"Ode to New Orleans"

Conciously, I had not intended to do this... I kept repainting the mask... cover one color, bring it back.... it went like this for a couple hours...

And then I saw it.....

And why it worked.....

The mask in question (I am talking about a mask here) is intended for a show and then a theatre performance on homelessness. In this performance piece, 7,8 people will tell their stories of homelessness. They have written the stories, and they will be masked and someone else will read them, but the audience will never really know (unless they personally know the reader) if it is the story of the person masked or the person reading. It is the brainchild of a friend of mine who is both a writer, artist and therapist and many in our art group have been working on it for months.

'Cept me. I often have trouble completing a commission until the ...very... last.... minute. I can't seem to focus until then.

Which... would be today. I needed to leave for school no later than 12:20 and I finished it at 12:03, got dressed and left at 12:27. My sisters, if they read this, will have a good laugh. I often break my life into very specific minutes. I have a lot to do at any given time and every minute counts. And I am more than a little compulsive about how I spend my time.

So... While I made the basic shape over a month ago ( papier mache takes time to really dry to the sawing, sanding and drilling stage!), I didn't actually do any of the sawing, drilling, sanding or painting until last night. The folding and the glueing I did today.

I must have repainted it half a dozen times. When the light came on, I realized that I had been resisting and then returning to a semblance of Mardi Gras colors. I had been watching CNN for three days now, so it all began to make sense and I went with it.

New Orleans is homeless now....