The Mennello Christmas Tree

Angela Abrusci offered to take some high quality photos of the five foot long painting I did for Margot Knight. We agreed to meet at the Mennello Museum to take the shots. Some shots were taken as the painting leaned against a brick wall and then we layed it flat in the parking lot. It was a cloudy day which she said made for better diffuse light. Autumn Ames wasn’t sure how to ship such a large painting, so I decided to ask Kim Robinson in the Museum, her advice. From the basement she found a large shipping box called a strong box. Inside was coated with foam soundproofing material. The box was just six inches shorter than what I needed for the painting. She also suggested that the panel be wrapped with glassine which would keep the foam from sticking to any paint.

Kim and Genevieve Bernard were getting ready to put up the museum’s Christmas tree. The wooden tree was designed by artist Anita Lam in 2000. She called it “The Out in Aspen BB Tree.” The branches were wooden dowels. They all had numbers which corresponded to the height they were placed on the trunk. Branches were collated and piled on the floor. Angela stayed to help and she snapped pictures. An old metal American flag was added to the top of the tree. It bobbed on its spring just barely clearing the water pipes.

Many of the ornaments were original works of art by local artists. The Museum put out another invitation to artists to submit ornaments for the tree this year. Genevieve went to an inner city school to participate in Career Day. She had the children make craft paper ornaments which she planned to string up on the tree. On her iPhone, Billy Holiday was singing “Nice Work if You Can Get It” as she strung the ornaments together using red yarn. Outside the giant bay windows the lake sparkled and a large colorful sculpture by John Robert Wolf moved slowly in the breeze. Kim stacked apple ornaments below the tree.

Gail Pergande stopped in to watch with her dog. Once the tree was full of ornaments, we all went out to lunch at Shakers in College Park. I hadn’t finished my sketch yet so after lunch, I returned to the museum to add color washes. I was inspired by the bright colors in the Earl Cunningham paintings on the walls.

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