wavy gravy |

watercolor and Uni-ball Vision elite pen in 5 X 8″ Strathmore Watercolor sketchbook

Q: What did the earth say after the earthquake?

A: Sorry, my fault!

Q: How do you keep a bagel from getting away?

A: Put lox on it.

Yes, this third grade humor helped to set the tone for the last week of adult camp with Wavy Gravy, where it’s never too late to be a kid again. But there was the Hip Hop dancing and the singing and walking the labyrinth and trapeze and stilts (I watched) and painting and Zen clowning and well, I guess you had to be there. Each morning Wavy on the rainbow stage got us chuckling and I had moments to do a bit of sketching. So here they are – of Wavy – and the backs of other campers as they sat and listened.

Wavy read Neruda’s poetry each morning, along with birthdays of famous people and exerpts from his book Something Good for a Change: Random Notes on Peace Through Living.

Some campers showed up in costume each morning.

Another camper listens quietly. . .

. . .while another videotapes.

One camper shared her vow: “Variety is the spice of life. And when I die I want to be well seasoned.” Each day at camp provided ample spicy fare!

Camp Winnarainbow 2012 (Adult camp)

That’s me with the yellow bow on my head 5th from the left. Just got back last night from 6 of the funnest (not a word, I know) days ever. That’s Wavy Gravy in the middle with the safari outfit on. We just finished the Croquet contest and Tea Party, one of many opportunities in camp for dress up and clowning.

I mostly left the arts and crafts activities to others and gravitated toward the performing arts to open up another channel on the creative spectrum – Zen clowning, Ankoku-Butoh movement, Hip Hop, drumming and various improv opportunities. All that, with lots of dress up, laughter and music all day long, swimming in the lake in the afternoon, eating way too much, and sleeping in a teepee.

Yep. My inner child got wide awake and joined my hippy self (drug and alcohol free) and got super groovy with a delightfully uninhibited bunch of other willing weirdos. I’m always preaching to my students that we must claim our eccentricity because that’s where our creative gifts lie. . .well. . .you gotta be willing to be WEIRD! and it’s so much fun.

Wavy Gravy is the master of this, of course, driving around in his psychodelically painted golf cart and emceeing all the performances with his gravelly voice and hilarious one liners. Listening to him I felt my funny bone growing so long I felt like I was on stilts.

(The only time I was willing to sit still enough to sketch was when he was doing his morning reading to us from the rainbow stage. If you don’t know who he is/was, watch the video Saint Misbehavin. )