Miniature Minden backdrop rescued by neighbor

One of my worst faults, and I will freely admit to it, is my uncanny ability to totally underestimate the time it will take me to do something. Couple that fault with my inability to realize when I am into something that is way over my head because "no" and "can't" aren't as easy for me to say as "sure I can" and "oh, that would be a piece of cake," and you have the base reason why I find myself in "very hot water" more often than I care to be. Such was the case when I was asked to paint the background for the Town of Minden Christmas display.

It all started out just fine. I did my "homework" by taking a succession of pictures of the Carson Range as it appears from the Valley floor. I scouted the art sections and paint stores for the paint and brushes I would need to do the project, the boards were purchased and various parts and pieces were all brought home to the garage. I was still filled with "can do" confidence until the night I came home from work, hit the button to the garage door opener and, there before me was the "canvas" I was to complete - all 20 feet of it, ready for me to work on.

I felt my heart sink a little as I walked up and looked at the base for the project I had given myself a weekend to complete. The hard work had been done, or so I told myself. A couple of my friends had taken one of the two 10-foot boards and cut it into a 4-foot and 6-foot section, hinging the two sections to either side. They had painted them white and had it up on milk crates and supported, ready for me to go to work on the mountains and sky. This was a Thursday night.

"OK, Friday night, I'll come straight home from work and start working on this," I told myself, but as the garage door again opened Friday evening and again I saw what was ahead of me, every ounce of creative ambition drained from me as I stood and stared at the white expanse of boards. This was not getting the job done so I went in the house, changed my clothes, and back to the garage I went. With graphite in hand, I laid in the skyline and got a suggestion of the mountains, then I painted the background of the sky. At least it looked like some progress to me. I was tired so I told myself "it really should dry overnight before I do anything else," so I went in the house and went to bed.

After a whole lot of talking to myself, I was up at 4 in the morning Saturday, back out in the garage, primed and ready to work all day. Well, my intentions were good until I opened the door and entered the garage. After a few deep breaths I went to work. I started with the clouds ... a favorite thing of mine to do. I was really getting into that, all puffy and highlighted - detail, detail, that would be me, I do love detail. I worked all morning and into the afternoon, on rough cut ply-wood, covering knot holes and trying my best to do a "Renoir." My neighbor, Susanne from across the street, came over to survey the progress and stayed to talk as I kept painting. By now I was covered in paint, a little had been spilled on the work bench as I tried to mix the colors I needed and of course a little on the floor. The paint was so thick on my hands from using my fingers to blend my shading, I could peel it off as it hardened. I had forgotten to take off my rings and they were covered in shades of blue, gray, crimson and white as well as a little in my hair.

As I sat down to take a break sometime in the afternoon, reality hit me. I had worked all day and I wasn't even a third done and I needed this done by Sunday night before I went back to work on Monday. I just didn't see it happening.

Sunday morning came all too early and back to the garage I went. Somewhere around 1 p.m. panic struck as I realized I was still not much more than half done and time was running out. It was time to call for help.

I called my artist friend Arlene Origoni who lives at Topaz Lake and within minutes it seemed she was there to rescue me. As she looked at what I had tried to do the first question out of her mouth was "What size brush are you using anyway?" at which point I produced what I thought to be fairly good sized brushes and she almost laughed at me. "No, no, we need big brushes," she said.

A little scrounging and a run across the street to the neighbor's house produced the needed brushes and within minutes, paint was flying again. In no time at all, Arlene had shown me how to whip my spring-looking "thunderhead" clouds into winter "wispies." Snow-covered mountains were taking shape with just a stroke of a brush and it was no time at all when Arlene and I were looking at a finished background. Thank you Arlene for coming to my rescue.

The finished background was put in place for the Christmas scene at the Town of Minden office on Esmeralda on the Tuesday it was supposed to be there and the Old Town Minden Christmas scene will be on display through December. The Town of Minden Christmas celebrations with many events will be tonight. The Parade of Lights, sponsored by Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Authority, will be Saturday. A wonderful way to start the Christmas season.

Until next week, keep on keepin' on.

n Jonni Hill can be reached through The Record-Courier at jhill@recordcourier.com or by calling 782-5121, ext. 213, or after hours at JHILL47@aol.com