Before the Spirograph, there was the Magic Designer, and before the Magic Designer there was the Hoot-Nanny. As a 7 or 8-year-old child I spent many an hour playing with this fascinating mechanical toy that created infinite designs based upon angles and their relationship to each other. Later on as a teenager, I would use 33 LP albums and 45 singles records as templates to develop colorfully intertwined design art incorporating names of young dating teens. I presented the finished creations to these couples as gifts. I often am curious as to how many of them have survived and are still out there. Later still, as the Assistant Children's Librarian in my home town, I submitted this same kind of circular drawing, but with an inter-changeable middle for a permanently displayed 'riddle of the week' poster. At the time, I thought this was a good way to 'break the ice' so that children who may have been too shy or fearful to approach a librarian to ask questions could do so on their terms. At the grand opening of the library's new location, a larger version of this same 'artwork in the round' hung behind the check-out counter. Obviously, because of it's placement, no patron could miss seeing it, so it afforded me some very lucrative private commissions from interested parties. Having studied astrology for 45 years, which also uses a circular wheel and relationships between angles, I find it rather fascinating that circles have always been an integral part of my life in some way. Fifty years later, I just bought the Hoot-Nanny pictured because it was such a beloved 'toy' when I was young. Nostalgic as it is, undoubtedly, this makes we wonder what's next in the intricately-patterned cycle of life in the round.
Copyright 2011 Debbie Ballard
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