For Alexa Rittichier (InterArts MFA 2013) and her collaborators from People on a Stage, it was effortless and exciting to brainstorm and create spontaneously while they all lived close to each other in Chicago. Now that they have completed the program and spread out across the country, it’s time to invent new ways to stay in close contact, helping each other fan the creative flames in each others’s work.

Alexa’s newest endeavor is taking advantage of a multi-user blog site to rekindle the creative spirit in a common space. Her new blogsite, I’m Fucking Scared (IFS), is an investigation into the sources and manifestations of fear.

What happens when you move to a new city? What happens when your life is turned upside down by loss? What happens after you leave graduate school? What lies ahead? 

“We use the I’m Fucking Scared (IFS) blog as a repository and record of this new artistic endeavor,” says Alexa. “Each week one member of our collaboration will challenge the others to respond to a prompt related to the blog’s title. We respond in any fashion deemed appropriate or relevant. Our process and experiments are laid bare and held out for anyone to see. This exposure of our processes in a public forum challenges our fears of vulnerability and exposure.” 

The artists in the project, Lydia Feuerhelm, Jenny Garnett, Alexa J. Rittichier, Emily Rose, Michael Chad St. John, and Don Widmer, hail from a wide variety of artistic backgrounds. Connected by their time at Columbia College Chicago, they have for the past few years collaborated, advised, and assisted each other on various interdisciplinary projects. Although they are no longer physically located in the same city, they continue working together. As InterArts grads, they are able to use multiple platforms and technologies to aid their expression. This takes the focus off the media, and gives audiences direct access to the work and ideas.

For more information on the project, click here.