Flamingo Pond? Where did that come from? It came from a conversation I had with Anne Field.
My Flamingo Pond entry in the Bad Performance class of Jennifer Buxton's Pandemic Performance Panorama.
Anne was working on my Circus Girl doll (who is named, naturally, "Lynn"), and sending me photos of the doll so that I could see its progress. I mentioned how Swan Lake-elegant she was and then commented on the flamingo in the flower pot.
Anne quickly joked, "More like Flamingo Pond," and as I laughed about that, I also had an idea. Instead of creating the elegant scene I had envisioned entering into Pandemic Performance Panorama, wouldn't it be more fun to use the idea of Flamingo Pond? An online search found some inexpensive flamingos that were the right scale
and I gathered some construction paper and a circus tent appliqué out of my quiet book supplies.
I began experimenting with how I wanted the scene to look, but I also needed to make it so that people looking at the entry understood what was going on.
The sign I'd made was too small to be read. Either I needed to put fewer words on it
or make it larger. I felt the larger text, though out of scale, was better because if the judges are scratching their heads over what is going on, they will move on to the next entry.
I also put a narrative with the name of the entry:
The Show Must Go On! Lynn has been working hard on her bareback rider apprenticeship. Her final task was was to perform a scene from Swan Lake with her favorite circus horse, Mr. Nedz. But alas! The circus swans flew away! Thinking quickly, Lynn rounded up a few flamingos from the side show, changed the title of her performance, and proved her circus mettle - yes, the show did go on! (She passed that apprenticeship with FLYING colors!) Owned by Lynn Isenbarger (Thanks to Donna Chaney for making Mr. Nedz and to Anne Field for turning me into a doll.)
I had so much fun putting this entry together that I decided to continue the story with an entry in the Sparkly Performance class.
More on this entry tomorrow.
