Although I have only lived in Burlington, Vermont for three years, I feel that I can safely say that it is not known for it’s continuous sunny days. Encountering a sunny day in the midst of a Burlington winter is like finding a needle in a haystack, yet much more pleasant. Waking up to see yet another dismal overcast does not exactly make me jump out of bed to confront the day. The bone-chilling winds and the gloomy skies are enough to keep me inside the quarters of my apartment unless class or other responsibilities beckon. How can I add a little color to this seemingly endless gray?
While attending Kate Donnelly’s After School Arts Program, I was inspired by the way she uses recyclable materials from her home and creates something beautiful, interesting, and often geometric. I fell in love with one of these pieces the first day I entered her home. The best way I can describe it is a series of translucent-like sized boxes open at one end. They are made of papers and plastics that keep their form with transparent tape. The boxes are connected to tall thin pieces of wood with tacks and remind me of columns of cubbies, although they are much more fragile. They are kept in front of a sliding glass door in her home and are illuminated by the daylight, even on a dull day. I did not learn about the meaning behind her work until quite recently, but they had enthralled me since the first day I came to her house.
Her work motivated me to experiment with the unfamiliar materials from my recycling bin and play with lighting from the window. I used segments of toilet paper and paper towel rolls and colored plastic shopping bags to create my first ever window installation. I connected the rolls with hot glue and challenged myself to only glue a new piece in the crease created by two others. In other words, a new piece could only touch two other rolls. Only once the piece as a whole became somewhat unstable did I break my rule and glue one floppy segment of the work to another section to make it sturdier. I hot glued different colored plastic circles, cut to size, to one side of the piece. I challenged myself to not have one plastic circle be adjacent to the same colored plastic circle.
The piece is in progress and is continuing to grow in both size and in color as I encounter the materials. During the day, my window glows with different hues and casts an interesting shadow onto my floor that moves with the rise and fall of the sun. Each little segment of the toilet paper roll glows with the color of its plastic backing. Now, just as in Kate’s house, I have a little touch of color in a space that otherwise looks out to an all too often gray and dismal winter sky. On a bright and sunny day, the colors are even more vibrant, but every day I enjoy the construction of recycled materials reminiscent of stained glass.
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