posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jaeleslie at 10:44am on 15/06/2003
jaeleslie at 10:44am on 15/06/2003It occurred to me that I had some idea when I started this LiveJournal that I was going to use it to talk about the various arts I am engaged in. This is horribly close to presenting some version of myself as Artist with the capital A. But that's a self that doesn't get much play in the big world.
So I asked myself this morning what kind of art you could do with a rug shampooer anyway. I can't think of anything really, which surprises me, unless one happened to have an extremely large and empty area of carpeting for the canvas, which is still more like a mere sales demonstration. I doubt the shampooing head would work very well for paint application although you could perfectly well put paint in the soap tank. (The directions even tell how to do this, as you can use the drive as a blower or spray gun by taking off the bag and hooking the canister tube into the other end -- but again you'd need something big to paint.) This led to speculations on how badly one would damage the machine for more mundane occupations by taking it outside, like Aunt Edna who was known to take the canister vacuum out to clean the sidewalk. Or you could really ruin the lawn.
I like those kind of environmental folk arts practiced by the guys on mowers who mow entire ballfields into interesting patterns. After they've done the job a zillion times and have a good command of the fine points of the craft, executing a pattern adds interest for the worker as well as the folks in the stands. Or the farmers who spell their family names in two colors of asphalt tiles when they put a new roof on the barn.
That is what I was thinking about while exercising my own command of craft by making a rhubarb pie, from a quart of chopped rhubarb and three Golden Delicious apples.
So I asked myself this morning what kind of art you could do with a rug shampooer anyway. I can't think of anything really, which surprises me, unless one happened to have an extremely large and empty area of carpeting for the canvas, which is still more like a mere sales demonstration. I doubt the shampooing head would work very well for paint application although you could perfectly well put paint in the soap tank. (The directions even tell how to do this, as you can use the drive as a blower or spray gun by taking off the bag and hooking the canister tube into the other end -- but again you'd need something big to paint.) This led to speculations on how badly one would damage the machine for more mundane occupations by taking it outside, like Aunt Edna who was known to take the canister vacuum out to clean the sidewalk. Or you could really ruin the lawn.
I like those kind of environmental folk arts practiced by the guys on mowers who mow entire ballfields into interesting patterns. After they've done the job a zillion times and have a good command of the fine points of the craft, executing a pattern adds interest for the worker as well as the folks in the stands. Or the farmers who spell their family names in two colors of asphalt tiles when they put a new roof on the barn.
That is what I was thinking about while exercising my own command of craft by making a rhubarb pie, from a quart of chopped rhubarb and three Golden Delicious apples.