It all started with a thrift store find. I am not sure why I drifted into one of our local shops, but I remember being intrigued by what I could do with this tricycle. The tag said $8.99. I know that is not expensive but when it may sit on the shelf for an undetermined amount of time I have to decide which
purchases are worth the price. If I didn't my house would be full of wonderful, sometimes useless, fascinating only to me, items for my craft. I walked away. I can't remember if anything else caught my eye that afternoon but I came home with the trike.
And there it sat, occasionally being pushed around, captivating me with the movement of the peddles. Knowing this motion was going to be part of the art, I just had to be patient for the rest of the story to fall into place.
Now enters the bedraggled bride doll mentioned in the last post. There was nothing pretty about her, dirty dress, hair askew, a little too tall, but she was rescued all the same. As with the clown who came home with her, she was immediately stripped down to her porcelain. While her proportions were off when dressed, she could now transform into her own. After the agreeable meeting between Mrs. Bride and the tricycle, all fell into place. My first objective was to get her shoes to move in a way that had her peddling. As per my method, a lot of repetitive moving of the respective parts trying to come up with a solution. In other words I pushed the trike around a lot, watching and figuring. Springs were the answer, connecting them from the wheel upright to her shoe. They work perfectly.
I'm not sure if there was ever a thought of her having a body but as the piece progressed I loved the openness, leaving the eye to fill the missing parts. Her head and balloons sway a bit when pushed, and with the addition of the peddling, this creates a small movement that flows throughout the piece. My heart sings when I play with it.
My 4yr old niece was inspecting, and moving Mrs. Trike around and in this little sweet voice...
Niece: She doesn't have any arms
Me: No
Niece: She doesn't have any legs
Me: No, I made her that way. I like the way she moves without them
She gave it another good look over, smiled and said OK.
I hope on some small level it will resonate with her that art can be whatever you want.
Time has progressed since the start of this blog post, with a few firsts. We walked the streets of New Orleans, purchased a wonderful painting from a street vendor; kayaked Nickajack lake and watched 50,000 bats fly from their cave to evening feed (it was nothing like the movie The Birds); moved our son's family into their first home. We also had our granddaughter for a week. Not a first but we were sure busy with Putt Putt golf, ceramics, cooking, all the fun stuff.
This year we had a wonderful spring, but summer has finally made its hot and sticky way to the South. But with this comes the lightening bugs, the smell of chicken on the grill and the sounds of outdoor life. May you enjoy the sweet sun season!
Hilari
