History of The Prize Lady Experience

In or around 1995, I began trying to bring creativity and a sense of surprise to places like bars, parties, etc. I would bring along big blank journal books and a huge array of various creative implements like markers, crayons, stickers and I would ask people if they wanted to express themselves. I would also give out stickers just for fun. During that time, I compiled at least three books, gave away millions of stickers and I think opened up some people. My theory behind it all being that as children we came across these kinds of situations more frequently, (i.e.-free play, dentist's offices, art time, etc.) but as adults there's no regular situations where we are asked to create spontaneously, be silly or are given the chance to look through and choose some sparkly, bright stickers and neat prizes.

Then in or around 1997, I was at a party in Maine after a show of my friends who were in a great band from Boston and someone wanted my tape of a rare recording of this band. So, I asked for a drawing in exchange. In that moment, I morphed into the Prize Lady. Though I didn't know it.

When the JP Open Studios rolled around in September of that same year, I had an idea for a fun way to reach people in a less passive "audience vs. artist" way. I wasn't actually officially involved in the Open Studios, so I placed a sign on the end of the road to show "art off the map" down here. I bought rubber snakes; ring-pops and other assorted neat trinkets and placed them in baskets for people that would come to my Open House to take home. Set up the sketchbooks and artist tools. And I put the Idea Box out as a "just for fun" way for them to go away thinking with a smile. As a non-judgmental, non-recorded psychological experiment, I offered the participants a choice- do you want to look through the box you add to or take away from. And according to what they needed or what their temperament was- they would answer. Of course, what they didn't know was it was the same box for each answer.

I had created the Idea Box for when I babysat children. A mini-version of the Prize Box except some stuff was permanently glued to the surface- like a little musical band of cats, stickers and other things I can't remember. It was lost in my move from JP to Woburn. It was a box that you could add to, get inspiration from, tell your secrets to, and if it was a really important idea you could write it right on the wood. I believe, but never got to prove to a long-term degree, that everything in the world that could or would ever be was represented in the Idea Box. I would bring it to places and ask adults what do you expect to see when you open it. The answers were really surprising sometimes but they always saw some form of what they expected to see. No one ever answered something I couldn't show him or her upon opening.

That day of Art was a blast. Neighborhood kids kept coming back to grab big fistfuls from the rubber snake bowl. People drew in books. People added to the box and took away from it secret treasures. Fun was had until way past six pm. I remember talking to a mother and daughter till dark. It was a success and it was the beginning of The Prize Lady Experience.

The concept I wanted to impart was that they are looking at the art of artists and feeling that separation of artist and viewer but in reality there's not much difference between the people who create art and they people who think they're not creative. Just that it hasn't been able to be expressed. I tried, and I try in my work as The Prize Lady, to give a place for that to be expressed. With the worthiness of the endeavor created Only by being fully present in the moment of the creation process and not to have it linked to the product.

Somehow from that day, the night in Maine and all I had been doing with the blank books and Idea Box came to merge and create The Prize Lady Experience. I then made up the tasks- Visual, Dare, Game of Chance and Creative- with items I had around the house. The books of the past became the Visuals of present. At first, Dares came from people on the spot- they knew their limits better than I so they knew what was just a bit beyond those limits. Later, I made up ones and put them on pieces of paper with eye-catching designs on the outer parts. Game of Chance came from these worded pewter dice that I got from a retail store I worked for at the time. Before the Stage Show, this task was just an expression of what memories or thoughts the words brought up in you. And Creative was of course the old stand-by of creative expression in the blank books. (And yet, I have received dances and mime routines for this category as well...)

In the beginning, I only carried a few prizes around in the same bag with the tasks. But as I became more determined and mistakes happened I became more refined in my performance. I created business cards that explained the boundaries of the game to weed out sexual overtures, commercialism, and for the initiates to have a keepsake to entice others with a sense of mystery about the Experience. And I utilized and old Barbie doll wooden box that my dad made to create the Prize Box that could hold more prizes in a more organized fashion.

When 2000 rolled around, the official Prize Box and The Prize Lady Experience cards were all in use and I believe I had connected with 1000's of people. Recently, I decided to keep a guest book so I could keep a record of how many people have participated in The Prize Lady Experience. I have met people who remember me from years back and comment how their lives changed in that small moment of spontaneous challenge of expression. Once I met someone who still had his Prize Lady Experience card in his wallet and it was an old, old card- one of the first designs. I have changed to card's design over the years and it's like a timeline in some ways. I feel blessed to have touched so many individuals. I would love to be an urban legend of sorts- to possibly influence culture in a large-scale way by way of this very intimate, personalized and individual-based work I do.

Then in 2001, The Experience morphed again when I began going to Stone Soup Poets on Monday nights @ Out of the Blue Art Gallery. It became a Stage Show version. A version, no less intimate and safe, brought to a level of creating a performer out of random expression in a public forum. I am the instigator of the challenge and am relentless and ruthless towards the goal of expressing beyond your comfort zones. But at the same time I am also the safety-net and I hold the firm security that they CAN do it.

What is The Prize Lady Experience?

The Prize Lady Experience is a way to feel worthy of being creative just because you've expressed yourself. It's about bringing a magical like nature to open an adult mind to possibilities. It's about opening your mind to your creative side, to the clown or performer in all of us, and to the thoughts or ideas that can only surface when we are inspired in an indirect way. It's about feeling and being worthy of winning a prize just because you embrace the moment of creativity as your own.

It is witnessing and at the same time living in the moment of creative expression; accepting that expression as truth and worthy of being expressed as Art. Everyone gets a turn. It breaks down the barrier between Artist and Non-Creative type and even Performer and Audience. It's a performance that has morphed into clearer and more out-reaching understanding of the creative spirit and it continues to change and evolve.

The Prize Lady Experience is in the living of it.