Mr. Imagination's Creations!

Meet Mr. Imagination! Mr. Imagination is an American Folk Artist born in 1948 in Chicago, Illinois. He is best known for his eclectic style of folk art, combining everyday items with found or gifted items from total strangers. 

 This is me standing under Mr. Imagination's Unity Arch at the House of Blues Restaurant at Downtown Disney in Orlando, Florida. Inside the arch are a myriad of objects that the public donated for the project, including a photograph of a lost child, a space-traveled coin, brooches, name tags, earrings, dentures, and a razor!

The work became a community effort to memorialize the late Princess Diana, who was tragically killed in 1998. The Arch also serves as a memorial to loved ones lost.

 I have little booklets made of some of these close-up pictures and it's kind of like a "Where's Waldo" for my students to look at before and after they are finished with their work. His work is a more contemporary version of southern "Memory Jugs" that were created in the 1800's.

 If you have never been to the House of Blues, they have them in a few different cities (Orlando and Las Vegas I know off the top of my head). They are filled with American Folk art (loving these bottles here!) and each have their own crazy quilt and container of Mississippi mud beneath the stage!

 With my students I make "memory tiles" in the style of Mr. Imagination--- we use plaster and beads and other trinket-y delights for an eclectic treasure tile.

 My students absolutely adore these tiles, and on my collaborative blog PreK and K Sharing I go through the fun plaster process with you! So, hop on over to PreK and K Sharing to see how to make these little gems!

As usual, happy creating!