Slowly Sinking into History

The VW bus in the previous post was created by my old pal, Mark. This is a pretty good likeness of him.. his self portrait.

As the helium balloons gave up the ghost early and the air filled sink slowly into the bottom of the gas station , I reflect on the state of art in the world. Biff Rose said, long ago, "Man does not live by bread alone... you've gotta have a little toast!" So, to me, when we take the stuff of every day life and give it a twist. or a toasting, we have an opportunity to go beyond our habitual perceptions. I sure hope that casual visitors who come to the park 'get it.' Of course, artsy types will have all sorts of takes and that's great, too. Sure hope they'll slip comments under the door as I've requested. Some nice visitor left a pen, which I'd neglected to do. Thanks, mystery art person.

We went back to the gas station last night after ten. Just sitting and watching the shifting lights play in the building was very soothing. The lights change constantly, but it's really subtle. My estimate was that all of the balloons would basically go flat in about a week. It'll be interesting to see how they hold up, a week from today. Daniel Castle, the www.Balloonwarehouse.com guy, sent about ten gross of the better quality balloons, for which I am grateful. The cheapos were what I was expecting. They fade more quickly. The Qualatex twelve inchers seem pretty hearty. They aren't becoming opaque as I'd expected, which is okay. It would be so cool to wrap the exterior of the gas station with a light blocking cloak that visitors could go inside of to fully appreciate the beauty of this silly thing.

On deconstruction, my plan is to arrange all of spent balloons into a sort of collage in a large plexiglas frame. I work these things out as I go along, but the idea of spray adhesive just came to me and I think that will be the answer. It will be original artwork and will probably be for sale. haha.. It may be a little heavy.. about 30 pounds and 4 feet by 5 feet. Any collectors interested??

I'm going to try some time exposures tonight. Film at eleven?