M:Mission Impossible: A Cautionary Tale

 

Herein lies the tale of an ill-fated yarn tag.    In the street art business, there’s always a trade-off between VISIBILITY and PERMANENCE; the more visible the piece, the more likely that it will soon be removed. But the inconspicuous piece will probably stay put for much longer. 

Up until now I’ve chosen the latter, favoring longevity.  But recently I was seized with the ambition to embellish a highly visible spot in town, so I headed for the Santa Barbara Mission, the absolute icon of our fair city. I came up with what I thought was a clever idea: an inconspicuous piece in a highly visible place.  So rather than a brightly colored knitted sleeve, I created a faux cactus.  The green material is from a thrift store sweater, and I crocheted the flower. A bamboo stick up the middle holds it into the ground.  Worked fine in our backyard.  In fact, one morning we found a line of gopher holes leading right to it; bet he was surprised to find the roots of this plant weren’t so tasty!

My plan was to place it a distance away from Mission but, when I got there, I had a sudden impulse to go for the cactus garden smack dab in front of the entrance.  Well, that didn’t last long.  Cops?  No, this time it was a mom with a baby stroller!  She started to give me the third degree about what was I doing, how long was it going to be there, blah, blah.  Bad choice!  It was obvious that she would make sure this cactus got weeded out soon. 

So I went on to my originally intended location a bit further away.  It’s a great spot except that the ground proved to be as hard as stone!  I had brought a jug of water with me for just this reason, but after half an hour of pouring water and jabbing the stubborn adobe soil, I gave up.  Need better tools. 

Meanwhile, we’ve been enjoying the cactus at home, but it’s starting to droop from becoming damp.  The green knit is cotton and too stretchy.  It’s all looking pretty sad but I really like the concept and have plans to remake it and TRY AGAIN!