Carousel Memories and My Design Quandary

I have been having conflicting ideas about how to make the structure of the carousel.  Part of the problem is that I have had the pleasure of riding a number of carousels.  The carousels were different styles, and that is giving me a conflict because I am having trouble deciding which way to go with the decorative elements.  As I’ve been working on the menagerie animals for my carousel, a lot of old memories of carousels I have ridden have risen into consciousness.  I’m having trouble deciding which ones I want to represent in this carousel.

One of the carousels I rode when I was very small.  I don’t really remember that one well.  For some reason most of the memories I retain are of being ready to get on the carousel and holding onto the hand of one of my parents.  I remember the arc of the floor of the carousel and the posts that held up the roof.  I barely remember the horses on it, although I have a memory of the bench seat.  I think this carousel was smaller than the other ones I have ridden.

I also rode carousels at seaside amusement parks.  Most of my memories come from these carousels.  The one I remember more fully was a huge carousel.  I think it must have been six horses across.  The interior column was mirrored, and the horses reflected to make it seem twice as large as it was.  As the carousel spun around it also reflected a dizzying scene of the crowds at the amusement park.  I remember real leather reins, worn and cracked with age and exposure to the sea air and leather stirrup straps that had real metal stirrups on them.  

Floors were other memories that have come up.  I remember the small carousel had some type of rough finish to make it non-slip.  I don’t know what it was.  I just remember it being a fairly dark gray.  The large seaside carousel had painted floors.  They were green.  Some years they had been repainted.  Other years they were worn down to patches of bare wood.  Because it was at the shore, people’s shoes had a lot of sand on them and it just ground away at the paint.  I saw this carousel after someone had restored it and moved it to another seaside location.  The floors were beautifully refinished and varnished.  I doubt it stayed that way for long.

At night the carousel at the amusement park was ablaze with lights inside and out.   Panels on the top had lights that flashed around each panel.  These big carousels are such a sensory overload:  The lights, loud organ music, reflections, the motion of horses surging past each other as they went up and down on a crankshaft.  The illusion of being in a horse race as first one horse then the other would appear to be forward.  (As a child, I secretly wished that rather than all the horses going in the same direction that some of them would have been set so that it looked like they were charging at you.  I have no idea why.)  

One other memory is of riding on the carousel and looking out at night to see the lights on the spokes of the Ferris wheel, another ride I always enjoyed.  I can remember being stopped at the top of a huge Ferris wheel at night.  The moon was full, and you could see its light reflecting off the white capped waves as the tide was coming in.  It was really beautiful.  And when I looked in the other direction, I could see the lights and the rotating carousel.

So, I want to incorporate all of these memories want to go into my carousel.  But I can’t.  They conflict.  Even if I could do them, it is way too much detail to put into a one foot diameter carousel.  It is also more work than I would want to do on any folk art piece.  I have to pick and choose.  What is important to me as a memory is not the same as what is needed for a piece of art.

There is another portion to the quandary.  It can be described as “ever was versus never was.”  I have many memories to pick and choose from, but something else keeps coming into my head.  I guess you could say it’s my muse.  The thoughts cross my mind that there is another possibility, a carousel with an open lattice top that won’t obscure the animals I’ve put so much work into.  I can see it in my mind’s eye, a golden lattice supported by columns.  It has a vaguely oriental style.  The image doesn’t want to go away.  I’ll have to sketch it out to see if I can get a better understanding of the image.  If I should choose that, some other decorations have to change.  That’s where I’m stuck at the moment, entertaining the possibility of something new.

 I have some further thoughts to share about the metaphors associated with carousels.  The metaphors are associated with life in general.  Yes, most people get the metaphor that life is like a horse race.  The saying “Grab for the brass ring” comes from carousels that had a brass ring that people used to try to grab as they passed it, risking a tumble as they overbalanced in order to reach it.  For all the effort, the ring was only brass, not gold.  All the risk and effort would only garner you something that was not really worth what it seemed.  And finally, for all the hub bub and hupla, you were only going around in circles.  That really seems a lot like life.