Dennis Hollingsworth

Corpus Christi 2009

I don't think Gerry had Corpus Christi in mind when he took his students to Tossa for a day trip of kayaking and touring the town yesterday. As the afternoon grew long, the town was abuzz with people preparing their streets with flower designs for the selected church virgins (emergent teenagers) to trample them with a parade of priests, town politicians, town folk and a police escort. Typical for me, I greeted them to Tossa, took them on an arcing tour of the pueblo to our house so they could doff their bags and jet off on their adventures. Of course, I had my hands full prepping large canvases, I could only tag base with them from time to time.

Here are some of the eleven students after their forced march of fun. I usually don't like spectators in the studio, but these guys were locked on my activities as I sweated stapling down the canvas before the glue sets. A group portrait reverses the roles of performer/performance and I got to document the moment here.

As they trod off to the bus station, I stapled onward, finishing my work as the town was garlanded with flowers, the strange horns of the marching band blaring outside my window. Again, I defer life for the demands of the studio... but with my window at street level, I had an opportunity to catch a glimpse of part of the procession: