How not to paint a mean umbrella!

Another lesson learned, of course, the hard way. When Steve asked me to paint the remaining huge white nylon umbrellas for a giveaway at Burning Man, I said I'd try. These umbrellas, being made of nylon, are hard to get paint to stick, and don't co-operate at all with stenciling or any kind of fine line work. But I thought I could do it. After all, I am an ARTIST.I painted them beautiful colors, pink, yellow, green, blue, and set them in the sun to dry. They were noisy and stiff by the time they dried, which should have given me a clue to stop right then! But no, I forged on, sure I could turn a "nylon" ear into a silk purse. Wrong! No matter what method I used, stencil, freehand or silkscreen, the image was smeared, or thin, or just generally messed up. Time to stop and think about a solution.

In the meantime, I happened to see a film about the Burning Man Festival, held in the desert in Nevada. It was a huge incredible art scene, with costumed people, huge structures built in beautiful styles, vehicles hidden under feathers and lights, and art everywhere. That did me in. There was no way I was going to send the world's ugliest umbrellas to this exciting festival, they'd embarrass me and my friend Steve. They would do better at a 5 year old's classroom, and maybe not even that! (My 6 year old granddaughter makes better art!)

So I buried my pride along with the brollies, and called Steve with the bad news. No handouts from me, these were not going to do.

The lessons were many from this project leading nowhere. One, I have to have the time to experiment and play before I do something "for real". I have to know how the materials I use are going to work, and if they're going to do what I want them to. Two, no matter how hard I try, sometimes things don't work. Three, give in, give up , and get on with it! Don't linger and moan about the mess, just clean it up, chalk it up to experience, and move on. And Four, don't try this without remembering lessons One, Two, and Three!

Seems like life, sometimes, a lesson that's hard to learn. Not everything works the way you planned or hoped. So look it over, figure out what went wrong, and sometimes, just get on with it. I can't change or fix everything, no matter that I want to and feel I need to. There isn't always a magic wand. Darn!