Research for 700 year Old Woman and rediscovering Kolams

...Meanwhile...

THE 7000 YEAR OLD WOMAN
I started looking online for possible materials to use to paint my face and to fill the flour parcels and to decorate the floor and came quite quickly to Kolams and was a bit excited as when I was in Auroville I met a lovely lady called Selvi who was drawing them outside her house and showed me how they work...

I looked into them and they are painted first with Rice Flour.. every morning by the Women of the House before the rest of the world is awake.. Sometimes they are offerings to Lakshmi, to bring Happiness and Prosperity into the house, they also show concern for Living Organisms as they are Food for Insects and small animals...

ON Special occasions they are decorated with other colours, including by flowers as well as Flour and other foodstuffs

I am a bit more excited by these than by Simple Spiral though I will try this out too. Firstly I need to figure out the ingredients and Colours ( I will do some practice ones in Black and White and for the performances use colours).
I am going to start with my kitchen cupboards (Spice Rack made by dearly missed Pal Claudio) and what I can use from there and then later this afternoon Chris downstairs and his houseguest, Loony, and I will go around the local neighbourhood and see what we can find
The plan for the moment is to try it out this week at some point, then have a full run through next Tuesday and then the final piece at the Tate Modern on June 27th. Verity and Arlene and Catherine and Maryam have all offered to help and/or advise. Oriana instigated this in the first place Barbara and Para-Active/Urban Dolls gave useful critical feedback in early stages. I just have to be clear and figure out what I am doing.. I have an idea that the support systems I am seeking are less gender specific and more creative.. Some very wonderful people come into my mind and they are warm in their response to requests for assistance.. I am slowly walking.. slowly learning to make by.. just.. making.. seems so obvious but taking me years to fathom but sometimes children who are slower to learn to walk or speak are the more articulate and active once they decide to begin...

I just remembered too that I made a mental note to look at Geisha Make-up as this also uses Rice Flour. In the next few days I will write to Betsy Damon and Su Friedrich. I wonder on the similarities and differences between our processes. I will stop worrying about how unsophisticated are my methods and forgive myself as a beginner...