Animal House
Fantastical creatures adorn the yard of Oreta Wright
KILDARE, Texas — Oreta Wright is not letting this holiday season pass in Kildare without creating something.
Two winters ago, she led a communitywide outdoor art show.
For that one, Wright spent weeks painting tin cans of bright colors to hang in trees. Then, she created large cartoon panels of “Whoville and the Grinch Who Stole Christmas” along the main highway in town.
She encouraged neighbors to do the same.
For 2018, she went inside and put together a model village of Kildare as it looked in the year 1945. She pushed several large tabletops together to hold the some 40 models of buildings, streets and railroad tracks.
She’s at it again this season with her front yard full of colorful characters made of things other people would consider “throwaways.”
They area fish, alligator, snake, tin man and turtle, respectively, and here’s what they are made from:
■ “Nemo.” He’s the fish made of an orange and white-striped propane pot swimming around in a blue basket
■ “Alfonso.” This is an alligator made of metal from a tin roof with some painted white wood cut into jagged teeth. Alfonso is big. He lies quietly in deep grass.
■ “Co Co.” Co Co the snake is the simplest. He’s a fallen tree limb but looks like a coral snake after being painted with red, black and yellow stripes. He seems to be scurrying right along.
■ “Ozzie.” That’s the Tin Woodman who was first a post-hole digger turned upside down. Now he has a lampshade for a hat, rubber pipe for arms and a standout wood heart painted red.
■ “Tillie.” She’s one of Wright’s best friends. She’s an orange-and-black turtle made from tubs turned upside down for the shell and with a head that is a stick poking out.
■ Another creature is unnamed and unrecognizable. He may be a Dino the Dinosaur, Oreta isn’t sure.
Wright has used her front yard for the zoo grounds. The space and the things she’s found are just too much for an artist to let go to waste. They are now repurposed and painted into comical characters free to roam around.
Wright’s yard may gain a few other friends as the weeks go by and before this year’s holiday season ends.
She’s thinking about a winter wonderland scene on her terrace.
Her season’s effort this year would be a fine place for a classroom of children to visit. They could study how one can make characters and friends of items about to be thrown away.
“Dress up the town with holiday decorations., so that people coming to Kildare can see the whole town decorated,” Wright said of her goal.
“It’s what I do with my spare time.”
On another weekend this season, Kildare visitors might run into Wright engaged in another project. She’s the “Cookie Lady” of Kildare. She bakes 48 dozen cookies during the holidays, puts them in jars with a skirt and Christmas note, and delivers one to every home in the community and especially in nearby nursing homes.