The weekly local newspaper printed this article last Friday about my work on the playground. (They don't have the article online, unfortunately, so I can't link to it. At some point I'll get the whole thing scanned and then put it up on True North so you can read it. In the meantime, if you click on the picture you'll get a bigger, more readable version of at least this first part.) I had known something was going to be printed about the project, and I had sent the paper an email about my background and my designs for this playground, but then they didn't get in touch for a while and I thought, "Don't get your hopes up, kid." So on Friday, when people started contacting me to say congratulations on the article + photo, I was completely surprised and thrilled. I ran right out and bought 5 copies - why I thought I'd need all these duplicates, I'm not sure, but it seemed like a celebratory thing to do! I love that the writer chose to concentrate on the process behind the project - all the thought that went into how the design choices could best enrich the kids' experience of the playground and of school in general. It's a more complex angle than just talking about it as school beautification would have been, which I appreciate.
Looking at the photo, I had a flashback to last summer, painting the murals one afternoon, all alone, humming to myself... I have a clear memory of suddenly thinking, "Maybe I'll get some press for this. Wouldn't that be cool?" And then I indulged this little fantasy of an article in this very newspaper, along with a picture of me standing in front of one of the murals. It was pretty amazing to remember that moment and then look at the paper in my hands, and realize it really happened, almost to a T. (Thankfully, the actual photo is a lot more sedate, less campy and ridiculous, than the photo in my daydream was!)
All of which makes me wonder: what should I dream about next?...
photo above by Jim McLean. This pic is up on The Rivertowns Enterprise website this week if you want to check it out there.
