Jennevieve Schlemmer, sipping coffee while we eat at the Mandolin Café, mentions something Lynn Di Nino has told her that’s resonated: when Di Nino was learning massage therapy, a tenet was “always leave one hand on the body.”



It’s a tenet Di Nino has been employing both with her work on her most recent project, the mysterious “I am Curious … Yellow” yard sale, set to take place Sunday, Sept. 9 at a mystery location described by Schlemmer as “an undisclosed, easy-to-get-to Tacoma location.”  That location will be divulged Saturday night on Craigslist, and via yard sale signs dotted about the city Sunday morning.



“Every item is $5,” Schlemmer says, adding, “at 1 p.m. there will be a sale, but by then all the good stuff will be gone.”



To hear Schlemmer explain it, the latest grassroots arts-traveganza orchestrated by Di Nino has kept people engaged through the use of that one-hand-on-at-all-times touch, though the tenet also applies to how Di Nino has kept her fingers on the pulse of the community and ups the ante to make sure that pulse stays vital.



Even her next big job, an installation of three giant Jackson’s Chameleons at the exterior courtyard of the Children’s Hospital in Seattle, will engage the community, as well, with found-object cricket sculptures created by children to “feed” the chameleons.

To hear Di Nino explain it, it’s not about her; it’s about the community.



She’s quick to pass the credit for the inception of the “I am Curious” project and the carrying out of the concept to others, though her ever-present hand seems involved in all steps of the process.



The idea originally began as an act of thrift, when, commissioned to help with the Daffodil Parade float for the School of the Arts, she realized $200 in daffodils really wasn’t that much.



“We thought if the whole darn float is yellow, you won’t notice the lack of daffodils.”

Household items were painted “Sun Yellow” and the “Spring Cleaning” float was born.

At the end of its life, the float was taken apart, and its pieces seemed relegated to the dumpster until others intervened and reused the yellow items. 



Di Nino credits James Ciccante with originating the idea of the visually stimulating yard sale, containing nothing but items painted the same bright yellow.



“It’s not really my idea,” says Di Nino, crediting Ciccante, “a pharmacist and closet artist.” She adds, “He’s a pretty talented guy.”



Di Nino says the idea took wings through involvement of the community of people created through the arts listserve, though she glosses over her initiative in getting the ball rolling by sending the initial e-mails and omits the part about pitching the idea to her fellow community arts activists at the Art on the Ave wrap party, at which point Schlemmer became involved, along with five others on the steering committee.



“All these projects work best if they’re true collaborations,” explains Di Nino, “People get involved and ideas get incorporated. Any ideas that come up, we try to say yes — then the team is invested.”



To that end, Di Nino credits Schlemmer with the idea of donating the money earned through the sale of the items to Habitat for Humanity.



“Jennevieve said, this project is all about recycling — it makes sense to do this for Habitat for Humanity”, an organization that lives the “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra, helping build communities with people in need through donations and volunteerism.



Di Nino’s house has been remodeled through the help of recycling; even the heater currently in her home was purchased at the Habitat for Humanity thrift shop, which takes proceeds off of the sales of unused donated items at the shops and puts those funds toward the refurbishment and building of homes.



Di Nino adds, “Every artist I know is consumed by recycling,” so the statement of the mass community art project, which has 40 confirmed participants so far, could be seen, in one sense, to be about reusing and recycling resources and thinking about items in a different way before tossing them.



The event could also be an ever-so-slight act of civic guerilla art, considering the mystery of its whereabouts; it could also ever-so-slightly allude to the socialist messages underlying the Swedish movie by the same name as the event.



Or, possibly, the event is mostly just set to be a big yellow spectacle, the sort of thing that will make for a big impromptu community festival that leads to fabulous pictures and fond memories; perhaps the “I am Curious” message can be seen as props to Curious George and a connection with the monkey business the arts community has engaged in with Monkeyshines and 100th Monkey Parties.



Whether the meaning of the assembly of artists and their odd yellow shapes is superficial or cerebral, a good time is pretty well guaranteed, and all for a good cause.



And for a mere five bucks you, too, can feel the hand of Lynn Di Nino.