The Manufactured Home
by Gay Pogue
Fiber with paper, beads, and acrylic paint
20 x 25 inches
Ever the optimist, the Angel Snake Roland was not in the least daunted by the sight of Clarisse and Kyle’s new home in the woods. They were artists with powerful imaginations. In their minds’ eyes, they did not see it as it was but as they would make it. Roland would ensure that they did not lose their vision.
Clarisse’s parents owned, but seldom visited, that 37 acres in Central Texas—a tick-infested, weed-overgrown, vine-entangled, steep sloping jungle at the end of a seven-mile one-lane road. A rusty rig still pumped crude out of the ground on one corner of the property. Of course, Clarisse’s parents did not own the mineral rights. A neglected old house trailer sat smack in the middle of it all. They would live there.
The only thing right about the whole deal was the price---the cost of the taxes and utilities. They had to make it work because they intended to survive by creating and selling their art.
Clarisse made art quilts; Kyle made fine furniture and household items from lovely local wood.
The naïve couple begged and bartered for paint and supplies necessary to turn the trailer into their dream home. Perhaps its dire condition gave Clarisse the courage to paint it to resemble her quilts. Nonetheless, it soon became the talk of the region and attracted visitors and buyers from all around.
Roland liked to think that he had a great deal to do with the outcome.
#8 in the “Angel Snake Houses” series
Completed October 2011
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