Whimzik: 2013

We are thrilled to tell you about our upcoming project. This summer 2013 we will be traveling to Gothenburg, Sweden to work with our friend Hanna Wiskari and her friend Nis Backvall. Nis is talented baritone saxphone player and storyteller. Hanna is an amazing soprano saxophone player. Check out her website to listen to her music.
http://www.hannawiskari.se/aboute.htm

Hanna Wiskari

Nis Backvall

The working title for our project is "Take a Second Look". For this project we will be developing a mask and music performance exploring traditional music and folk stories. The stories we have decided to focus on are those of the trickster tales or shapeshifter. The Trickster character in folk tales are described as creator, teacher and keepers of magic.* Below are images of the masks I have made for this project so far. (*Animal Speak, Ted Andrews pg 260)

The first is based on the Coyote stories. Coyote for the Plains Indians was the trickster a character that is found in their folk tales. My focus when making this series was creating masks that had two or more characters in one mask.

Front view Coyote

Figure in Coyote

Coyote

We met Hanna in New Zealand at a folk festival in 2005 and through the years have kept in touch. Each of us have had children and enjoy watching them grow up and are inspired by their constant discovery and wonder. As parents we wanted to bring folk music and art to children in a creative way. Hanna has shared with me a few Scandinavian folk tales and the following two masks developed from those. The first was a story of the belief that a Dragon lived in the water and circled the earth.

Dragon

Princess

The next mask is the Näcken a character that in Scandinavian folk was found near forest lakes. It sometimes appeared in human form or as a horse and has some relation to mermaid stories. Hanna knows there have been numerous folk songs written about this character.

Human Figure

Blue Horse

Fish

We hope to record the performances that we do in Sweden and we have quite a few gigs already lined up. Our first gig https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=616064778403922&set=oa.517005315026109&type=1&theater

Our last gig is one of the big folk festivals in Gothenburg check out our write up on the event website http://www.korrofestivalen.se/barnens-egen-korrofestival/

If you would like to help out with this project here are some ways you could help. You could buy one of our brand new DVDs "Between Shifts" for $20.