5 Yrs. old: Wonderment

Here's the cake that Lena, Berkeley and I made for the Tacoma Art Museum's Building Birthday Bash. It was constructed of packing tape, recycled plastic, ephemera, found objects, telephone wire, blister packaging from the Dollar Store, old Christmas tree garlands and some hot glue. Oh, and marbles. I've probably forgotten something. One of the found phrases on the bottom layer is "5 Yrs. old: Wonderment" so we chose that as the title of the piece.
Click for larger views and lots of detail. See the other cakes in the slide show to the right.

The bottom layer is cut out words and phrases about art and seeing, mostly from magazines and museum programs. The middle is paper dolls dancing around the art in the museum. Look close and you'll see art by Chuck Close, Renoir and Dale Chihuly - all currently on exhibit at TAM - inside the circle of dancers. The top layer shows the wonderful building itself and its place in Tacoma and the region, set into 12 blister pack windows. (Thank you , Lena!) The candles are paint brushes and the little telephone wire dog is a miniature Leroy, the giant cardboard dog sculpture that lives in the lobby of the museum. (Thank you, Berkeley!)

We had already decided to use the cutout dancers when we realized that the slogan for the museum is "Connecting People Through Art." How about that!