This ethos found its earliest expression during my involvement with the OHO Group. Originating in the late 1960s, this artistic collective in my native Slovenia (then Yugoslavia), comprising Marko Pogačnik, the primary organizer, David Nez, Andraž Šalamun, and myself as core members, orchestrated "happenings" that invited the public to engage in our artistic endeavors. One notable project involved inflating a lengthy plastic tube with a vacuum cleaner.

In one memorable “Happening” (OHO - Katalgo: Happening the Passion (or Biblical Stories), 1968) we were asked to create an exhibit and also an event/happening in a theater hall. For the exhibit I created a sculpture called Red Sea, a series of wavy wooden boards that I painted red. When we discussed what to do in the hall, I suggested parting the Red Sea as a theme and we agreed to improvise around it. We got hold of a large roll of cardboard paper and after people settled into their seats we rolled the paper over everybody and then punched holes in it so people could stick their heads above it; we turned people into a ‘sea’ and their heads into ‘waves’. And then we used karate chops to break the paper and we ‘parted’ the sea Moses-like.

Later, in my work at Pomegranate Center, I began integrating my artistic vision with my beliefs in democratic processes. Here, some of the most impactful and visually stunning moments were born from reimagined versions of these early happenings, as we crafted spaces for communal art-making.

On a large scale, the parks themselves were art-happenings. But on a micro level, we incorporated the hands, quite literally using paint on participants’ hands or fingertips, to help create a larger image. The first of this kind was at Medina Elementary, where I was asked to integrate art elements into the school. This was made from handprints and fingerprints of all the students, teachers, PTA members and school alumni.

I used this same process at my daughters’ weddings, in lieu of a guest book. Guests’ fingerprints became the rocky beach, or their signatures the currents in the lake.

At my Spring 2018 retrospective exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art is Ljubljana, one room was dedicated to a collaborative art project - I would guide visitors to the exhibit to add their fingerprint to help make “The Dragon” - a symbol of the Slovenian Capitol.

Visitors to the gallery add to “The Dragon”

During a recent training with the North Sound Accountable Community of Health (North Sound ACH), which provides services to people who live in urban and rural settings spanning from the Cascade mountains to islands in the Salish Sea, I was asked to guide them in a collaborative art project.

We created a triptych, 9' wide and 5' high. The dark lines at the bottom are signatures of some 100 people who contributed dots.