Feast of Flowers part 6

Beginning to end and beyond

It’s a bit hard to believe that the Feast of Flowers experience was begun more than a dozen years ago. It was a time I forced myself to dig deeply into my work, made time for full immersion into a topic and produce an exhibition that was more than just a selection of pretty pictures. I learned quite a bit during the process, what to do and certainly what not to do. After the exhibition went up I spent a bit of time fulfilling promises made during the Kickstarter campaign. The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens reported that more than forty-thousand visitors witnessed the exhibition.

Suwannee River 48”x60”oil on canvas 2012 Collection of John and Sally Ragsdale

I can’t imagine putting this work together without the help of more people than I can list here. Primarily Staci BuShea and Donnie Dusenberre but also dear friends such as Crystal Floyd, George Cornwell, Dolf James, David Ponsler, Allison Watson, Hope McMath, Holly Kerris, Debra Murphy and a host of friends and family who believed in the project and helped make it a reality.

I spent the balance of the year 2013 finalizing projects and exploring new ideas. Staci and I put together a curriculum called Full Immersion. It was an conceptual exploration we offered as a workshop.

I started moving into a different headspace then. Realized that making art and putting together exhibitions was in effect limiting unless a proper context was provided. During the next year, 2014, I settled on pushing myself to explore writing. I signed up for a session of the Shantyboat writing workshop with Lynn Skapyak Harlin. What a journey that has been. Today Lynn and I finished the final edits and organization of 23 pieces of short fiction. These stories, either in part of total, were a product of the Shantyboat. The next post you’ll see from me will talk about my segue into the craft of words. Shantyboat Stories by Jim Draper will be released by the end of the year.