The road that I live on has been lined with dayglo orange parking cones all summer. This is the town's way of discouraging the overflow parking from the restaurants up the hill. My neighbors were unhappy about the parking and we were all frustrated by the ugly cone strategy.
An artist friend recently encouraged me to turn the cones into an art installation and, being a suggestible soul, I went to work, happy to do something to beautify, cheer myself and maybe others, and bring some play into a contentious situation.
I started with pipe cleaners and some blue duct tape -
But the pipe cleaners fell over in the wind so I switched to curly willow stalks, added some purple and aluminum tape, then wrapped some of the stalks with red tape (a la Christo) to enhance the flame like quality -
Meanwhile a town truck showed up out of the blue and picked up all the cones (except mine which they probably assumed I owned ) and the overflow parking began again. So I offered to buy cones and decorate them for my frustrated neighbors and I got to work !
Some of my neighbors began to decorate the cones and collaboration happened. Now we have a lively offering on the street and enjoyment all around. Here are my friends Richard Lieberman and Susan Farkas picking up their cones -
Who knew that plastic cones could be such fun . . . ?
I keep fine tuning them, getting into interesting conversations with people walking by. Sometimes I go out in the dark to enhance - adjust - and embellish things further - it's a work in progress -
Guerrilla art cones !
Also here is an fun virtual workshop I'll be doing October 2 & 3
AWAKE MIND : Writing / Drawing / Contemplating
teaching with my friend Victress Hitchcock.
Looking forward to this lively exploration of words, images and meditative mind.
For more information and to register - victresshitchcock.com
