Artist Statement:

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Over a half a million people have participated and attended our events in the fifteen years we've been creating parades. Clearly, there is a need for collective joy. My artistic mission is to create these open participatory platforms for collective creative play in our public spaces. Parades are where a community sees itself at its best. Lantern parades are where a community sees itself as playful volumes of light, moving to the same rhythm, through a shared space. I believe this experience and the memory of it has a lasting positive impact on how people feel about their community and who they share it with. When we lay down joyful shared memories together in a place, it is a blessing on that place. In place as a tradition, participatory parades are a community wellness program. Collective joy revives our souls.

 

I create large scale lantern puppets because I believe in the experiential value of real encounters with fantastical creatures. When we encounter and interact with art beyond our imagination in a familiar space, it expands our capacity to imagine what is possible here. I hope this work serves as a ritual reminder that we have the collective agency to regularly create wondrous experiences for ourselves and our community. As traditions, participatory creative celebrations reinforce our belief in the extraordinary nature of our collective character and the place we call home.

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Creating parade art together

with our hands

for the purpose of delighting perfect strangers

with whom we have a date

to dance and laugh together beneath the sky

is a vital virtue of human kind.

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We are always interested in creating new parades specific to people and place.

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