Saturday, October 25, 2008

A Happy Halloween


Halloween is my favorite holiday, probably because it's all heart. It's the most creative one and it really is all for kids.

I loved making costumes, masks, cardboard robot suits. My father taught me how to make a papier-mâché mask one year. I made Quasimoto, the Hunchbach, with the droopy eye and discolored purplish skin tones.

We sat on the flagstone patio outside the family room on Rivergate Drive, in Wilton, Connecticut. We made sketches in green covered Clipper sketch pads and then measured our heads. It was sunny and the air was crisp, a New England Fall.

We sculpted our monster faces out of dark olive drab plasticine clay on masonite boards. We mixed some flour in a plastic bucket with warm water and ripped and dipped our strips of newspaper from a copy of the Wilton Bulletin. Then we applied the strips, so gently, this way and that, criss-crossing for strength.

And then we'd watch it dry and while it would dry we would sit and talk. Or pet Lucky, my dog. Or just sit. Breathe. The pines creaked in the wind, birds chattered. Mom clunked pans in the kitchen.

It wasn't much of a mask, but it's a major memory for me now that I am 56 and my dad is long gone. They say take the time, but when you spend time with your kids, you're not taking, you're giving.

Thanks for giving me that time, dad. Thanks for my best Halloween.

3 comments:

Larry Levine said...

Hi Chris, Thank you for sharing the sweet-tooth enhancing painting & beautiful memories.

Happy Halloween!!!

Tace said...

That's a good memory. Handmade costumes are the best...I say that and eye the mess strewn across the living room and repeat "handmade costumes are the BEST" hahaha. We have ours under way and shall be pumpkin headed creatures in time for Halllllloooooowwwwwwweeeeeeeen!
Paper Mache is also the best, poor man's sculpting medium anything can be made with it.
Snickers are one of my husband's favvvorite candy bars but I think it's been ages since we had one...shall have to remedy that ASAP.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the great rememberies of Life at Rivergate Drive! (Ahhhh... those green covered Clipper sketchbooks! (smiles)
My favorite photo ever take of me was on Halloween wearing a princess costume my very talented Mom made. I must have been 8 or 10... did I ever show you? Maybe it should go up as my Blogger or Ravelry pic. hmmmmm...

-flb in CT