In the summer of 2024, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing approached me about featuring my art on a bus for CATA (Capital Area Transit Authority). The bus would be on a route in East Lansing. The Art In Motion program started the weekend of the 2024 East Lansing Art Festival in May. I enjoyed this new way of participating in ELAF, having exhibited their previously.
CATA Blog and Video Interview
CATA even interviewed me about my art for their official blog. Furthermore they recorded a video of me while visiting their depot on Michigan State University’s campus.
Behind the Scenes
As I explained in a blog post, the art used started in a coloring book. Additionally, I needed to change the art to fit the dimensions of the CATA bus window. I couldn’t use the full, original vertical art for the long horizontal space.
Thankfully, the Arts Council of Greater Lansing provided me with a template. This allowed me to easily resize the image for how it would be printed later. Previously, I used this same art for my digital billboard that appeared around Lansing in 2020. If I get to provide CATA with more art in the future, I cannot say right now. I hope so though! I enjoyed receiving social media messages from people who spotted “my” bus.
Free Cats in Other Forms
My Free Cats art lives on in other ways as well. There is its original incarnation, as a page in a coloring book. Spinning off from the coloring book is a print, which is my best selling print, ever. Lastly, you can take Free Cats with you everywhere, as a t-shirt.
Thank you again to CATA and the Arts Council of Greater Lansing for this exciting opportunity. I hope my art brought a smile to everyone in East Lansing.