My retrospective at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center
opens tomorrow night in the historic downtown Fort Myers River District. And to commemorate the occasion, I will be
shooting off confetti guns every half hour from 6:00 until 10:00 p.m. The last time I dusted off my confetti guns was for a fundraiser I held for U.S. Congressman Francis J. Rooney.
The use of confetti to celebrate special occasions dates back to the
1300s. Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio mentions the use of confetti in the Decameron,
which he published beginning around 1313. But at that time, confetti was made of
“candy-like confections originally made from honey and dried fruit as well as
spices and, possibly, seeds or nuts.”
By 1891, the first confetti-making machine was built. In
recent years, launchers were developed and contained PVC barrels that empty via
compressed air or carbon dioxide.
No surprise here - New Year’s Eve holds the annual record
for most confetti tossed on a single holiday. Other occasions include sporting
events, graduations, weddings, and various parades.
Times Square drops more than a ton of confetti during its
New Year’s celebrations. Confetti Master Treb Heining oversees
the operation. He has held the position for over 20 years.
Heining doesn’t use any special machines to complete his task. He and about 70 other
people dump boxes of confetti from 8 different buildings for a full minute. A
full cleanup crew spends several hours cleaning up after the festivities die
down.
I plan on dumping a lot of confetti on the floor of the
Davis Art Center’s grand atrium tomorrow night, but you’ll have to come to the
opening to see how deep the confetti piles up.
Keeping reading for more details about Palettes: Past Present and Pursuits.
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