Vintage cray-pas, colored pencils
August 20, 2011
Two Harbors breakwater
You have found a place in my heart,
and so that place is yours.
It will fly your flag,
speak your language,
and honor you with festive parades forever.
My heart has encountered so much sweet peace
I might never be the same again
"Parades Forever," Curly Girl Design, 2010
Saw this quote on a card and knew it was mine. From me, to me.
I am a very difficult person to be sometimes. Sometimes my life is very painful to live.
I purposed that I will fly my own flag, speak my own language, and throw myself festive parades.
So I gathered my vintage cray-pas, my art journal, my yoga mat, and a piece of batik cloth I had originally bought to have made into a shirt. I drove to the breakwater at Two Harbors on a glorious summer day, drew the lake, the breakwater, and the lookout building using every color in the box. I also traced another piece from a large sculpture of two women representing Two Harbors- a woman doing yoga.
Then I picked up my yoga mat, strolled out to the end of the breakwater, waited until the crowd thinned, gathered my nerve, threw down my mat, and did several yoga poses in the breeze, listening to the gurgle of deep water. I love a cool, stiff breeze and the vibrations of the deeps. Combine that with yoga and an audience, however uninterested, and it was heady stuff. A woman in her 50's stopped to say what a perfect place this was to do yoga. I agreed, telling her how I'd been imagining it.
I took out my cloth and with several clothespins fastened it to one of the struts. Great giant blue flag.
I took my time strolling back, stopping often to turn around and watch my flag flap in the breeze, this beautiful bright blue batik banner announcing my parade for myself.
I returned to my art picnic bench and penciled my flag in.
As I pulled out of the parking lot, I could still see my flag flying brightly. I beamed and drove away home.