Before depositing them in the recycling bin, we gathered what we could find of his paper hat collection--stuffed in cracks of the couch, jammed behind doors, crumpled in toy baskets--and made a record. Here live the traces of a few of the things we made together: the multitude of storybooks meticulously scanned by 2-year-old eyes until they settled on the drawing of the hat he had to have that day; the relentless attention to each detail as he hovered over me while I snipped and taped; the occasional break down (his, not mine) over some trimming that wasn't quite faithful enough to the original; the excited squeals as it was almost done; the joyful pretend world that unfolded before him as each hat was placed on his head; the pure delight on his face which fueled the narrative reenactment that would follow; the repetition; the repetition; the repetition; and the inevitable discarding of each hat, sometimes minutes, sometimes weeks, later.
The drama of the consumer world, writ small. Or maybe the essence of the creative process, writ large.
PICTURED: CHEIF WORKMAN'S HAT, FEZ, PAPA BERENSTAIN HAT, PIRATE CAPTAIN HAT, DECONSTRUCTED CHEF'S HAT, BRITISH PALACE GUARD HAT, SANTA HAT, TOP HAT, MILK DELIVERY HAT, CIVIL WAR HAT, MATADOR HAT, PILOT HAT, AND SOMBRERO.
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