Flip Book: Dad's Balloons

Flip Book: Dad’s Balloons

                                                                                      

To Start off with, lets clear my name for the creative design- not my best work. Also free hand drawing isn’t my forte. But the reason why I chose balloons was because it is one of my best child hood memories growing up. My dad, with a career in finance, never worked in the entertainment industry BUT had a funny way of expressing to my brothers and I, his emotions. He blew up balloons of all sorts and shaped them into fun creatures and objects. From dinosaurs to flowers to even a dog with a leash, he was the true creative mastermind at heart. And he did this my ENTIRE childhood till I was at least 12-13 years old. And if I kept every balloon to this day, we could fill Plant Hall! My Birthdays, I had a room full of balloons, all sorts of colors, shapes, sizes, and with a theme each year. It was like Cirque Du Soleil but with Helium. All my friends used to be so excited for my over-the-top birthday parties because they knew it was going to be quite a SHOW- aesthetically anyways. And he did this for all four of his sons! My best experience was Chinese New Year when I was 11-12 years old. He put on a show for the whole neighborhood. With the help of his friends, he managed to turn our house into a dragon festival using balloons and colors that would make you gleam. Dramatic ensembles just using balloons, and created huge dragon like creatures- floating all over the house. In our living room he hung a dragon so large that probably expanded 8-9 feet and filled it with glitter and money so when he popped it, colors exploded everywhere. Quite an experience growing up when you can wield a child’s creative mind using plastic balloons and helium. As simple as that may sound, so much thought went into each holiday, birthday, basically at any given moment, I could walk into my house, and overnight, be in an alternate world. But my parents got into an ugly divorce going into college and haven’t had contact with him for a few years now- to sum up this story and bring you to present day. So I figured I’d use one of the books he gave me to read my freshman year and re-create my childhood. So though this book was just stick-figure drawings, the drawings themselves, the book, and how the balloons floated away-  were a huge part of my life and symbolize years of my life growing up.