The Tale of the Tour Chair

Once upon a time, this artist was asked if she was interested in doing some of her artwork onto a wooden deck chair.  This chair would be displayed on site during the 2011 Tour of the Arts and would be auctioned off to support the local arts.  Captured by the idea of doing something "outside her box", this artist said, "Yes."

And so the story begins.

First, many many ideas were tossed around but none called to the artist.  She kept thinking, "What design says my name?  What image lends itself to such a novel surface and shape?"

Frustrated by her inability to sort out all the ideas swirling around in her head, the artist took drawings of a deck chair, her pencil crayons, and began to sketch.  Some ideas were quickly eliminated and sent to the fires of home heating.  Others did not even make it to the paper.  Finally, several sketches were done and laid out for contemplation.

Then, quietly, one sketch began to call out. As others gathered around the sketches, the one sketch that had begun with a whisper soon began to raise its voice.  As the others walked away the voice got louder and louder crying, "It's me!  I am the one to paint!" 

At the loud cry the others came back and said, "Yes!  That is the one!" as the artist reached out with her heart in her hand to embrace the sketch.

"Yes! Yes!  This is the one!  My heart, too, says 'yes'."
Later that day, the call came that The Chair was ready to be collected.
Eager to get started, the next morning the artist left early to collect The Chair.  What a surprise it was to find it packed in a small box.  Could this be truly it? 

Anxious to find out, she took The Chair in its little box home where she pried open the top of the carton to discover many many pieces of pine.  Carefully she took all the pieces out of the box and laid them in the sunshine on the deck.  At the bottom of the box were several sheets of paper with a message:  Assembly Instructions.  This was indeed The Chair.
It would be a long journey to bring The Chair together in all its glory.
(to be continued)