Alexandria Drouin
Step Right Up
The carnival has come to town, passing through the city arriving in the Greenlands. Bunnies have gathered for antique magic, discovering oddities, falling in love, adoring sweet preservation of glimmering golden carousels and dry Spanish mosses; warm and delicate there as it has always been. Know your hearts parade, purchase your tickets at the nearest booth!
Artist/Thesis Statement
I first created my bunnies as colorful construction paper illusions for a children’s book I hoped to publish. All the bunnies and their surroundings reflected an escape I went to. When I turned them into screen prints I grew even closer to my rabbits and their voices became clearer to me as time passed. The designs I inked marked me as an old soul, old love, old emotions. I printed a series of rabbits walking the circus rope, the largest having an umbrella and I felt the need to put myself there. There would be so many beautiful things, I'd make it endless, vibrant and use every second to expand my happy place, where mystery and romance can be preserved and life is always as beautiful as its cotton candy night.
I center my piece around the circus, a design which thrives in its dreamlike nirvana. I've created this circus as my escape, I live there. I try to get across the feeling of antiques, how beautiful they are to me, with their stained greens and eggshell whites. I see the cobalt of preserved spaces and the joy of their washed -out cream colors; My stepdad and I worked with patina toys, visited times forgotten, in search of small porcelain dolls and marbles by the river. The circus and the carnival I adore very much. Painting the attractions is like wiping off the dust so it can shine as it did in its yesterday. I survive in the yesterday.
Alexander Calder is an artist I admire for his childish heart and attention to detail because he loved it so, crafting the animals as if they were alive. I am fascinated by the love and poetry behind tiny hand painted, handcrafted figurines made with tired hands, and without counting. Toys from WWI and WWII are irreplaceable and their stories cannot be replicated. We shared the iron because iron was flourishing, and we made. We sat there silently and just made.
I’ve created my circus from cardboard, paper, wire and paint. It takes me many hours to cut the pieces so they can fit together like a puzzle. Bunnies fill the circus with white simple white bodies and simple eyes, I adore the obstacle of time. Soon I will have this circus running to be seen and heard by all. Just imagine you could “STEP RIGHT UP.” Hurry, Hurry!
