"I feel good, like I knew that I would"

Way back when, The Lilies Project received approval to resurface the basketball court at London Park and finish it with a mural. I wanted to celebrate the history that James Brown had performed at London School as part of the Chitlin’ Circuit in the Sixties 

As far as I know, there is no physical evidence of Brown’s visit, only local lore. “Celebrating Courage” includes an exciting scene where Tony Hairston recalls his father, John L. Hairston, paying Brown after the show. So I thought a basketball court mural would be a fun way to spruce up a much loved, but dilapidated park in Walnut Cove.

With COVID delays, working with various artists fell through. Secretly, or not so secretly, I longed to design the court mural, but the task felt overwhelming. As the budget shifted, it became clear that we were going to have to figure out how to do create the design simply through the resurfacing contract, which includes a background and three colors.

I had Basketball Mural at the top of my list all week. The contract is signed. The resurfacing is being scheduled. Time for a design. Definitely something more than this:

For several months, I had wanted to use the large golden star found on the James Brown’s 20 All-Time Greatest Hits cover. I thought perhaps we could save money by with one color for the star and stenciling on additional components with the community. But as weeks passed and materials costs increased, I signed a three-color contract and thought I am going to make the most of this. Besides, such a massive amount of stenciling would certainly keep me up at night!

Thursday afternoon, I sat down to watch “Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown” to look for inspiration. Henry is always intrigued by a great music documentary, so he joined me while simultaneously searching for concert poster art. I found a concert poster from 1964 with some bright colors that I thought would be great with the light blue background option for the background: the neon pink, green and yellow for the star.

Within minutes, the documentary cut to Brown’s performance on the Ed Sullivan show. The background props looked exactly like the coal ash hex posts with a light blue back ground. The lighting faded out from pink, green and yellow. Perfect!

Suddenly I knew exactly what I hoped to create that tied together James Brown’s story, the coal ash hex posts and our local landscape of the “Three Sisters” of Sauratown Mountains.

With my attempt to drawn in the white lines….

And adding James Brown’s name and date of his performance at London, which would be stenciled. This is a guesstimate. Anyone know the actual year?

Here’s hoping the contractor will say yes this looks great!

Visiting the Labyrinth at Medley Meadows

In October 2019, we met at Medley Meadows for a lunch and visit of Vivian’s labyrinth. Vivian had been instrumental in helping us find an artist to construct the labyrinths in Walnut Cove for us. It was a delightful lunch together among friends and discussing what having a labyrinth means for us individually.

Labyrinths evolved out of our community planning discernment process and were very important to two of most consistent members - Tammy Hill and Danielle Bailey-Lash.

Updating London Park

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We gathered last January for a news story about our plans to redo London Park’s basketball courts with a mural. Six weeks later, COVID hit and all of our plans were put on hold. Including a mural honoring the legacy of James Brown performing at London Elementary way back when.

Today we are dreaming up new ideas that we hope we can implement in 2021 with the help of the Town of Walnut Cove.

Here are a couple of before videos from when we gathered for the news story, which was not archived, unfortunately.

Build Community Build - New Workshop Series

This month, The Lilies Project is launching new monthly series at the Walnut Cove Public Library. The purpose of the workshops are two fold: to build community and to figure out what we are going to build. The main art concept I’ve worked on this fall gave me literal sticker shock. So we are starting over and figuring out what we would like to create into art out of coal ash together.

Each month we will do a different activity, but around the same theme of visioning and a community build.

The events will be held mid-month on Mondays at 11 am. This allows a pop-in with the preschoolers at 10 am and a chance to eat lunch with anyone open after the event. And you don’t even have to make anything if you don’t want. Come join in on a time of uplifting community.

December Event - Monday, December 17th, 2018 at 11 am

December will focus on using sheet music to create some Christmas Creations. This ties in with the window display of Jester Hairston’s Christmas Spirituals in the Rutledge & Rutledge office windows. We will have hymnals to repurpose and models of different paper sculptures you can create.

2018’s Vision Board had lots of layers, too heavy to hang. Guess what… I won’t be doing that again.

January Event - Monday, January 14th, 2019 at 11 am

I am a huge fan of creating vision boards and make a year-long vision board for the last several years. You can check out videos for 2018 and 2017 here. And 2016 and 2015 on my blog, which I have failed to update since 2017. We will be creating a smaller vision board on anything you want. I will have heavy boards, magazines, glue sticks, and scissors on hand. Bring images you want to include on your own.

February Event - Monday, February 18th, 2018 at 11 am

Stemming off the Celebrating Courage event, we will explore John L. Hairston’s contribution to building Walnut Cove and the area through his efforts with the Yadkin Valley Economic Development District, Inc. The art activity is not yet determined, but we will remember others who have helped develop our community and brainstorm new ideas.

This monthly series will be held at the Walnut Cove Public Library. The purpose is to make art, discuss what you would like for the final installation of The Lilies Project and to hang out with our neighbors. Maybe even make new friends.

This is a very free flow event that will focus on both building community and what we will build as a community.

Materials provided. All events are free and open to the public.

Planning for Play

Susan G. Solomon has written two intriguing books about play. Her latest book "The Science of Play" talks about how playgrounds fail to serve the needs of kids. Solomon shares on her web site, "Taking my lead from behavioral sciences, I look for public play solutions that encourage risk-taking, succeeding and failing, planning ahead, gaining friends. Many of these built works are inexpensive, sustainable, and easy to accomplish."

Solomon is also a regular contributor to Paige Johnson's Playscapes blog, which I regularly devoured during my DC tenure. In this post, Solomon talks about artists as a means of creating playspaces:

Counter-intuitively, the most adventurous designs may be the least vulnerable to lawsuits. In other words, the work of artists is less likely to be the proverbial lightening rod to draw even the few suits that do develop. Sculpture can have fewer restraints. Teri Hendy explains that it is a matter of intent. If the sculpture is meant to be an interactive spatial experience, rather than a climbing or swinging one, then the primary issue to be addressed could be head entrapment.

Protective surfacing is often not necessary. Sculptor Patrick Dougherty’s sublime work is a good example. He is a master of willow construction. Many museums have commissioned his pieces for their premises. A number of children’s museums have hired him, too. When available to kids, these sculptures encourage fantasy, hiding, being alone; they offer the mystery of being in a unique enclosure. Common sense dictates that there be attention to random stray twigs that could injury the eye of a child running nearby.

Patrick Dougherty is my favorite living artist and recently acquired property in Stokes County. Participating in one of his builds is on the top of my bucket list. And I even have him in my mind's eye for what I hope will unfold for Walnut Cove, if funding and timing work in our favor. 

Solomon highlights another artist designed playground with the work of Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam, a Japanese Canadian fiber artist, who installed her first US work of art at our local children's museum in Winston-Salem. What is now known as the Kaledium houses her installation on the patio overlooking the famed Salem Tea Pot. Guests can swing on large balls that are interwoven into a cocoon of into a central web. 

I adore the perfect balance of art and play that is intrinsic to both of these artists. I hope that these same elements will translate into my future site installations. I eagerly await their unfolding. 

Fill out one of our four surveys and receive $1 credit at Oma’s Coffee Shop. Deadline is June 25th, 2018. Surveys are available at https://theliliesproject.org/whats-your-vision

In the meantime, I have taken the questions crafted by Solomon and a couple of planning surveys, which I hope will help get the community's creative juices flowing. You have until June 25th to print them out and submit them to Oma's for $1 credit for your drink of choice! Of course, I am also open to other forms of communication. I can't wait to hear your ideas.