| | Beacon One River, Many Stream Folk Festival
This is one of our regular events and we always have a table for Kabuki Face Painting. After having practiced on so many kids' faces year after year, you may think we could do it very easily, even without looking at it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. First, all faces are different in shapes and sizes. Some has straight eyebrows while some other's are round. Narrow forehead is, I found, the harder than the wide one. I thought I've seen all but I was wrong - there was this girl with such a tiny face with the roundest shape of forehead and cheeks I've ever tried before. Even her chin was like a bowl. The worst thing was that she couldn't sit still but kept moving, not just her eyes but eyebrows and mouth and head... here and there. So of course the lines I was drawing went here and there too... Eventually I had to tell the girl's father I couldn't do it. Well, he knew exact what to do to make his beloved daughter happy - He said "Just draw any lines! ". And there, she was happily satisfied with her face with many lines.
We've added Origami this year as I thought it would entertain not just those people came to the festival but also our own staff otherwise they'd have to just watch while 2 volunteers working on face painting. The Origami table, however, became so busy, and it proved that many kids are still interested in paper crafts when they could find so much more fun staff on computer in this modern world. It seems no matter how much the world had changed, a simple thing such as making a tiny jumping frog from a piece of color paper would still make one smile. The peaceful moment while watching a kid folding a paper with such an intense face is indeed a precious thing, and that is why what we do, I believe, is priceless.
I'd like to thank to our 7 dedicated volunteers who worked very hard all afternoon under the 80 something degrees temperature. I'd also like to express our sincere appreciation to Polly-san and Arts Mid-Hudson for giving us another great opportunity to participate the Beacon One River, Many Stream Folk Festival again.
Midori Shinye
Beacon Festival Project Leader | | Beacon ﾌｫｰｸフェスティバル
このｲﾍﾞﾝﾄはMHJCAの恒例となっていつも歌舞伎Face ﾍﾟｲﾝﾃｨﾝｸﾞのﾃｰﾌﾞﾙを出しています。もうすでに毎年沢山の子供達の顔で練習していれば当然見なくても簡単に書けるだろうと思いきや、そんなにはうまくいかないものです。まず顔の形からｻｲｽﾞまで色とりどりで、真っ直ぐな眉毛もあれば曲がっているのもあり。広い額に比べて狭い額の方が難しいということにも気付きました。そんな中もう全てのタイプはこなしただろうと思っていたのは考えが甘かったようで、今まで見た中でも一番小さくて丸い顔の女の子が登場しました。額から頬だけでなく顎まで全てが丸い形をしている上に最悪なことに全くじっとしていないのです。目だけでなく眉毛を動かしたり口やら頭やらこっちに向いたりあっちに向いたり...従って書こうとしているラインもこっちに行ったりあっちに行ったり...。最後はあきらめて隣で立って見ていたお父さんらしき人に動いてしまうので出来ませんと伝えたら、さすがに父親、何が可愛い娘をハッピーにさせるのかちゃんと分かっているようで、一言｢何でもいいから線を描いてくれればいいよ｣とのこと。結局その子は顔中いろんなラインを描いてもらって大変ハッピーでした。
今年は折り紙ﾃｰﾌﾞﾙも加えました。お祭り客だけでなく我々のスタッフも楽しめるからと思っての考慮でしたが、随分客も集まってにぎやかでした。コンピューターでいろいろなゲームとかを楽しめる時代となった中、まだまだこの様なシンプルに一枚の紙で何かを作るという折り紙に人気があることを確証したものです。どんなに時代が変わったとは言え、今もって手作りの飛びカエルで喜んでもらえるのを見て我々の活動は本当に意味のあることだと改めて認識しました。
7名のﾎﾞﾗﾝﾃｨｱの皆さん80何度の暑い中一生懸命頑張って頂いて有難うございました。それから改めてこの様な意味のあるｲﾍﾞﾝﾄに参加させて頂けてPollyさんとArts Mid-Hudsonに心から感謝至します。
新江 緑
Beaconフェスティバルﾌﾟﾛｼﾞｪｸﾄﾘｰﾀﾞｰ | |
