I usually do one major art festival each summer and it is amazing the absolute havoc I can bring to my usually calm home. I takeover each room with the force of a creative hurricane. Cans of paint are piled on counter tops and tables where children used to eat meals. Huge pieces of glass and Plexiglas are positioned somewhere on these surfaces as well, usually overlapping the sides with the threat of a major scar if you cut the corner too close. A few hundred flowers of different sizes in all stages of production lay on a folding table as I move my colorful circus into the garage. My creativity overflows into each room like a can of paint spilling over. This is not a quick act but a deliberate takeover that goes on for a week to ten days.
Amidst the chaos are signs of calm that soothe me as I make this mess; candles burn, lemons float on top of water filled pitchers encouraging me to drink more than coffee, cut flowers in a vase picked from my garden positioned near my beloved coffee pot.
My family barely notices as they are so used to this ritual. They show the same response when they see ducks flying south, “oh, the ducks are flying south”. Instead, “Mom as I know her is gone. I will hunt for my own food “. I look forward to the day in the near future when my work finds a home of its own in an old barn in Bucks County. There, paint on the floor, my face and my feet will be acceptable.
Written on Tuesday, 18 August 2009 17:35 by colleen