There were only a few spots of rain on our first E17 Arts Trail outing, despite little Anna’s claims that it was ‘chucking it down’, and we basked in the warm glow of appreciation from our visitors (even the 2 young scallies who nicked our melons-mollified by our sharing a pineapple with them) yet I’m sitting in bed suffering from flu symptoms. I’m not allowed to whinge (after rashly stating that anyone who whines when ill had an unhappy childhood ) so must coax my feeble, leaden hands to lift a pen or needle to finish my unfinished oeuvre.
Passers-by were treated to the sight of a walking gazebo on Saturday as we relocated from the green outside the museum to the garden just behind it. We’ll be pitching there next weekend too as we didn’t even get the time to offer free melon, such was the steady stream of visitors (sorry, Lauren, I kept forgetting to get them to sign our book). Plus the Parkies have let us clutter up their coffee area with our bits till next Saturday.
We had two art workshops delivered by Anna’s mum Sue Higgins (nifty textiles) and Kate Hardy (an import from Bow doing paper masks) both of whom kept a gaggle of kids of all nations happy as we talked to their mums. Some of the kids left their artwork so we could add it to our display.
At 3pm we invited people to join us for a picnic (in the middle of Sue’s workshop on Sunday- they just didn’t want to stop sewing) and made a bit of a fuss (pretentiously called a performance) as we doled out the goodies: cupcakes courtesy of Hardy & Scott, melons courtesy of Spitalfields traders. Tim Smith modelled eyeball/ boob balloons as well as making lumps appear and disappear to stun onlookers.
Can we count Roan Allen as our biggest fan? Or was it the buttercream that enticed him? He came back for more two days running, having already staged his meditative/amusing man chair sculpture nearby. He was also a guinea pig in my fortune telling with ice cubes- a surprisingly effective insight into looking at people’s lives and dregs.
I had conversations ranging from the price of tea, to the Blitz, to health stories. I particularly want to record one woman’s experience of losing her invitation to screening twice- was it subconscious? I find it easy to engage visitors one to one or to keep a bunch of kids entertained, but having to explain the artwork to a big group of cyclists or walkers is daunting! I hope I didn’t waffle too much. Maybe that’s why the sore throat developed…
