9,000 balloons, 3 Day Trippers & a Baby

For May's Creative Oasis Day Trippers™ outing, we met up at the Nasher Sculpture Center in downtown Dallas to experience "Sightings" by Martin Creed. The piece that's had everyone talking and tweeting is "half the air in a give space" which features 9,000 balloons filling a large gallery. 


They ask if you're claustrophobic or allergic to latex before letting you enter the exhibit. I told a little white lie to gain access into all of those golden balloons. I am claustrophobic, but I really wanted to experience this and figured if I stayed close to the front windows, could see the light, and remembered to breathe I would be all right. 

Ashley lovin' it!

Three of us went in together and I felt safety in numbers and excitment in the novelty of it all. We giggled like the school kids who had tumbled out before we took our turn at the absurdity of being completely engulfed by a sea of balloons. Plus, the static electricity made our hair stand on end and that's always good for a laugh.

Insert "Home Alone" sound here.

Next we realized that it sounded surprisingly like water flowing or rain falling as we navigated our way through the floating orbs. Soon I was alone and reminding myself to breathe and stay facing the light. My heart raced a bit as I "swam" back towards the door and into reality, and by the time I was out, I was already planing my return trip to bring my daughter and husband.

Vonda always shooting pics!

After strolling through the gorgeous outdoor sculpture gardens we headed to the cafe for a yummy lunch and a creative writing exercise. 

Our pre-trip creative prompt was this: 

Imagine how you might use 9,000 of any object you like (paperclips, feathers, marshmallows – whatever tickles your fancy) to create a piece of art. We’re not limited by the bounds of reality here, so let your imagination soar freely. What materials would you use? What would it look like? Where would you show your work? Would it be interactive like “Sightings?” What would you title your piece? You may write a description of your piece, doodle or sketch it out or create a collage.

I had so much fun coming up with ideas for mine! Since we weren't limited by reality, I gave myself a Christo-size budget and all the time in the world to create my piece: "From Sea to Shining Sea." My first thought was to travel every coastline in the USA, collect 9,000 shells and then display them on an enormous map. That morphed into the idea of having school children from each coastal state in the USA send me a shell and a photograph of themselves which I would then use to line the walls of a large gallery space. I envisioned putting all 9,000 shells and their cooresponding photographs up on three very large walls of a gallery space like the modern galleries in the Dallas Museum of Art.   Although I'll never turn this idea into a reality, it felt great to stretch my creative muscles in this way, allowing my mind to create something that would normally never occur to me or be a medium I would use. It's opened me up a bit to the idea of playing with art in the future, rather than pigeon-holing myself as a writer and musician.

What would you create? I'd love to hear your ideas, see your sketches and learn about your dream of possible creations.

Right about now you  may be saying to yourself, "Yes, that sounds very nice and I will play with that creative prompt for my next two minute creative oasis break, but didn't you say something about a baby in the title of this blog?" Indeed I did. 

All this balloon action reminded me that when my daughter was just a baby she learned a fun phrase from my brother which meant "It's all good." So delighted I was able to find this short clip. It makes me smile every time. 

Until the next time, all the best from my creative oasis to yours,

Jill