Cerulean blue macaw

Dingman, Alex, and her husband John were in Pennsylvania when their next–door neighbors reached them by cell phone with the bad news. “Thank goodness they had our number because they were feeding the cats while we were away.”

The cats Shadow and Siren were safe, reported Chuck and Shannon Herin, but there were three fire trucks at their house, and water from the hoses was pouring through the roof. “We started the 13–hour drive back to Columbia immediately while our neighbors were in our house moving belongings out of harm’s way.”

The Dingmans are proprietors of Mouse House, a framing business operating on the first floor of their Elmwood Park residence. There were works of art and other client treasures awaiting completion or pick up at the time of the fire. Not one client’s work was damaged because of the neighbors’ incredible caring.

Shannon Herin moved things to the front of the house, and Chuck Herin was able to give the firefighters valuable information about the house layout. “Herin had lived in the house at one time and had done a lot of renovating, so it was easy for him to tell them things that helped a lot,” said Dingman.

Dingman and her family could see the sky through the open places in their roof when they got back, but they couldn’t see their future. “One of the neighbors knew that John Gibson, another neighbor down the street whom I didn’t know all that well, had a furnished apartment on the market at the time. Someone else had expressed an interest in it, but I grabbed it up for us,” said Dingman.

Dingman said being able to move in so close to their home made a huge difference in their recovery from the trauma. “It didn’t remove us from our neighborhood, and we were able to be close by to interact with the work crews that were there night and day. The carpet installers were there at 8 pm last Sunday night.”

Besides being completely furnished and affording the family proximity to their home, Gibson’s apartment had another perk that soothed the Dingmans’ souls. “John has a fabulous garden that backs his house and the house our apartment was in. In that garden are huge tortoises, fabulous plants, and a waterfall. Overlooking that ecosystem is his birdhouse where the macaws live.”

Visiting the birds was solace for Dingman who finds inspiration for her art in nature. “Going to talk to them gave me a lift,” the fiber artist said, “and I began picking up their feathers, thinking about doing something with them.”

Dingman said nearly everyday, there would be a feather for her. “One day when there was no feather, I asked them about it. ‘No feather today? Don’t you love me?’ The more vocal male macaw pronounced for the first time, “I love you.” After that, there was nearly always at least one feather to collect each day, and the macaws carried on regular dialogues with Dingman.

As the Dingmans sorted out their life, wet belonging by belonging, the artist began a plan to incorporate the feathers into a concept she was developing for Vista Lights. “I salvaged slats out of old shutters, sanded and painted them, then embellished them with the feathers and some colorful fibers. They will be suspended from the ceiling. They are the sky for my installation.”

For the earth Dingman has rescued curbside tree stumps and crafted felt leaves to scatter about her studio floor. “This represents earth to me. And Soul is represented by the coiled vessels I have been making all summer as we were putting ourselves back together.” While carrying on her business as usual routine, she has stitched together 80 colorful vessels to put into her installation.

The Dingmans spent their first night back in their own home this week.

Dingman’s art installation will be on display at Vista Lights Friday night.