Easter buckets surprise Yumans this morning

Yumans walking down the street this morning might have found special “eggs” — colorful, artsy buckets with an invitation to attend a reception three nights later at the Yuma Art Center.

The “underground” project, dubbed Buckets of Artists, has been in the works for a couple of months but it was kept secret to surprise Yumans this morning.

Art lover Isaac Russell and fellow conspirators designed the project “to parallel the appearance of Easter eggs all over the backyard of our childhoods.”

Russell and artist Lia Littlewood played Easter bunny and “hid the eggs” in the wee hours in places considered iconic to Yuma: the Territorial Prison, East and West Wetlands, 16th Street, Yuma Palms Regional Center and “wherever people might be strolling Easter morning.”

Each of the 50 buckets spread all over the city included the gallery invitation and a copy of the Yuma Sun with this article detailing Buckets of Artists. The Yuma Sun also gave hints about the project through QR codes hidden in its pages for several weeks.

People who found the buckets were invited to go to an April 27 reception at the art center with their newly found works of art. They will have a chance to meet the maker of their piece, as all 50 artists will be in attendance. And, they can also view the other 49 works of art.

Each artist began with a standard five-gallon bucket, donated by the city of Yuma. They were given free rein to “do with it as they see fit and as their medium allows. Paint it. Wrap it in canvas and paint it. Mold clay all around it. Cover it with glass. Affix sculpture to and through it. Merely use it as a plinth to put a piece on,” Russell noted.

The buckets represent “the idea that Yuma is brimming, nay — overflowing with artists who most people don't know about and who can — and will — pop up anywhere,” Russell said.

Russell, who serves on the city's Arts and Culture Commission, said people may keep the art pieces they find, but he hopes next year they will hide it for someone else to find.

“Your piece of art is going to a complete stranger and they'll stick it in their living room,” he said, speaking to the artists.

Littlewood noted that some artists tend to become attached to their works but she said this project is about “total release, letting go.”

The objective is also to expose “random” people who might otherwise never be exposed to Yuma's “culturally rich life,” Russell said. “We're bringing art into their lives.”

The project reached out to timid artists. “We have a huge art community but some are so shy, they need to be brought out,” Littlewood said.

What they got is an overwhelming response. Amateur and professional artists from all walks of life signed on. “Most have never done something like this,” Littlewood noted.

Buckets of Artists partnered with many local organizations, including Arizona Western College, Yuma Police Department (in case someone got suspicious of a bucket and called in the bomb squad), Yuma Proving Ground and civic groups such as the Optimists and NexGen.

Russell hopes this project will become an annual event and that it will become bigger and better. He doesn't even mind if others copy and carry it out in their own communities.

“As Yuma continues to grow, we want this effort to continue to grow as well. We hope to draw more and more people in the next year and the next.”

Mara Knaub can be reached at mknaub@yumasun.com or 539-6856.