This week brought closure to a delightful project I’ve been
working on for some time. It’s an
elaborate, large format commission piece that features an extended path with
trees and flowers. It is
personalized with fabric from the owner, including a rich purple cloth from
their wedding houpa. My rule is
that I won’t show an image of the completed work until the patron sees it
first, so I can only give a sneak peak of a small section with the promise that
I’ll post the entire image at a later date when their home renovations are
completed and they can accept delivery.
Bringing that project to a conclusion means I’m putting more
energy into the next two commission pieces on my plate. The first will revisit a favorite
piece, “Summer Salad.” It involves
creating a lot of detailed vegetable pieces to scale. This week was devoted to assembling the sliced
tomatoes. I put the outside skin
on the six slices I prepared, leaving the project of layering on the details of
the meat and seeds in the cross-section.
The cherry tomatoes for the piece are almost as cute as the ones that
are coming off the vines in the garden.
There aren’t many actual tomatoes as I’d like, since some creature of
the night is stealing all the big tomatoes and some of the little ones, but I’m
getting a taste. I’ve built all of
the shapes that I need for the mushrooms from felted sweater pieces, over which
I’ll needle felt soft grey carded wool to make the surface look realistic. Ahead of me lie the radishes, celery,
onions, broccoli and cucumbers. I
promised to complete the piece by mid December, so I feel like I’m on schedule
with all my other responsibilities.
The sliced vegetables seem to have attracted another big-headed ant,
though. They asked me to create
one more worker for the exhibit at Wonderlab.
The reception for the ant exhibit will be held during First
Fridays on November 6th from 5 to 8:30. The ants will be provided, but it will be BYOP (bring your
own picnic!).
As I scurry into new projects, my exhibit continues to hang
at the Convention Center in the Rogers room. I realized that I neglected to take a photo of one piece
before I hung the show, forcing me to zip back in to grab an image of “Looking
at the Water”. I had so much fun
making the lawn chair and posting it on Facebook before I attached it to the
piece.
So many people thought that
I had reclaimed an old seventies-era aluminum lawn chair by replacing the
fabric. When they saw the piece on
the kitchen counter top for scale it became clear that it was a miniature. Still, the piece seems to bring back
fond memories for a lot of people.
Life is building to another crescendo this week. Monday begins the last week of
rehearsals for the “Phantom of the Opera” show that begins on Saturday, October
18th. It continues for
two more Saturdays, and they’re trying to sell out the shows to help cover the
extensive costs for the elaborate falling chandelier and hundreds of costumes,
among other investments. You can
see the evil monkey atop the ornate music box and the dead body I created for
the show too—it’s incredible how much has gone into this production.
Tommie is a chorus member and Jacob is
in charge of the lighting. Grandma
will come to town for opening night and Jim will watch, cook, and keep everyone
calm, so it’s really a family affair.
Oh, and speaking of my sweet husband Jim, he made me two apple pies on
Saturday. One went to a party and
was consumed, but the other provided a slice for my Sunday morning breakfast
with espresso.
I should also mention that last week was the public school’s
Fall Break. I needed a break too,
so the boys and I drove south west for a day adventure to French Lick. It started with a beautiful fall drive
along winding roads. The little
towns, with their unusual names and cultures seem very different from
Bloomington. We started with go-kart
racing followed by a stop in an arcade.
The boys deftly played a five dollar advance into enough tickets to buy
us all tiaras and moustaches, which became the official family attire for the
trip. We found a hole-in-the-wall
pizza place where the waitress was a little taken aback by our attire. Then we played a round of mini golf
(still in costume). We have a
family rule that the winner buys the ice cream, which of course turned out to
be me. No ice cream place was in
sight, so we decided to venture into the West Baden Springs hotel so the boys
could see the grandness of the dome from the inside. As we approached the front door, a sharply dressed fellow asked
how he could help us.
You might or
might not think that tiaras and moustaches were appropriate attire for the
fancy hotel, but he let us right in and even became our tour guide. He gave us lots of details about the
history of the place and the renovations that were done. I’ve seen pictures of the place, but
until you’re standing there to experience the scale and the grandiosity of the
place it is hard to appreciate.
We ended up having ice cream at a parlor in the hotel before the boys
found an ornate chess set and board that was actually an inlaid table. They played while I wandered the hotel
to get a better sense of the space.
All in all it was a perfect day out and a break in our routine. But now it’s back to art! And the Phantom! He says that tickets are available online, so we hope to see you there!
Until next week,
Martina Celerin
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