Directionally Challenged & the Wheels Exhibition

     Once again we approach another Cottonwood Friday... I know Cottonwood calls them "Last Friday" or "Final Friday" because they apparently were involved with getting the art walk started on the First Friday of the month. Then when they moved locations, decided that instead of taking away from the downtown crowd (because they had moved to the edge of downtown), they would start a second art walk on the last Friday of the month, hence, Last Friday. Unfortunately, those who aren't familiar with the concept always assume that this is the last Friday that one is in business. I've had many condolences that my studio is going out-of-business. Therefore, I prefer to call it Cottonwood Friday because it both identifies where the art can be found and which day to come looking.
     That being said, this coming Friday is Cottonwood Friday. The doors open for the exhibition at 5:00 p.m. and stay open until 8:00 p.m. This month's show is titled "Wheels". It is taken from a poem by Irene Braun titled My Search.

Like sounds of the cello-

Music to my soul.

Listening to the beauty

On the wheels of the wind

I am sent searching

For the perfect pigment

To challenge the light—

Casting shadows, forming shapes

Carefully placed with a

Shade of interpretation

In the prism of light and colour

On the canvas of my mind.

My story told.

- Irene Braun

     The Forest's Edge, Ltd. has submitted a piece called Directionally Challenged. It is an interactive piece that takes a different path than the studio's intriguing tigers and beautiful flowers.

     Directionally Challenged began life as one of the rims of our 2005 Toyota Matrix. It had the privilege of becoming a piece of art when we got tired of replacing hubcaps because of the plastic clips breaking every time we went off-road. (Yes, our little Matrix has seen a lot of rutted, dirt roads that Colorado calls "highways" and every other state would call "unimproved" road.) We replaced these rims with the decorator-kind... one's without hubcaps so we couldn't lose them.
     After spending a week trying to figure out how to put a tiger on the rim, I was unsatisfied with any of my concepts. So I began thinking "outside the tiger". What was a natural tie-in to wheels, but compasses? As I thought about how to apply the compass, I also thought about the the stereotype of guys not asking for direction. While staring at the above chalked design, I was inspired to call the piece Directionally Challenged.
     As I worked on applying the base coats, I found that I was Directionally Challenged as far as the order in constructing the piece. Normally, I have all of the steps laid out and the order in which each step is to be completed--not so, this time. I found myself working on step 4 when step 2 hadn't been completed yet. Like so many people, I found myself back-tracking. As I regressed to a previous step, I was hit with the thought that many people are Directionally Challenged in life and don't know which direction to turn. Hence, 2 more meanings could be applied to the art work... directionally challenged in art and in life.
     As the piece came together, I thought about adding hearts to the compass points. With that addition, the piece would take on a fourth meaning... directionally challenged in romance or affairs of the heart. After looking at my progress on the rim, Craig, 

my husband who also is a partner in the studio, suggested that the piece become interactive. He could construct a lazy-susan for the rim so it could be spun. With him working out those details, I continued to paint.

     The final piece of the "picture" came together with the last inspired meaning. I placed the Tetragrammaton (4 Hebrew letters representing the name of God) on the turn-table. Evangelicals believe that everyone has a God-shaped hole in their hearts that only God can fill. No matter what one does, that emptiness can never be filled by anything, but a personal relationship with God and his son, Jesus. To see the Tetragrammaton, one must peer through the hole in the heart on the top of the rim. Thus, the fifth and final meaning... directionally challenged morally & spiritually.
     Once I got going on the project, this was exciting to do. If you're in Colorado Springs, CO, stop by Cottonwood Center for the Arts (427 E. Colorado Avenue) this Friday, January 28 from 5:00-8:00p. Stop and see the Wheels exhibition, look at Directionally Challenged, and then come upstairs to Studio #207 and tell me what you think.