August 2010: Joy Tsunka & Glenn Kirk, Morning Star Studio
If you’ve had children in your family at any time in the past twenty years, you know there’s an easy way to tell how your family’s Market visit will go. Look over there at the corner of 8th and E. Park at the edge of the lawn. Is Joy’s booth there? You’ll be waiting in line for a few minutes for a face painting of a flower, or a ladybug, or a sunburst, and walking away with a joyful kid. Is Joy’s booth gone? Uh oh. Pizza? or maybe a wooden toy from Tom Savelich? You’ll think of something...
Joy started her crafting career early, growing up as the child of a working artist mom. Embroidery and needlepoint skills were put to use making patches and wristbands. She started painting faces at Spring Fair in Roseburg in 1983 when the usual face painter did not show up. Being both bored and resourceful, she bought some paints and got to work. Since 1990 she has been on that special corner at Market.
There are only so many faces you can paint in a day, which limits income unless you have something else to sell. While a member of the artists’ collective Circle of Hands she started painting on sea shells and loved it. Customers were intrigued, but didn’t know what to “do” with them. Again, resourceful, she encrusted them with beads and turned them into mobiles and necklaces and sun catchers. They now turn one side of her booth into a colorful, twinkling, fairyland of light and movement.
It’s hard to take a break to make a big sale when a small person with big, beautiful expectant eyes is looking up at you, waiting anxiously for their special “Joy” time. That’s (in part) where Glenn comes in. “I needed him to help sell my products” says Joy. Glenn’s perspective on the story is slightly different. “I missed my Market family.” Glenn started selling at Market over twenty years ago himself, making and selling tie dyes with his wife Kit. When Kit passed away years back, Glenn stopped selling. Over the past couple of years he’d taken to hanging with Joy in the booth. A life in construction gave him plenty of woodworking skills. So naturally, an old Marketeer sitting in a booth anyway with plenty of crafting skills led him to start creating wooden box drums (some call them tone drums, some call them tongue drums), beautiful wooden combs and most recently drinking mugs. It’s great to see Glenn back on the Blocks!
I’m not going to overstate the obvious and tell you why the booth is beautiful. It’s full of beautiful things, especially those happy faces. I will tell you some important things that kids learn at Joy’s booth. Like taking turns (do I really have to wait, really?), the day of the week (is it Saturday yet?), economics (do I have a dollar? how can I get one?), trades (if she doesn’t have a line, Joy sometimes paints a cheek in exchange for wearing it proudly around the Market and saying “I got it over there”), and you’re never too old to have some joyful paint on your face (have a look around at the painted grown ups).
