A True Story
A True story about luck, peace, love and understanding
or “Keep On Truckin”
2 weeks was enough time to prepare for our “public art project video thing” about drawing on paper plates and wearing them as face masks.
Everything was ready to roll until days before the show our 2nd camera man had to cancel. No problem, I thought, as long as we could borrow his light mount for night filming.
Also days before we discovered there was 2 house parties on the same night that will pull most all of our friends and volunteers from participating. No problem, I thought, as long as a few friends make it happen.
Hours before the show another friend canceled because of a long day of family obligations. No problem, I thought, as long as 2-3 friends can still help out.
Driving to the Santa Ana Art Walk our lone cameraman calls to inform me his son has a fever and he is unsure if he could make it. No problem, I thought, as long as we get photos of the project.
I parked and started walking down the street with a box of supplies, folding chairs, and a giant clipboard when the phone rings. My last 3 friends are not communicating and no one has a ride to the event. Oh man… no problem, I thought, you can’t make friends help out.
What do you do when you’re expected to film galleries that invited you into their show and you have a booth to set up by yourself?
The answer is nothing can be done. You just sit and wait for your luck to change. A solution will present itself. I sat against a wall for an hour watching people trying not to think about anything, then the phone rings…
Our lone cameraman is on his way to salvage some filming. Next our 3 friends got in touch and are on their way. 2 more friends appear because they were too tired to go to the house parties. In a matter of minutes, rays of sunlight broke through my clouds and we were back on a schedule, a schedule of randomness.
By the end of the night we had plenty of participants coloring paper plates, pictures taken, and film rolling. No one knew everything that didn’t happen. We never got a light mount for night filming so we used a flashlight and everyone had a great time.
This story is for artists and dreamers to understand a lesson about patience and appreciating the magic created by your friends doing the best they can to make your dreams come true.
Thank You Mike, Rachel, Carla, Eugene, Jeff, and Wendy for Making Something Real. Our folk art video should be on episode 2 of EL CAMINO artshow, this fall on KDOC television, channel 56.
