Artistic Acrobatics 101 — Working Without the Safety Net
Most folks think art is a relatively safe pastime, sit at an easel with an iced tea on a side table and capture that sunset over Saratoga Passage in gentle watercolors. Unless the bluff gives way or the easel collapses or the paint brush has a dangerously sharp end, nobody’s going to get hurt. Art — just a quiet stroll in the park. Yah shure, you betcha.
Larry Bach and I just got back from the wilds of Alaska. Larry’s the minister up at Merrill Gardens most Sundays who’s been with me before on high wire installations. Sky Pilot Larry – one hand on the lift truck and the other on the Bible he always carries. We installed the Christian Motorcycle Headquarters and Chapel down in Arkansas two years ago and now we were headed north to Anchorage some 2500 miles away in his big diesel Ford towing his covered trailer with too many of my eggs in one basket up the dreaded Al/Can. Larry’s unbridled optimism is a perfect antidote to my fretful cynicism.
We got the Chugiak Fire Station Headquarters installed no problem, confirming Larry’s predictions of smooth sailing, but at the Univ. of Alaska’s Science Building, my worries were confirmed when the quarter million dollar lift truck, the only machine in all of the 49th state capable of reaching over a protruding canopy to go up 50 feet and extend 70 feet arrived, but without a specially trained operator we were promised.
No problem, the Facilities Director said, we’ll show you the dashboard and the joystick, then it’s all yours. Five minutes later, Sky Pilot Larry and I were soloing into the dizzying atmosphere high above Terra Firma, building new mullion systems for a 35 foot by 15 foot stained glass mural. For 5 days we swooped and dove and flew without harnesses or hardhats, experience or common sense, just two artistic acrobats high up in the Big Top without safety nets below.
You think art is a walk in the park, let Larry take you for a ride. He just built a secular cathedral guaranteed to take more than your breath away and he did it mostly on faith. Art — not for the timid, let me tell you.
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