Time to Party!

The horses on the carousel are now complete!

Come on down to the park Saturday the 11th at 2pm for a ribbon cutting and some good carousel fun! 

Free carousel rides from 2-3, music, icecream for sale!

It's going to be a blast!

Progress!

Three freshly painted ponies! Let me introduce them. 

The first was a request by a very sweet woman who loves Stewart Park, particularly the swans who used to live in the pond next to the boathouse. With natural colors (all which can be achieved from natural dyes), local plants (Dame's Rocket-the pretty purple wildflowers in bloom the past few weeks) , and kissing swans, I hoped this horse might look as though she'd hopped right out of a fairytale. 

The next is a tribute to one of the best writers of all time, (in my opinion) Dr. Seuss. As a child and since, I have loved the insanity of his made-up words, never-seen-before creatures, and the color and pattern. Who can say no to some good Dr. Seuss absurdity, or to green eggs and ham? 

Lastly, here is my final horse of the project. As a child, (before the environmentally conscious part of my brain kicked in) I loved to let go of a balloon and watch it float up and into the clouds, getting smaller and smaller until it finally was too far away to see. You could call this horse a tribute to all those lost balloons, or just one last sunny, happy horse to wrap up one of the best projects I have ever worked on. 

Stay tuned for Christi's last horse, and news about our ribbon cutting/re-opening party! One horse to go! 

Another freshly painted horse!

Free Carousel Day: June 10th!

Hey All! Have you heard? 
Tomorrow is Free Carousel Day! 
Sponsored by the Child Development Council, come take a ride on the newly painted horses, free of charge. With only 4 horses left to be painted, the carousel is looking super fresh. Ride each and every horse if you like! The carousel will be open tomorrow 11-7:30. See you at the park!

GiveGab

Friends of Stewart Park has set up our project with a GiveGab account! 

GiveGab is an online fundraising system that has helped many non-profits achieve their fundraising goals. We're hoping that as we wrap up the project, GiveGab will be easy and user-friendly, and that we can meet our fundraising goals by the end of June! I want to thank everyone who has donated to our project already; it's been such a wonderful gift to Ithaca, and I've been honored to work on a project that has taught me so much about our community. 

Here's the link! 

https://www.givegab.com/nonprofits/friends-of-stewart-park/campaigns/carousel-crowdfunding

                                                                                                                                          -Julia

Hot Wheels

The carousel is running again for the summer! What a spectacle to see it being re-assembled! It was a special moment for Christi and I to see the horses reunited after a winter of pulling one out of its crate at a time. (Please enjoy the picture below of Christi and I looking like we are 5 years old while we take a ride!) So it's official..Happy Summer! There are 5 more horses to paint, but we have plenty of excitement and ideas left. Keep an eye out for news about our grand re-opening party, which will hopefully happen in July, with fun for both kids and adults! 

With that, I'll introduce our newest horse, Hot Wheels. I had many requests for flames, so I decided to theme this horse like a race car. I think he's got a lot of personality- check him out! 

-Julia

Robin Hood

As I said in the last post, I've been painting a lot this month as time allows, and as the deadline to putting the carousel back up is approaching.  In contrast to the winter horse, here's a nice summery steed.  I was inspired by the story of Robin Hood, and of childhood dreams of camping and roaming the leafy woods.  She has acorns on her bridle, and arrows shooting ahead.

First, here is a photo of the original paint.  I'm trying to take these as I go, to preserve some record of Annie's work.

Oh, the look on their faces!  It's really hard to get photos of these horses from the inner ring, they tend to look a little panicked.

Thanks to Kayla at the History Center for looking up photos of pinto horses for me, and pointing out that they often have black streaks in their manes.

-Christi