Full Moon Fantasy

I’ve always been fascinated by make-believe and those talented people who, in fact, make us believe 😉

By story, by performance, by the relationship between artist, piece, and audience.

If I weren’t too lazy to dig through the old hope chest that sits at the base of my stairs, I could find you school project after school project where my answers to ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ were all some variation of an ‘artist’ – from Broadway actress, to author, to Sea World Performer (this was before my viewing of Blackfish, and the realization that I would need to take science classes to be a marine-biologist; I really just wanted the whole swimming on a dolphin in front of an oohing and ahhing crowd part).

As I ‘grew’ up and realized that I had probably missed my chance at being part of a trapeze act with the circus (this was before my reading of Water for Elephants), or a blockbuster movie star, I adapted the dream into being happy with just being surrounded by these types of people –  artisans who excel at their craft.

Offbeat people.

Fantastical people.

“Mad” people.

“…the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!'”

Jack Kerouac

I now often fantasize about frequenting dinner parties attended by writers, and muralists, and photographers, and musicians.

Last weekend that fantasy turned reality.

Even better, I got to return to my childhood delusions of grandeur and be ‘a star’ for a night.

As if that wasn’t everything I ever wanted, seeing this artist duo (meet Janie and Robert) work together on the fly was pretty incredible. So really, I got to be star and spectator. Yay me!

The plan for last Friday night had just been to have some food and discuss ‘the vision’ for an upcoming photo shoot Robert had conjured up. Janie was handling costumes, staging, and makeup, and I’d get to meet fellow ‘model’ Mike. The goal was to cover logistics, think through fittings, etc.

Well that did not happen.

So much more did.

When I got to the Walland’s, Janie had a staged tea party set up in the garage (which we later moved to the yard), Robert was messing with lights that he had just received, and kids and dogs were swirling around me as I ate more than my share of the cheese plate wondering when the PPT presentation complete with aligned outcomes and activities would start (joking – kinda). I’m more of a Type-A creative.

Mike arrived soon after I did with his girlfriend Nicole who had mistakenly thought she was just tagging along for an informal meetup.

Next thing I know, the skirt we originally thought I’d be wearing (thanks for the lend Lyndsie) was wrapped around Nicole, Janie went searching for yoga leggings for me, and Mike was suited up in a vest and top hat (Janie was ready to make any alterations on the spot).

Janie’s wedding dress was thrown on an old table to create the set you see in the picture, a makeup case emerged on the table like magic, the red vine licorice I had been snacking on was pulled from my hand and thrown into a teapot and lights, camera, action we were shooting.

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I got in my car a little after midnight with disheveled hair, a face full of semi-streaked makeup, some leftover cake, and no clue what had just happened. (I was able to use similar descriptions in my drinking days lol, but I was stone cold sober this time AND IT FELT GLORIOUS).

This is what artists do; they own their process…one they don’t need anyone else to understand because they’ve learned to trust their gifts.

And in that space of genius and chaos…they produce – creative compositions that make us ooh and ahhh (sans animal abuse), and question, and connect, and feel.

So if you are looking to make good on some of your own fantasies I know where you can find some Roman candles 🙂

And if you don’t know what you might want, I’m pretty certain they can offer up an idea, or two, or 500.

Here’s how to connect:

Robert
robertwalland@gmail.com
Insta @robertwalland or @theskysthelimitstudios

Janie  
www.janiewalland.com  
Insta @janiewalland

Awww!