Pinterest. I was very confounded by how to organize my canvas when starting out, so I studied how other artists did this and developed a set of structures I could turn to. 

All of this felt sort of like clawing my way up a cliff.  Once I found a way up, I built a path to get you there much more quickly, via a live workshop or an online class. But I kept having this feeling to REALLY grow as an artist, you need an ongoing creative environment, and other people to share it with.

 I had always wished that I could have lived in an artist community, like Paris in the 20’s, and had all the stimulation of museums, galleries, a cafe society of other artists, all while attending the art academies. (And after the art academies. Just stay there forever!) That seems like artistic growth in full bloom to me. So, with that in mind, I built Yum City, a virtual Paris a century ago. It is designed to support your artistic growth through a community of like minds, with in-depth courses (coming soon) and with our schedule of events. 

What You Get in Yum City

-Inspiration Mondays, every Monday morning more YUMMY art to look at and be inspired by.

-Wednesday Wisdom, an offering of words from artists and writers about travels on the artist's path.

-Sunday Show & Tell is a day for everyone to post their current work and get comments from the community.

Thursday Matinees takes place on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month. Matinee#1 is a behind the scenes look at how Melinda proceeds through the creative process with her work. Matinee#2 is a materials and techniques demo.

The Tour

YC is modeled after the idea of a real city, so the interaction on our site takes place within the walls of 6 virtual Buildings--- 3 are "government" where Yum City Management (YCM) does the posting, and 3 are "private sector" where our residents do the posting. Let's take a look at the government buildings first:

The Museum produces a weekly post Inspiration Mondays to keep your eyes in a state of satiated repose. Also Profiles, bonus offerings, give residents a background of single artists who have made significant contributions to abstraction/collage/etc.

The Lab specializing in upgrading your brain with a lot of how-to, hosts the popular Thursday Matinees which are short videos about art making. We are also constantly building up our repository of LABnotes which are articles on special technical subjects—- scanners, adhesives, etc.

The Shrine (to the Gods of Creativity) is for the support of that mysterious part of us that reaches into the dark and comes out with a handful of Art. This is hard work and not well understood by the outer world. We need the voice of encouragement steady and often. A little levity does not go to waste either. Wednesday Wisdom is our weekly post of quotes and excerpts to fortify the artist spirit.

The "private sector" buildings are for YC residents to populate freely according to this plan: The Gallery (your work), The Eye Candy Store (your visual inspiration), The Cafe (your everything else). 

The Gallery is on a mission to get you to post work and support each other. It hosts a weekly checkin called Show & Tell Sunday where residents post work they have done in the past week, all or some, finished or WIP, and talk about it.

The Eye Candy Store is a place to post images that delight the eye.  It does not need to be art. Architecture, fashion, a particularly arresting flower, a crack in the sidewalk that looks like an animal... artists notice things. Show us what you notice.

The Cafe is the place to post everything else. Questions, discussions, other non-visual inspirations like music, movies, books, etc. Anything goes over a cup of virtual Latte.

Why You Should Join Us

Art is better with a Gang

One of the key ingredients for thriving artists is, we believe, a rich community of like minds. We each have a fresh set of eyes and knowledge and experience to share. It is energizing to be with other people who share our passion for this abstract mixed media art thing. Everyone gains and the growth is compounded.

We offer this private, commercial-free forum as a place to help you grow into the artist you were meant to be.

A Big Thanks

For checking us out.