This year's summer reading program theme is "Imagine Your Story" and what a story we all have to tell this year! I haven't posted in a while because things have just been crazy while my own story developed. Since I last posted in March I managed to fall down the last two or three steps at home and fracture my ankle, requiring surgery to keep the bone in place while it heals. That meant two full weeks of bed-rest and several more of not even being able to get into my studio space to work. Let me tell you, that was not fun; if I could have kicked myself for being so careless, I would have. I am still healing but thankfully, with the aide of a boot/brace I have graduated from bed-rest to scooter to crutches and now hobbling on my own two feet! There's still more work to be done but let me tell you how cathartic it was to at least be able to get back to my artwork again. Aaaahhh....
Anyway, back to summer reading... This year's theme covered fairy tales, myths and fables. For the front bulletin board I created a dragon imagining himself as a knight as he reads the story of King Arthur. Then for the display window I focused on all the different fun twists authors have taken on traditional fairy tales - known as "fractured fairy tales" (how appropriate for me!). These stories retell the well known tales in a fun and unique way, some even flipping them on their heads! To add to the houses I made to help illustrate the different books I dug through my old Disney dolls and used them to represent the different characters from the stories. Each house also represents the country of the story's origin. Can you guess them all?
For the computer areas I created, what is in my opinion, the most fun piece. I made a giant book full of famous quotes from various stories and had a vine bursting out of it and leading up into the clouds, like Jack and the beanstalk. We wrapped lights around it to give it a cool effect when finished. Above that I created a "passive program" that requires kids to correctly identify children's book characters based only on their silhouettes. Then, over by the other computers there was an unsightly pole that needed to be covered so I turned that into a signpost for some favorite books of mine. And finally, in the back I created simplified "posters" of well known fairy tales and legends. Can you guess the stories correctly?
It was definitely more of a challenge this year to hang all of this because of my ankle so I want to conclude with a big thank you to my mom, B.J., Laura and Jeanne for all helping hang, tape, staple and position everything while I just got to sit back and be picky and bossy! I couldn't have done it alone, that is for sure. My only hope is that someday soon people will actually be able to go back to the library to see all of it in person!
To see the rest of my previous displays for the summer reading program click here.