Sunday was the last day of the season of SoWa Open Market in Boston and also the Halloween themed, "Market of the Living Dead"! There was Pumpkin and fruit carving, vendor and customer costume contests and lots of spooky decorations and goodies being distributed! I decided to paint Munch's famous painting, The Scream, for my costume. Of course, I decided this Saturday afternoon, when there was no time for a long drive to a chain store from where I live to get supplies. I , therefore, had to scrounge around the art room! I found a frame lying around that I got once from a "FREE" table at a flea market and took out a piece of foamcore from the cellar and some mostly dried out and separated acrylic paints and some old brushes from when I worked at a craft store and went to work. Of course, I had to scale the head much larger than in the original and also, the frame was a little small for the scale, but it came out decent, in my opinion. I then cut out the head portion so my face could peek through. We were also putting the last minute touches on my sister's "Bjork at the Oscars Swan Dress" costume that was hand sewed Saturday as well.
I neglected to anticipate 2 very important things things that happened Sunday at the show. Firstly, I had to hold up my Frame the whole time, which not only got quite tiring, but it had to be set down each time I was completing a sale. Secondly, I remembered why I do not love wearing interesting costumes to events. My sister and I literally were stopped by every person we walked by or who came to our tent for pictures- foreign tourists, art students, random weirdos- and asked to pose for pictures on their cameras or cell phones. People also expected me to maintain the constant pose of the scream (for 9 hours) and were saying things like, "you cant smile, you're "The Scream".
I was left very thankful that I wasn't wearing a tactile costume. Let's just say I spent Halloween and my 25th Birthday in New York City wearing an extremely accurate Grumpy Care Bear Costume- made by my lovely friend, Laura, which was furry and soft and eventually touched by literally everyone I came in contact with. (Many more than I came in contact with Sunday, to say the least). You do not want to be on the Subway in a furry costume on Halloween.
