Labor We Must

A little late on my First Friday Community Participation Project wrap up (notice the use of capital letters to make it that much more impressive) and our Question of the Month answers. As usual, just a few words about the evening itself to start us off. The theme for our west coast location was “Secrets Revealed” to tie in with the grand opening (of the door) to the re-purposing and reincarnation of the former Journey Classroom into the Journey Two Boutique.  Two as in T-W-O for textiles, wearables and one of kinds, is a work (or space) in progress. Starting small to measure response and building upon plans in place as support allows, this venture fills a void in the existing fashion scene of Stark Co.

More on that topic at a later time. This month’s CCP (now reduced to mere letters since it is now a commonly recognized activity) was part two of the two part “Keeping Secrets – Secrets Revealed” project. The August FF was well attended compared to September’s FF but granted there were just too many events from which to choose: Stark Co Fair, Cleveland Air Show, HS Football, Theater opening, Holiday weekend travel…..it is a wonder anybody came down at all!  By my count though, we had 123 people who wanted to play and 84 that left their “question” mark.  Once again, human behavior was on the front burner.  The simple medicine bottle with its childproof protection cap proved frustrating for many until the secret of how to open it was revealed…a bonus revelation for the project concept!

Inside were the secrets recorded last month, the answers to one of 8 possible questions contained in each bottle. The question were:

Before I die I want to _______________.

I am terrified of____________________.

People think I am really __________ but I am not.

My secret indulgence is__________.

My greatest fear is someone finding out I ___________________.

I have always wanted to _____________________.

I have never heard my parents say __________________.

It can never happen, but I wish I could___________________. 

I was amazed to find all but three were clean enough to share and 90% were truly touching and heart felt. All 160 have been posted and can be seen on the Snarky Art door from the Boutique.

The undoing of the project however was asking people to make connections. Using the five colored squares inside, matching one or two colors together and keeping the pieces straight proved to be more difficult than I anticipated.  Imagine a Massillon McKinley match-up between the OCD's and the c’est la vie’s.  Needless to say, in this case, the process was more fun than the final product but sometimes how we make art is more important than what is actually made.

On to the Question of the Month: (Labor Day inspired) As long as you had to work, what do you think would be the perfect job?  For ease of tabulation, I have organized the answers by alphabetical letter (not order mind you so don’t get all spelling queen bee on me)

A – actor, animal rescue, advice columnist, arts brain-stormer, advertising director, already have the perfect job (oh yeah? So what is it?)

B – beachcomber, bookseller, boutique owner, Broadway dancer, book reviewer, band manager, baby holder in the NICU, bird calling

C – care for baby animals in the zoo, craftaholic

D/E – dreamer, dancer, designer, doula, dance choreographer (some of you should get together and start a business), event planner

F – FBI agent, food critic, furrier, fire fighter, film director

G – gardener, great person (so what are you now?), gigolo, graphic designer, gospel singer

H – helping people, housewife, hole digger, horse trainer, helicopter pilot

I/J – jewelry designer, interior designer, ice cream taste tester, international journalist/photographer, jockey (I corrected your spelling from jokey which I hope was what you meant)

K/L - (nothing!)

M/N – middle school counselor, musician (5 votes!) military nurse, musher

O/P – opera singer, pianist (2), playwright, pilot, pole dancer, pro football team owner

Q/R – retiree (that is not a job), reporter, R and D at Malone

S – spy, spy kid, stand up, SNL star, student of the world, singer (2), security guard at a nude beach

T – teacher, travel tester, travel agent, tea master (2), translator at home, Terri Gross replacement (?)

U/V/W/X/Y/Z- vacation planner, wine taster (2), writer, winery owner, wine maker (you could work for the other guy and two taste testers are ready to go too!), WNBA basketball player, volunteer work, you-tuber.

Pretty impressive. I will close this with a word to those who support what we do (and are trying to do) every day and every month on our little corner of the CAD…thank you! But remember, “little” is used a lot, as in the Little Engine that Could and the Little Red Hen. If we all do a little, we can make big things happen but if we think things will happen because we think they should or just because we want them too, could result in nobody getting anything. If confused, dig up that old folk tale (okay, wiki it if you must.)