Nativity Pictures 1 of 3

I know that some of those who frequent this blog aren't religious, but after all the work and time that went into this display... I think everyone can appreciate the scope of what is displayed and they're very artistic. So, forgive me a few posts as I embrace my spiritual AND artistic side.

This one looked a bit on the violent side. That machete is awfully close to the poor baby Jesus... but maybe that's just me....

Here you can see the "mural" I sketched and helped cut in the background. I did nearly 100 feet of mural which we cut and put Christmas lights behind. The tall "white stone" nativity in the foreground was given to me by my Mother-in-law just so we could have nativities to loan for this event.

Some of these nativities were photographed for certain people... my Mother-in-law collects crystals... and crystal snowman nativity... score!!!

I liked these patchwork quilted nativities... there were quite a few of these.

Another crystal one of the Holy Family.

Lots of glass and crystal nativities. You can see other tables in the background. There were over 500 nativities on display.

My Father-in-law works with wood, so you'll see a lot of wooden nativities also.

I liked quite a few of these... the angel one up top looked different from most others displayed.

I like the aged copper one up front.

This was Danish and I liked the bright colors.

Nativities 2 of 3

I love the rough metal look of these. This is one of the nativities there that I wished had come with a provenance and a hint on where to buy it. Seriously... it's just cool for a nativity.

This was my absolute favorite because for some reason it reminded me of the Sleeping Beauty cartoons with how willowy and tall they were. It looks so fairytale.

The igloo one to the side has baby Jesus on a sled. Each year they have a scavenger hunt for the kids to do where they look for certain nativities. The sled one was on the hunt.

I like the deep red/green one in the center, but look at all the stilty-legged animals in the one behind. I liked how whimsical the animals were in that one with their skinny legs.

This one I grabbed because it was different. There are very few duplicates at the event, believe it or not. It's pretty amazing actually.

I liked the simplicity of some of the nativities. I had to weed through 100 pictures to get it down to what I'm posting and it was hard. There were some really interesting ones.

This would be one of the interesting ones. Aren't those animals just cool? I seem to remember this one was all made from gourds, but I could be wrong on that.

This one is from Hawaii and in a coconut shell... and it looks all balmy. (I like the word balmy, by the way... balmy... balmy... balmy.)

Here were a few more of the more ethnic-styled ones. I like the Peruvian one up front.

In the back, you can see my mural again. There is also a nativity with a teepee which I believe is a Cherokee one... but I could be wrong on that.

Nativity Pictures 3 of 3

Some of the Nativities were simple like this one made of popsicle sticks... and then some were as impossibly complicated as the one in the bottle.

What Nativity display would be complete without baby Jesus in a five gallon hat? I think this one may have taken artistic license. (Maybe... just sayin.)

I don't know what it was that I liked about these puffy-faced figures but I thought they were cool.

The one under the glass in the shape of a tree... was awesome though it didn't photograph well.

I love the windmill ones. There were a ton. In the back you can see a tree with quite a few ornament nativities on it.

More wooden ones for my father-in-law.

This one was made with starched fabric... and I thought that was rather inventive.

I thought how tall these figures were was... interesting. Once again... it felt somewhat fairytale... apparently I see tall people as belonging in fairytales.

More wood... this time they used the grain and color of the wood more effectively.

This is mine. It's made of cement. I like that it's made from cement.

I tried not to duplicate those that I photographed last year... so if you're curious about last year's... this tag is the same that I used last year and you can go check it out. There were a ton that I recognized from last year... the origami ones and the ones made from newspaper for example.

Anyway... I showed restraint, believe it or not... I have a ton more pictures. I hope you liked these and have a Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday season.

Inspired by the Season Two

Here are some of the pictures that didn't make the first group because I didn't want to overwhelm everyone if they didn't find nativities as interesting as I do.

These are handmade:

The ones in the foreground are from Africa and the picture doesn't really do them justice.

Here is another panoramic shot of it:

Snowmen nativities don't photograph well--for the record. They're too white.

Joy to the world:

The foreground one is made of copper and much cooler than it appears.

Here is a closer shot of the silhouettes I did.

A nativity in a seed pod.

A bunch of the glass nativities:

In front is an edible nativity--but I don't see that as a thing you generally want to eat. Maybe that's just me, though.

Inspired by the Season

I'm not sure whether I've stated this, but I'm LDS aka Mormon. It's rare that I'll bring up a religious topic, but I mentioned my involvement with the recent nativity display. Our church set up hundreds of nativities in a room the size of a full basketball court. I did the silhouettes of the city you'll see in the background of some of these pictures. It worked out to be just a little over 100 ft of silhouettes sketched. I also helped set up seating areas and a section dedicated to pictures. Anyway, the nativities are amazing. There is a huge range of what is present, and it's all on loan from various people. It's a free event that draws in groups from all over--whether they're members of our church or not. Here are some of my favorite nativities.

Here is just an idea of how big it is--this is just a section of it--perhaps one-fifth of the entire display is visible:

I liked this one made from a log.

Here you can see the silhouettes I did:

The sign states this is from the 1930s:

This is made using nails:

This is my favorite:

The nativity in the foreground is made entirely of newspaper:

This nativity is made of husks, nuts, cobs, and other natural elements.

Penguins--gotta love penguins.

This is made of stone and from Ireland. This was probably my second favorite.

There were several made from olive trees. The husband and the husband's father are big fans of wood nativities.

I liked this glass one:

This was a wonderful experience. From a spiritual and artistic standpoint--it's unparalleled. If you ever get the chance to attend such an event, I recommend you move heaven and earth to be there. It's amazing. Anyway, it's meant long hours the last two years for me since they found out that I'm an artist that can free-hand and paint. (Last year, I did a stable for a live nativity--with painted animals on the back.) When it's all said and done, the hours are worth it. It's just for two days. In fact, it was completely gone today for church. There are few things that take that many hours that are worth two days worth of use. This is one of those things.

I hope everyone is having a good Sunday. I'll be back to writing-centric posts tomorrow.