Photos: The Crucible Fire Arts Festival

“Fishbug” by Rebecca Anders
Fish Bug

“Epiphany” by Dan Das Man & Karen Cusolito
Fire Girl

Fire Dancer from “The Rootabaga Opera” by Dan Cantrell
Rootabaga Opera

“Fire Vortex” by Nate Smith
Fire Vortex

Fire Poi performance by Amber Garrett
Silhouette

“Twilight Anima Rising’ by Mardi Storm
Unicorn

Masks

Posted by Sherrie Thai of Shaire Productions.

Here are some of my photos from The Crucible’s Fire Art Festival where fire and imagination reign free. More info is available on The Crucible’s site.

Artwork: Flying Monkeys of Oz

Flying Monkeys of Oz

Flying Monkeys of Oz Initial Drawing

Posted by Sherrie Thai of Shaire Productions.

I had the opportunity to catch Wicked last week–a visually compelling musical with a solid story–an interesting parallel to the classic L. Frank Baum’s “Wizard of Oz.” The Flying Monkeys stood out to me as compelling subjects, so I viewed the original 1939 Judy Garland movie and lesser known adaptations: “Tin Man” and the “The Wiz” with the late Michael Jackson.

My version explores the displacement of the creatures. The Flying Monkeys are an unnatural evolution–torn between worlds, but expelling fear in their path. The glow from the Emerald City lights the sky. Like many of my fine art illustrations, the coloring was added through a variety of Photoshop layers after the graphite drawing was scanned. The fur was a bit challenging as there was quite a few layers of subtracting/adding graphite through the kneaded eraser and pencil.

Wicked Poster

Inspiration: Muppets and their Social Impact

Sesame Street

Posted by Sherrie Thai of Shaire Productions.

Do you remember watching Sesame Street as a kid? Or are still enjoying it with the little ones in your life? How did it impact you?

“The World According to Sesame Street” is a PBS documentary focusing on how Sesame Street puppetry has filtered through countries ravished by poverty and violence, giving hope, a sense of mutual respect, literacy, and education to children who need it most.

As a commercial brand, the show has been able to extend from a US-based show (1968) to a global phenomenon, hitting 120 countries, but giving the respective countries the freedom to develop their own characters, stories, and a context to address the needs of their community.

On a social level, the children are given the education to topics where they need it the most. In South Africa, the reality of most children’s lives are touched by AIDS/HIV. They made a character with HIV, who taught the audience about death and misconceptions about the disease–all through entertainment, song, and puppets. Bangladesh’s Sesame Street curriculum dealt more with education–addressing poor children, who had to work and were denied an education. One interviewer mentioned ‘there is not enough time to talk, but must take action.’ Changing the world through their art–inspirational.

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