i went to the heart of the beast a couple of weeks ago for a puppet show... saturday mornings they have a 10am and noon show ... geared towards children... but so much fun for myself and the other adults there. i sat there... watching... laughing... my eyes as wide as they could go. and i realized that this place had been just a mile or so from me for years. i never knew about these shows. how could something so good for me, be right there all along. afterward i was lucky enough to tour the storage rooms at the theater! i felt like a kid in a candy store... worktables, paints, fabrics, string, sunlight pouring in off the street. and then, thousands upon thousands of puppets... years worth of puppets in every color, shape and size... and i almost wanted to cry. all the love and time that went into making these works of art... works of art that were used in a parade or a puppet show, and now sat quietly... collecting dust, waiting to maybe be called upon again one day... and then i thought of how beautiful a thing that was... to create art for the moment. the puppets are all about the stage. the performance. that makes the elaborate nature of them even more special in my mind. someone builds a serpent, or a wolf, or an giant moon... they dirty their hands, sacrifice their time and money... they sculpt and paint and adorn with fabric...and then it is sent out into the world... briefly... and that's it. it made me think about my own life. was i putting my time to good use. was i wasting my energy on things and people that don't matter to me. it's not like i haven't asked myself these questions before... but like i said... something shifted a few months ago... and i haven't been myself. it made me think that i have been wasting time. and just like the puppets... i don't have much time. and there is a lot i want to do while i am on stage.
the video below really inspired me, he's a minnesota native... and this is him painting on acetate with back lighting.... it played into my recent thoughts about time and living for NOW. because he does his work as a performance piece. there's a short bio video below the music video.
today i am working on my submissions for a show opening February 11th @ Studio 204
the theme of the show is RED... and I am certainly in a red mood ~