Art is What Art Does

Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that you live, if you do. (Elizabeth Bowen)

My daughter and I took a walk in town Monday so she could photograph pictures of outdoor art to fulfill a requirement of one of her Girl Scout badges. After we parked at the library, we strolled; and she shamelessly photographed the lawngerie posing as art on the front lawns of some of Woodbury's venerable Main Street homes.

The weather was unseasonably warm, and the sky grew unfavorably darker as we made our way. We were one image shy of the minimum requirement of five when the heavens burst a pipe and let loose everything they had on our bare heads. We held hands and ran like hell over potholes wide and deep as gorges, around alpine mounds of plowed snow, through muddy medians....Name it and you can bet we stepped in, around, or over it in our haste.


"You know what's great about this?" my daughter shouted as we lept over a puddle.


I had no idea. "What, honey?"


"We don't even care!" She was laughing at the mess we were.

Before we knew it, we were back under the porch of the library, dripping wet and laughing and glad for the unseasonable warmth.
We jumped in the car and went off to get that fifth picture--an orange dog, we think. He fits in rather nicely with the naked golden lady whose hair shoots out like the rays of the sun, the plastic fish that swallowed a mailbox, the cigar-store Indian, the rusty chimes, and the unappealing but artsy posts and lintel at the pricey-but-worth-it restaurant.

We were soaking wet, and we didn't care. I heard the words my father would use when he couldn't believe what he just saw: "A work of art!"

Baby, yes you are.

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11 Comments

  1. Anonymous6:25 AM

    What a great moment Sandy! And isn't it lovely it belongs to just the two of you?

    2G's Mom (WillThink4wine)

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  2. That must have been a fun and spontaneous day shared with your daughter.

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  3. Oh, the wonders of sudden downpour! Reading this made me smile! Amazing beauty in the ordinary... Work of art, indeed!

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  4. Anonymous9:24 AM

    "Lawngerie" caused not a LOL, or a ROTFLMAO, but a pure guffaw! VERY good!

    I thought that the Golden Girl looked like that because the rain made her T-shirt wet. Now that I am informed, I am pleased that 2/3 of the people in the picture are properly clothed!

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  5. Anonymous12:12 PM

    Thanks for sharing such a beautiful moment. I think the orange dog and the fish mail box were, shall we say interesting?

    Have a great day.

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  6. What a lovely day! Spending time with your daughter looking at art work together. I used to do that with my daughter too. Your experience was a double showers of blessing. Blessing of rain and work of arts.

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  7. And yes, I agree........a moment that falls into art!

    Precious!

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  8. The two of you look very alike!

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  9. delightful post, those are the moments that make for magic memories in a child's life. Sounds like your dad has lots of wise sayings, he was right about the meatloaf too!

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  10. that was fun to read and look at; we could smell the upcoming storm. thanks for taking us along

    ascenderrisesabove.com/wordpress

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  11. Anonymous10:59 PM

    What a special memory! The picture of you with the sculpture is great. Work of art, indeed!

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