Last fall I came across the newest project of the
International Fiber Coalition which was to cover a Saturn V rocket in Huntsville, AL. with fiber panels. I immediately wanted to be a part of this to honor my grandfather who worked for Grumman in the 60's and was able to work on the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module). The entry fee was $100 and a bit steep for me....
Chris Gilman to the rescue! She suggested that a two foot square panel could be 4 individual 12" blocks and only price out at $25 per person. If I was game, we would only need 2 more people and within an hour we had 2 more adventurous souls in
Cathy Winter and
Katherine McNeese. These women graciously let me have the name LEM4 for our group in honor of grandpa and use the space theme I had wanted to do.
Using the space theme, ideas were thrown out in reference to 'Dreams' (which is the theme of the project) and everyone chose what part of flight they wanted to do....all without arguing :) Chris did a vibrant Hot Air Balloon and Katherine did the Wright Brothers proud with her First Flight.
I did a rendition of the LEM for grandpa, complete with a shamrock on the door panel-GO IRISH!! Charles "Bud" McAuliffe was very proud of all the work he accomplished while at Grumman. In our family we always chuckle a bit at some of his fashion choices since he didn't mind mixing stripes with plaids, etc. Imagine that and then add that he would brag about his name being on the moon....Yeah, sure you kooky old man. His name is on the moon though. All the workers signed a poster and a photo of that was shrunk down onto a microchip and included on the LEM. You go Grandpa!!
Rounding out our space dreams, is Cathy Winter's terrific textural rendition of the Space Shuttle. Thank you to these 3 very talented women for making my small dream come true. This panel is a wonderful work of art and representative of the creative powers of us and all that have come before us. Their dreams keep the rest of us striving for our dreams.
