I started this post on Mother’s Day, but it isn’t about synchronicity in the small town of Wilton Manors, FL; it’s about using color to refresh a children’s Little Free Library located in the Island City’s Mickel Park.
Synchronicity appears during a bit of research: the first Little Free Library was built in 2009 by Wisconsinite Todd Bol as a memorial to his mother, a lifelong reader and former schoolteacher.
The little libraries are free to anyone who wants to borrow or donate a book, but the structures range in price from about $100 ( for pre-stained wood with no mounting materials) to over $400 for kits made of recycled materials. Official registration ($50) often comes with the kits, and allows the steward to register a location on a global map.
The wooden children’s free library at Mickel Park was well-loved and on life support due to Florida weather and heat.
Enter Dooney Potter, an artist who moved to the Island City from Seattle. His gay-themed oil paintings are so precise that they look digital. You can see his artwork here:
His creativity sparked when he changed his style to reflect a Mondrian exhibit he had seen recently at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. Straight graphic black lines and primary colors represent classic abstract painting, but they also play a big role is how children react to their surroundings. Red, blue and yellow are building blocks are the building blocks of the visual world. A Mondrian-style grid on a free library creates a visual anchor for child’s attention and encourages immediate engagement with the library and its books.
Potter’s volunteer work does more than save a Little Free Library, it also adds whimsy and color to the green and brown park landscape.
Official free libraries contain books, but there are some freestyle libraries in other parts of the country that offer everything from rocks (“Take a rock, leave a rock”) and coffee mugs.
Once again, imagination and perception have enlivened an ordinary Florida landscape especially in the small island city of Wilton Manors.
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