DREADING THE PAINT

I dread painting. Not the kind of painting that is water-based pigment applied to a fine piece of watercolor paper. NO.  I dread painting things like the interior walls of our home.  Little projects like a touch-up of the wood around the windows where (ahem) someone put some flower pots and then over-watered the plants so the shelf got all wet and the paint blistered and peeled. Yeah, that kind of undertaking.

It’s a cardinal rule that no job to fix up things in a house can be done without initiating a domino effect resulting in big expenditures, several shopping trips, exasperation and frustration.

This little project was on the list all summer since the paint would be the stinky oil-based kind that really requires plenty of ventilation.  Head rushes and dizzy spells just aren’t as fun as they used to be.

Summer is over.  No more procrastination.  A shopping trip to the paint store followed a couple of domestic discussions and said paint and supplies were purchased. 

Then there was the removing of curtains and blinds, the relocation of all furniture in the way, the covering of the floor with newspaper, the changing into ugly clothes, the sanding down of the woodwork, etc. etc.

Because the old paint had peeled all the way down to bare wood on the window ledges we decided to put down a couple of extra coats.  So the project dragged on for several days while we wandered around the kitchen in the evening with no curtains to hide us from our neighbors.  Also I decided to put a fresh coat of paint on a stool and a little table which were the same color.

When the paint was finally all applied and sort of dry there came another tripping of dominoes.  Curtain rods and curtains were grubby and gross and had to be scrubbed and washed.  Then I lost some of the little metal hooks that held the curtains to the rings.  Safety pins work just as well.  We turned a blind eye to the dust on the blinds and put things back together.

There was the cleanup and the pulling of blue tape.

The tape became a temporary art installation I titled.  “Dreads.”

Notice the use of synthetic materials arranged in a ragged and complex form evocative of a reggae hairstyle.  The interactive adhesive quality of the tape and semi-dry paint resulted in a sensory experience of tackiness plus dissolution of the line between art and life.   There was also the conflict of the pleasure of a completed project and the inner need to finalize cleanup.  Criticism and a lack of sympathetic involvement shortened the display engagement.