Animals in Suits

The local community theater is currently playing "The Pink Panther Strikes Again." My husband Markus has a role in it, so to speak, because he built the huge Doom's Day Machine, an outrageous looking device with tons of flashing electronics made to deliver the message that the world's existence is on a razor's edge. It's a very fantastic looking machine for sure, and people have been lining up wanting to take it home after the last show. 

It's going to be a cartoon-style version of this play, with a group of panthers occasionally crossing the stage and carrying and holding the many set pieces that change with each scene. My 10-year old daughter Mona has a minor role as the smallest but wittiest panther. She loves being on stage and the whole magic about it, and even more, she enjoys being part of a crew and all the responsibilities that come with it. 

I have loved watching Mona on stage during the several junior plays she was in, and I am always surprised how comfortable she is on stage. I love to see her acting because once she has decided to take a part she will play it full-heartedly. She does that off-stage, too, by the way, because that's just her nature (even though I would like to believe that it actually is the result of our good parenting). Anyways, the Pink Panther role is her first experience in an adult play, and I am excited to see her alongside the grown-up actors in the final performance this Sunday afternoon. 

"Abbey Road - Pink Panther Style" (Photo: Markus Wobisch)

Yesterday, while Mona was changing into her pink panther suit for her first performance, my almost-teenage son Jacob and I went to a gallery opening to see "The Woods," an exhibition of the new works of Jason Byron Nelson, in which he presents creatures of the forest in a way, how I love to see them and how they always should be portrayed, in my opinion: in suits. There was nothing comical or absurd about it, it felt natural and relieving to see these bucks and bears and hares and owls dressed in dignity by this sensitive artist. I was so happy to have a chance to talk with the artist and hear his thoughts.

Jacob enjoyed the reception very much too. He is a very good observer and likes to take in the whole atmosphere of gallery events. He used to find galleries to be incredibly boring places but, of course, he has gotten older and much more open towards other people's thought material. He enjoyed the telling titles that Nelson has given his works, such as "Owl's Decision That She Was Not Supposed to Make" (if I remember it correctly), "Gentleman Bear," and "Owl In Magenta After Leaving the Salon." It was obvious that this visual artist was a writer. And it was obvious that this artist shares my view that animals are people just like us. And that we all are wearing suits all the time, only that some people refuse to see them.

Nelson's work will  be up at the Levee Gallery in Monroe until November 9th. And while you are visiting, you may like to browse through the reproductions of my works which I currently have for sale there, too.