18Hz Arts Collective

05/11/2024

04/30/2024

Here we go! Sketchbook and filming tools at the ready and headed into the park today.

04/07/2024

For the final day of this first week in April, I'm taking the opportunity to share some incredibly inspirational artworks for me, ones that I love more and more each time I revisit their associated media. The art share during would not be complete without an appearance by La Princesse and Ariane, enormous robotic spiders created by the artists and tech wizards at for two of their shows in the early 2000s. The company uses movement as an essential component of their art and finds some of their best inspiration in nature. Photos and video of La Princesse and Ariane still make the rounds on the internet for new audiences every two to three years.

04/06/2024

Day 6: Trapdoors: Relatives of the tarantula, these spiders have a classic “spiderish” appearance with hinged legs, shiny backs and fuzzy abdomens. Audouin's trapdoor spider (Ummidia audouini) is widely distributed across North America. They construct burrows in the ground that they top with a lid, or a trapdoor. They hinge this with silk and run lines radiating outward from it to the surrounding ground. With legs resting on a central spoke, the spider can detect movements in these lines. If it determines that the movements are indicative of a prey item it will pounce up and out of the trapdoor to grab it. The motion is incredibly swift. When not hunting, trapdoors will hunker down in their burrows, and will retreat to it if they feel the slightest bit threatened, holding the lid shut from beneath to deter intruders.

04/05/2024

Day 5: Jumpers: These charismatic little spiders have had great PR through a character created by animator Joshua Slice and voiced by his nephew Lucas, for whom he is named. They are curious and will interact with most visual sources of movement. Their vision is exceptional and some species have been observed making behavioral choices based on the range of colors they are able to perceive. Their eyes are large enough that the movements they make to track whatever is drawing their attention at the moment can be clearly seen. The Zebra Jumping spider (Salticus scenicus) has a vivid pattern along its back that favors its namesake mammal. It is a hunter rather than a predatory web spinner, trailing a silk dragline for safety, and they use their silk to spin small tent-like structures in which to get a good night’s sleep, to moult, and to shelter from the weather.

04/04/2024

Day 4: Crab spiders: Crab spiders get their name from their unique conformation and their ability to walk sideways. The flower crab spider (Misumena vatia) uses flowers as its base of operations and can change color to suit the specific flowers in its environment. They are ambush predators, favoring attempts to bring down larger prey less frequently, and the colors of their prey can also alter the crab spider’s appearance post consumption.

04/03/2024

Day 3: Widows: While we are mostly familiar with Black Widows, and less so the Brown Widows, the Red Widow spider (Latrodectus bishopi) rarely has contact with people. It is threatened species, and lives in the scrub forests of central and southern Florida, favoring sandy soil and the low branches of palmettos among the sand pines.

04/02/2024

Day 2: Wolf and Grass spiders: These spiders don’t get nearly enough appreciation for how gloriously fuzzy and involved with living life they are. I drew the male spotted wolf spider (Pardosa amentata) practicing his amorous dance moves, which you should definitely look up because there’s great film of it. It’s like an odd mix of flamenco and disco, and, when done well, lets a lady spider know he’s friend rather than food, and impresses her enough to get her to agree to a date.

04/01/2024

Day 1: Orb weavers: Spiders like these have ancestry that has been traced back to the Cenozoic, and the Golden Silk Orb Web Spider (Trichonephila clavipes) and the Joro Spider (Trichonephila clavata) are two I encountered regularly in the southeastern United States. The Golden is endemic to the area, and best known for webs that make gardening a bit of a sticky situation. The Joro Spider, accidentally introduced from overseas, is an invasive species. Since it eats pests other insect predators won’t there is still speculation whether it will naturalize and become a benefit to the ecosystem rather than a detriment.

03/31/2024

We start tomorrow on April 1st! Here is the list of Be Kind to Spiders Week art prompts, we hope you will share your artistic arachnids with us!

03/25/2024

Join us for BE KIND TO SPIDERS WEEK!

April is right around the corner and the first week of the month is always Be Kind To Spiders Week!

In honor of this opportunity to get to know these fascinating creatures a bit better, 18Hz Arts Collective has put together a prompt list as inspiration for creators in all media to use as a starting point for spider-related art works.

Each of the first 6 days of the week will have a different group of arachnid species to choose from. Since spiders comprise such an incredibly large and diverse order, we have chosen general descriptive names that should be recognizable even to those who are the least familiar with them. We’ve kept the categories quite broad, and we encourage you to do a bit of research before choosing your subject. You won’t regret it!

Day 1: Orb weavers
Day 2: Wolf and Grass spiders
Day 3: Widows
Day 4: Crab spiders
Day 5: Jumpers
Day 6: Trapdoors

On the 7th and final day of the week, we encourage you to showcase your favorite spider, a spider-related work by another creator who has been a source of inspiration for you, or both!

We are collaborating with Sparrow Art Supply, our awesome local source for everything in the way of materials you might need to get you started. The art on our feed will be reshared in their stories as the week goes on. Tag us and Sparrow Art Supply and use the hashtags and when you post your work so we can all find one another and see all of the amazing eight-legged creations being made.

That’s it! You can find more information on Be Kind To Spiders Week at the link below. Go forth, make art and be kind!

https://nationaltoday.com/be-kind-to-spiders-week/ #:~:text=Be%20Kind%20to%20Spiders%20Week%20is%20observed,April%201%20to%20April%207.

11/26/2023

18Hz Arts Collective Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts and education organization that broadens perceptions of science & history through collaborative, creative work in transitional locations. We invite creators of all types working in all mediums to join us in liminal and legendary spaces, revisiting these topics with the context and life experience they now possess. All of our programs integrate art and narrative as teaching mechanisms and are customized to best fit each event location and the creators who join us there.

We are less than a year old this is our first Giving Tuesday. While we wait to hear back about grants and continue to prepare for our first in person fundraiser (April 2024), we are hard at work generating original artwork and planning our first official events, to take place in the summer of 2024. But we can only make these events happen with the support of people like you.

Your donation this GivingTuesday will help us to:
*Fully fund independent study and art residency opportunities
*Bring visiting lecturers and guest educators to our events
*Obtain materials, research tools and technology needed for on site work
*Enable collaborations and information sharing for our participants and other organizations

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/fundraising/18debbcf-b0f5-46ed-8028-985e069550b2

For more information, please visit our website at www.18hzartscollective.org

Thank you so much for your interest and supporting the arts!