Last day visitors, nesting bottles, and reentry.

I've been home since Sunday and am still aglow from my incredible experience at ArtPrize. Above is an image from MLive's top 10 photos of Day 8. It pretty much sums up how I feel. On my last day, Chris and I brought folding chairs to soak in the project for a few more hours. My tools were packed, leaving us nothing to demonstrate to the visitors. It was Sunday and it was the a-ha kind of Sabbath I described in an earlier post. We rested and enjoyed what we had made.

My installation is visible from several streets, luring the public to satisfy their curiosity about what the panels are made of. "Ribbons?" "Paper?" "Glass?" then, "Oh, it's just plastic bottles!" I am growing to love the word 'just.' Its use is a testament to the simplicity of the process and the ordinary nature of the material. When Chris and I worked on my 2011 ArtPrize installation, she used the word 'elegance' to describe it.

Faces lit up with delight as visitors explored the panel. Most reached out and touched the plastic, then posed for photographs. I thought of their hands brushing the work made by so many other hands. The reaching is significant, the project inviting the viewer to  let down their guard and allow themselves a little dose of wonder. Chris and I were touched when a young man with a group of college friends circled back to thank us, his gaze lingering in appreciation. There were hundreds of little moments like this.

Now, I am in what I call 'reentry mode' or maybe 'post ecstatic stress.' In an effort to ease myself into a new direction, I decided to catch up on all the bottles still at the house, but like Lucille Ball at the candy factory, they keep coming!  I intend to continue making panels, so I devised a storage method. I am stringing the bottles on cord and plan to hang them on the wall of my studio. Mainly, I love stacking the bottles together. Maybe I should treat myself to some Fisher Price. 

I took a bazillion photos before I left. I will close with those since I am out of words, except one: thanks.