Day 7: Granite Reef
Kate Weare, Project Assistant on Jan 31 2008 at 2:57 pm | Filed under: Sites
We inflated RedBall at the Senior Center in the cool morning, wedged firmly between the white poles of a large solar trellis located near the mini putting green and the bocce ball courts. There was a sense of joviality in the air and the enormous red ball, squished into place and joyfully present, attracted a minstrel show of visitors: kids bouncing on the sides, teens trying to conquer its height by climbing (one of the project assistants, Jessie, actually made it to the top and sprawled out like a smiling idol) and older folks testing out their creative wits with cameras, props, friends and dogs. Old men bent down and twisted their bodies in unlikely ways, searching for poses to equal the boldness of the ball. One man pulled his shirt up to appear headless and used the ball as proxy for a photo. Women posed in bright clothing worn especially to offset them from the magnetic red. During this gentle all-day party, I marveled at the ball’s ability to set a tone of ease - its very presence seemed to free people to unleash their inner kooks in an environment where no impulse was too outrageous.
