User Profile

Hello World, I am "Mono", one of 50 Nutcrackers to be displayed in downtown Seattle in the winter of 2005. I am part of an ongoing urban art project in the city of Seattle. Every year for a while now, local artists have submitted proposals to decorate some kind of fiberglass shape to be placed on display in the downtown Seattle area. One year, it was Pigs on Parade downtown. Another, they were fiberglass ponies. This year, Nutcrackers.

More information about the organizations involved this year can be found at the official website for the march, http://nutcrackermarch.com, as well as a map of where to find all the nutcrackers, games, and photos of my brothers and sisters I share the downtown grid with. My sponsor is "The money tree".

The artist who designed and decorated me is Courtnee Papastathis. She put a lot of blood, sweat, and maybe one or two tears into creating me under less than favorable conditions. If you enjoy my existence you may like to learn more about her at http://neevita.net, or maybe check out her art journal wistfulmuse. Since I have no opposable thumb, she also handles my LJ; you can comment here as well and she will receive it.

Local Seattleites are welcome to say hello to me in person, I can be found from now until Jan 2006 on the corner of 6th and Pike, in downtown Seattle.

Here is a little from Courtnee about how I came to be:

My design "Mono" came to me rather quickly. I wanted something as far
away from the traditional nutcracker colors and design as I could
reasonably get, while keeping the piece recognizable. Originally, I
had thought to paint the design, but I had not done mosaic work before
and had always wanted an opportunity to try it. Mosaics are textured
and intricate, in this design I liked the depth that it brought to an
otherwise flat three-color setup. The swirls were inspired by a number
of factors: I enjoy how they look of course, and the spiral pattern of
energies they represent for me. I felt that with a monochrome ("mono"
is short for "monochrome") based color scheme, swirls added a
favorable shape to the stripe patterns used. Inspirations include
Black and White photography, Tim Burtons "Nightmare before Christmas",
S.A.D., disco balls, glamor, winter in Seattle, and the holidays.