My wife had a very cool idea a few weeks ago. For the upcoming art festival in the park downtown, we would set up a table for her to sign and sell her books, and I would have a separate table where I would keep the lemonade and butter cookies flowing and paint faces.
I was excited.
Her books draw quite a crowd, and since parents would no doubt be bringing their children to enjoy the free bouncy castles nearby, I knew our little ‘booth’ would have some good traffic.
Initially, our plan was to go to the store for everything we would need, the Friday evening before. That way, all we had to do was load and go on Saturday morning.
Friday, midday, we were informed by a friend that he had made reservations for a small group of us for ‘First Friday’, a local tradition where artists and artisans show their wares each month. We would have dinner, and then roam the streets enjoying the art.
Our evening was fun, but we had both agreed that we would have to truncate it, since we still needed to get all the supplies and get plenty of rest for the next day.
As usual, we both lost track of the time as we laughed and strolled and looked longingly at art that we would never be able to afford, but which we tried to imagine in our living room. Soon, it was past midnight, and we were enjoying an appetizer at one of our favorite pubs.
When we were finally able to pull ourselves away from the conversation, the laughter and the company, it was quite late.
On the way home, neither of us had the energy to shop for what we needed. So, we promised ourselves we would rise early, load up and head to the store for all our supplies.
Stumbling groggily through our local super store, at seven in the morning, with much less than eight hours of sleep, looking for face paints, one does not typically make good decisions.
I have never painted faces before. I had asked some artist friends what kind of paint they would use for face painting, and so on their advice, I looked for tempera or acrylic paints.
The super store had several different kinds of paints in their craft aisle, but the tempera paints were in giant jugs, at four dollars each, and there was no acrylic.
So I went with the package that said ‘Face Painting Kit’. Included in it were a series of primary and secondary colors, a few brushes, some glitter, self sticking jewels and some stencils. I was very relieved. I got a pack of extra brushes, and went off to meet up at the checkout lane.
When we finally arrived, we were quite pleased with where our booth would be located.
Our neighbors on either side were busy setting up, and so we hauled tent and tables, cooler and cookies and began to set up as well.
The tent proved to be a challenge, because tent raising with little sleep and no coffee proves to be a bit more problem solving than I’m able to muster. A potter friend of ours from across the way, and one of our booth neighbors helped me to figure it out quickly, though.
Next, we set up the tables, set out the cookies and the lemonade and painting supplies on my table, and the books and signing gear on her table. Finally, we were all set to begin. With some time left before the event was set to begin I headed over to the nearby cafe’ to get some breakfast and much needed coffee.
Slowly sipping the coffee, and munching away at my breakfast, I began to examine my new paints.
Nervousness set in when I opened the first jar to see that it was more the consistency of pudding than paint. Panicking, I tried mixing the colors with a little bit of water, to loosen them up a bit, as our first customer of the day came by.
She wanted a butterfly. A monarch butterfly. Using the lids of these so-called face paints, I mixed a little water and paint pudding together, and tried to make the best of it.
Everyone oohed and ahhed when I was through, but they were being polite for the little girl’s sake. Butterflies aren’t difficult, of course, but the paint wasn’t cooperating. It was not covering right, not seeming to dry, but going on in clumps and globs, and I was fearing the rest of the day with my bad choice sitting squarely on the cheeks of children throughout that sunny park.
A few moments later the older sister of the first little girl came over and asked for a pig. I did the best pig face I could do, and added a green bow.
The ridiculous paint didn’t go on well, but the outline was enough to get the jist of ‘pigness’.
Micki told me to draw up two or three pictures and to tell folks that they could choose from those.
I did do a few requests for some of the boys that came by, namely a Batman symbol, a Spiderman spider and a bow and arrow. Otherwise I kept to the butterfly (which was really just a black outline and a series of multicolored dots) and a likeness of Thurston T. Turtle that I copied from the books.
Many hours and many butterflies and turtles later, it seemed that I had painted the face of every single child in town. But, news was spreading rapidly, and as I painted, parents perused the booth, looked at and purchased the books, snacked on butter cookies and lemonade, and apparently had a great time.
When it was evident that the weather was not going cooperate anymore, we packed up and headed home. Exhausted from our outing the night before, and a full day, we unpacked the van, and collapsed on the bed to fall deep into much needed sleep.
All in all it was a great day, and I had fun, once I was able to get over my poor media choice. In the meantime, I have had several people ask me to do some face painting for their booths as well. Right now, I think painting in conjunction with lemonade and cookies and books about Mr. Turtle is all I will agree to.
And next year, we will go shopping much earlier, and not stay out so late the night before.
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