Several things

First off, Emily, could you post those blogs?

Secondly, and sort of along the same lines an artist I have recently come across (through my roomate Katie) Michael Sieben http://www.msieben.com/ makes zines in collaboration with other artists. One piece was made by mailing drawings back and forth and building off of what happened. His work is humorous, so the personal aspect doesn't seem overwhelming. For me, they all look like memories, or maybe a metaphor for a memory. Anyway, he is worth checking out I think if you are thinking about working that way.

Thirdly, I've really been thinking a lot about how to create more of an art practice for myself. I was at those same talks Emily was referring to and it was really interesting to see real life things being executed and put out there. It made me really look at my way of working and made me question what I'm doing here, my intentions, how I can be more active in my own process, how I can get over the self-consciousness I have about art-making. (for starters I actually sent photos of my work to my parents, and I don't really ever show them things). I think a lot of it has to do with acceptance of what I really want to accomplish and having the abilities to do/articulate them.

I just accomplished my first participatory piece (with julianne) and it was another opportunity for me to think about what kind of things I'm interested in making, question the things I'm doing as I go along so I'm steering them towards some sort of end that I can react to. It was a really fun experience, making the setup and participating in the party we made. Ultimately it was a major learning experience in planning/documenting and being assertive towards you own work (setting up for a desired result is not always a bad thing). By that I also mean some people will only show up for the food and you can't always let them away with it.

Collaboration is a lot of fun. or at least it can be when it's right. Julianne and I had a really good time, even though we don't have much to show for it. It will exist in our hearts (sadly)

There were a lot of parts about the making of this party that were beautiful. For instance, the moving of the tent.
I can set the scene; it was late at night, the tent was billowing and swelling in the wind and we were inching it along the pavement. It felt immensely huge and that whole experience was when I was like oh, we should have this on video. So it really got me thinking about how the making can sometimes be even more provocative than the result, the importance of DOCUMENTATION and the nice surprises that can happen when you immerse yourself in a task. so maybe thats something I could look to in the future...