Shrubconscious made a appearance at Meow Wolf’s 12thAnnual Monster Battle on the plaza last Friday night in Santa Fe and were awarded the grand prize!
I have a filmmaking background and these two shrub wizard costumes were originally commissioned by Open Channel Content for use in “Scorched Ladders,” our 2015 entry into the Shoot Santa Fe Competition sponsored by the Film Office. That time we didn’t win. The costumes slept quietly in storage ever since. It’s turned out more rewarding to bring them out a second time than it was the first.
Our amazing collaborator on those costumes was Tatyana de Pavloff of Taos, NM. Before moving here Tatyana was brought up in the arts working for the Moscow Opera. We brought her on as art director and costume mistress on my film “Agnes Day.” I’ve been fortunate to be able to work with Tatyana on other movies as well. The shrub costumes were brilliantly designed and constructed with theatrical esthetics, comfort, and durability in mind. We owe a great deal to Tatyana for this recent win.
The dancers inside the shrub wizard costumes are my Tai chi teacher Jeff English. In the film, his character was Valorio so we still call him that (left) and his son Raptor English took on the persona of Pith. (right). Both of them were actors in the movie trailer for “Scorched Ladders”. Last Friday night they made the characters come alive. We were delighted to find a very receptive audience,
We are grateful to Meow Wolf for taking notice, but also for the many ways they help Santa Fe renew itself as a mecca for talented artists especially the younger generation. I’m not suddenly shouting their praises because they wrote me a check. Folks around here will tell you, I’ve spoken highly of them as often as their name has come up.
We’re delighted with their well earned success and with what that has done to draw a new generation of artist and art appreciators to our legendary town. We applaud Meow Wolf and Santa Fe for their enchanting way of bringing the public out to the plaza last weekend.