In 2008, I received a 3 year commission to create and stage a sculpture show for kids and families in downtown Seattle. The show called Toyland Village "Through the Eyes of a Child", began as a simple consultation with the Downtown Seattle Associaton. DSA wanted to create Christmas displays to attract people downtown during the Winter Holidays. It soon became evident to me that the project hit all my skill sets and I asked DSA if they'd allow me to bid on the project. Well, of course they awarded me the project and I've been working on it ever since, this year 2010, being the last year of my contract.
The premise of the show is that Santa Claus, while flying over Seattle, hit some turbulance and a bunch of Christmas presents on his sleigh fell to the ground, creating Toyland.Village.
In 2008, I created 40, 8ft. tall steel displays depicting children's imagery of toys, gifts and fantasy objects. Each multi-colored display housed an average of 150 linear feet of LED Rope Light. The rope light is attached to the 3/8" steel rod frames by about 300 plastic cable ties per display. Each rope light display is attached to a concealled controller that enables the rope light to move in alternating patterns.
I've become quite adept at working in this medium, in fact my rope light supplier now use images from the show to train their employees about the capabilities of the material.
In 2008, the original 40 displays were staged in various locations around downtown Seattle.
In 2009, the project was in jeopardy of being discontinued due to the city's concern that the displays constituted a pedestrian hazard and a liability to the city. After intense negotiation with the city, DSA got the city to agree to stage the show in one location, an urban park on the waterfront.
Waterfront Park on piers 57 & 59 became the new home for Toyland Village..
I'm currently working on 25 additional displays that will appear along with the original pieces at this year's Toyland Village.
Opening day is November 26th, 2010 and I'll be working continuously on the displays until that time.
If you get the opportunity, come down to Waterfront Park for this, the last year of the show. The show has been visited by thousands of people and is quite popular especially at night when the kinetic displays are visually stunning.
