Your Imagination is Your Preview of Life's Coming Attractions ~Albert Einstein~

Carousel of Friendship

Latest Updates August 2011

Introduction
The idea of the Autism Awareness Carousel was born in November of 2008! Around the time of my second Geneva Autism Symposium, I started publishing some of my early designs in my Facebook account. The idea of a community carousel is something I've been thinking about for years and the Autism Awareness Carousel was to be an attraction with animals and art designed by (but NOT strictly limited to) people on the autism spectrum. Having Asperger's Syndrome myself, plus a lifelong fascination with carousels, this concept would be an attraction that would embody both of my special interests, plus provide a sensory-friendly place for friends and families to gather. It would be open year round in a special building which also houses a gift shop, museum and a small food-court and tea room. Here are a few places that have inspired various aspects of my concept:

The Faust Park carousel in St. Louis Missouri (left) is housed in a beautiful year-round facility that has its own adjacent dining room for banquets and receptions, and a gorgeous gift shop with all kinds of wonderful things for sale. The Greenville carousel (right) is part of a museum that used to be a school. Artifacts are displayed in the former classrooms and the carousel itself is in the gymnasium. This picture was taken from up in the bleachers.

The Conneaut Lake carousel (left) in Pennsylvania has scenery panels of local landmarks. And the Tickleberry Farm carousel (right) in Lahaska, Pennsylvania has a lovely fast food restaurant area and games arcade. Both are tastefully done so they do not distract from the

carousel. In January of 2009 I started a group on Facebook to promote my idea. Response since then has been overwhelming. I have nearly 2000 members. In May of 2009 I attended my first National Carousel Association Technical Conference. I've been to several of the regular conventions that they've usually had in the fall but these conventions are more specifically aimed at the behind-the-scenes aspect of the carousel industry; building, construction, promotion, marketing, the whole nine yards. There is a LOT to consider when building a community carousel. No two projects are the same. If they were there would be such a thing as a Community Carousel Building for Dummies book! I had emailed various community carousels to ask how they got started and I must say I was overwhelmed by the amount of information that was out there! Our May 2009 conference took place in Sandusky, Ohio, the home of Cedar Point and the Sandusky Merry-Go-Round museum. It was a thrill to ride the Cedar Point carousels once again, especially the Prior & Church Racing Derby, and we also visited an aluminum Theel carousel at Shopfle Park in Lorraine County. Our main meeting was at the Sandusky Merry-Go-Round Museum. Here I am on the left showing some pictures of my artwork, and on the right, our group seated at our round-table discussion about gift shop ideas.

One of the amazing things that the Sandusky MGR museum has that I'd like to have at my own carousel are these crayon rubbing stations. There are at least half a dozen podiums set up around the museum with raised metal images of various carousel animals with a supply of paper and crayons where visitors can create free souvenirs like these to take home:

The carousel itself also has these gorgeous LED lights that change colour! I was fascinated!! Downstairs is the restoration work shop where I watched in awe as various carousel animals were being repainted. It was interesting to see the kinds of equipment they used and learn about the different kinds of materials they worked with. Did you know that Japan oils have a shelf life? This is good to know because I wouldn't want to buy a supply of paint only to have it go bad when we finally get around to using it! At the time the carousel was also trying to raise funds through the sale of raffle tickets. Their building is literally crumbling!! Every year they build a new carousel horse and sell raffle tickets to raise funds. I must have bought at least $40 worth of tickets. If I won, this horse would someday be on my own carousel. But I didn't win, even though it felt good knowing I was helping them raise funds. Just a couple short days after I returned home from this event I was interviewed about my idea on Rogers Cable Mid Day. The interview can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGSDBcDOk94 I can think of a million things I wish I'd done better and several things that have happened since then. In the summer of 2009 I had a very successful sale at Wind Reach Farm. They expressed an interest in being a potential location for my carousel.

In September of 2009 I attended the National Carousel Association Convention in Philadelphia. There I visited several carousels including the one in Lahaska, mentioned earlier, a PTC with new carvings by Ed Roth and this one in Pottsville, also PTC with new carvings by Ed Roth.

The reception was at the building where the completed carousel was going to be installed and we took a bus downtown to see the rest of the animals in the workshop. I found it to be kind of cramped and didnt get the chance to talk to anybody. This always happens to me due to sensory overload! Shortly after I came home from that trip, I got the inspiration to get started on my first quilt! I started it in November of 2009 and completed it in March of 2010.

This quilt consisted of nine squares designed by anonymous artists from Kerry's Place and by the following artists: Brandy:

Jessica:

Ethan:

Mackenzie:

as well as two horses by Janette Tansley:

And I must not forget Jenny Gale's horse:

I wanted to create an extra-special square for the grand finale so I asked around for opinions. The last square contains my self-portrait/logo on the lead horse at Nunley's, a Joshua tree and the 2010 Olympic symbol as well as a white crayon. The white crayon symbolizes the need for teamwork as on its own it is pretty useless but with oher crayons or watercolour paints it can be the MOST used!

The rest of this quilt can be seen here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/30062160/Carousel-Quilt-Project

I had so much fun with this project I decided to make a second quilt. Here are Harris Spencer Anderson's horses:

The rest of this project can be seen here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/47386643/New-Peace-Quilt I would like to thank all the students from Peaceman Jim Kogelheide's bus in London Ontario! I started this quilt in March of 2010 and finished New Year's Day of 2011. In the meantime I also started working on the True Blue quilt:

These are all classic carousel animals embroidered in shades of blue inspired by Dutch Delft pottery. I completed this quilt on the Canada Day weekend of 2011, just in time to be displayed at the Boyd museum/Gallery in Bobcaygeon for the entire month of July:

As you can see, a group of my other artifacts went on sale there too, including dolls and Tshirts and the wall-hanging I did for my friend, Lorraine was also on display. You can see it in the middle of the previous page. We recycled three of her favorite carousel T-shirts she bought from me years ago including a PTC armored horse and a Looff jumping giraffe. These quilts will be on display again at the Heritage Pioneer museum the weekend of September 9th to 11th in Bobcaygeon and again the entire month of January back at the Boyd Museum/Gallery. Only this time they'll be hanging on the wall instead of draped over tables!! I hope to have my fourth quilt finished by then. Most of these are original designs based on me earlier works and some of these were created by my friend Elizabeth. Here's what I've got so far (not including the logo):

Left to right: Sausage Dog (mine) Fantasy Horse and Kleo, the Epilepsy Awareness Horse (Elizabeth), DooDoo's Circus Pig (mine)

The dog is a very old idea of mine. Back in the early 90's my dad and I built a miniature carousel out of Fimo whose menagerie included the dog carrying a link of sausages and a cat on the back of his saddle holding the other end. The clown idea came from European carousels which sometimes feature pigs with clowns riding backwards on their rear ends! Traditional European clowns are usually depicted wearing pointy hats and thumbing their noses at the riders behind them. I chose this clown to represent my good friend DooDoo doing his mouth coil act. One of my Facebook friends said it looked like Ronald McDonald in his hippie days! But early Ronald McDonald had yellow hair and a red-and yellow striped suit, not to mention a cup for a nose. He also went around rollerskating with a tray on his head!!

The next row is as follows so far:

Left to right: Frog Prince, Zodiac Horse, Tiger Bunny and Psychedelic Horse. All were designed by me except the Zociac Horse, who was designed by Elizabeth.

The colours of the original drawing of Psychedelic Horse are not quite as intense as the embroidered quilt square because neon shades tend to not show up as brightly in the scanner. The original inspiration for my Psychedelic Horse are these Go-Go Glasses which were available at Gulf gas stations in the late 60's or early 70's. I collected mine from various yard sales:

In the meantime I am also partnering with SATH (Special Attention to Handicapped), an organization in Pakistan. Their women will be embroidering some quilt squares for me and children of all ages will be decorating more carousel horses. Here is the logo I designed for our particular project and a selection of supplies I donated to them.

And this is their website: http://sathorg.tripod.com/ They will return the completed squares to me as well as copies of the artwork and I will assemble the completed quilts to display and sell here in Canada. I am contemplating teaming up with various other organizations in this manner but I must say it is NOT cheap. I spent over $100 on supplies at Micheal's not to mention over $50 in postage and it isn't even air mail! In order to carry out other partnerships such as this, help from sponsors would be greatly appreciated. Customers may initially balk at the $1000 price tag of each quilt, but I can assure you that it's for a worthy cause. Half will go to the charities I sponsor and the other half goes back into the Carousel of Friendship. It's going to take a lot of quilts and a lot of work so I am thankful for the volunteers who decide to get involved! Every carousel animal ever imagined will be immortalized on these quilts and the best will be chosen to exist as REAL carousel animals on the actual Carousel of Friendship. In fact I DARE to DREAM BIG and envision a WHOLE CHAIN of carousels in various communities all over Canada!! I envision a standard pavilion that is basically the same in every community. From an Aspie/autistic point of view, I appreciate the idea of consistency. Tourists know that when they visit the Carousel of Friendship they can expect each building and its layout to be the same. Everything in each location will be in the same place. You can

travel from one city to another and know that when you enter the facility you will find the carousel straight ahead, the gift shop here, the Museum of Childhood here, the food court over there to your right and just past it, the Tea Room. The food court is quite small and simple, a kiosk where you can buy pizza by the slice and an ice cream parlour. Then there's the Tea Room area where you and a friend or two or more can order a pot of tea and an assortment of finger sandwiches and baked goods, or make reservations for birthday, parties, bridal showers, weddings, etc. My friend Loet Vos is the mastermind behind the Museum of Childhood and longs for a location for her unique collection of toys, etc. to display to the public. I envision within my chain of carousels, a series of small museums for each one where the collection is divided up and rotated annually so each year there is something new to look at. I also envision an annual Dance Performance similar to the one I saw in Binghamton in 1993. There the audience ride the carousel while being entertained by dancers surrounding it. Nothing like that has been done before or since, but I visualize an amazing new show every year, each one with its own theme. I have also been very impressed and inspired by the following idea; A SOLAR-POWERED carousel!!! http://www.ecomagination.com/carousolar/ This carousel has been touring the States, previously in Boston and in New York at the moment. I love the idea of a carousel entirely powered by natural resources. I can envision a solar panel built into the roof of the structure as well as an adjacent wind turbine or two. Wind turbines not only generate electricity, they also look ever so WAY COOL! It's an Aspie thing, go figure! I LOVE THINGS THAT SPIN!!