Mangosalad! What came first? The taste? Smell? Color? Word? Stash of yarn? I really don’t know. Shortly before I shipped Bears 101 to 140 to Minneapolis, I saw flashes of hot pink and bright green before my eyes. I lingered over an orange. Tried to remember what color a papaya is on the inside. I sorted out some brightly colored yarns. It might have been a mango salad that established itself in my mind. It might have been a color combination for the next Bear. At any rate Mangosalad became my battle cry after the box filled with Bears had arrived safely at Mother Bear’s house.
Three days ago sunshine woke me to a perfect day for action. Four Bears were almost finished; I rushed to the store to buy fruit, came home and assembled fruit, yarn, and Bears on the kitchen table.
“What a mess,” I said out loud, staring at the unorganized pile of props. Then I went outside to check the lighting. High noon – a terrible time to take photographs. But I started anyway by lining up my ingredients on the porch table. The first batch of pictures was awful. Bears cast tall shadows against the background. Brown poster board underneath a platter of fruit made the scene too solid, too dark. Fruit and yarn didn’t relate to each other at all. I deleted the images, tried to organize my thoughts. What am I trying to see? What am I trying to say?
A bowl of yarn reminds me of a bowl of fruit.
I like the cheery lightness of a fruit salad.
The Bears remind me of a mango salad.
I want these Bears to be ambassadors of happiness
Hey, I like mango salad.
And here you have it…… The Incredible Lightness of Mangosalad Dreams!
