What is Your Reaction?

What is Your Reaction?

     Where do you go? What do you do when you are feeling negative? I genuinely try not to take it out on others. For the most part, I am successful in my quest to keep it to myself.

      One thing I will never do is leave a negative review about someone’s artistic output. Why? Why complain? That said, I once wandered into a small art museum and had to hold back my laughter.

      A whole ceiling had hanging pantyhose with sand in the bottom of each foot, and when the gallery door would open, all the pantyhose moved. It struck that immature funnybone in me the same way that auditory flatulence does. I can’t help it. It’s funny.

     The good news is, I did wait till I got back into my car to burst out laughing, and then the tears came, streaming down my cheeks, laughter which came in no sound but in the deep muscle contractions in my belly.

     I don’t think the artist meant for it to be amusing. I forget the title of the work. Others viewing it were nodding in existential unison. I was only in my 20s, so I thought, “Oh, I must be so uninformed! What did they see that I did not?”

     Now, at age 61, if I were to view an installation like that, it would still make me laugh. Come on! Pantyhose with sand in the feet, moving each time the door opens; this is classicly funny stuff.

     If you walked into someone’s home and they had this hanging from their living room ceiling, tell me you wouldn’t bust out laughing! Is meaning created “where” something is placed? If I take a stick, plant it in the ground, and call it “Lone Survivor,” is it art?

     Maybe, I’ll label everything I own with titles. A crushed pillow becomes “Dreams Dashed in Hopeless Angst.” Oh no, this is too much fun. I am a silly, silly person. Oh, I do love being me.

     Okay, readers/listeners, your turn. You walk into a place and see pantyhose filled with sand in the feet, hanging from the ceiling. What is your reaction? Please tell me below.

     Thank you for reading, and thank you for listening.