Award-winning puppeteer Sarah Frechette is touring with her show The Snowflake Man. Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley, a farmer and self-taught scientist, became the first person to capture a single snowflake on film. Frechette’s grandfather purchased three snowflake photos from Snowflake Bentley. Her grandfather’s pride in the photos inspired her idea for the show “and at the heart of it is a love letter from me to my late grandfather.” She will perform The Snowflake Man at the Santa Monica Museum of Art on January 25, 2014, and provide workshops on how to create paper puppets and table-top scenery. Alas, there is absolutely no chance it will snow in Santa Monica.
Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley’s favoriite theme also informs SMMoA’s exhibition, Yutake Sone and Benjamin Weissman: What Every Snowflake Knows in Its Heart. The two artists, Sone and Weissman, have crafted a shared mythology based on their mutual passion for snow and all that comes with it–skiing, forests, mountains, and mischief. They’ve built an animatronic ski mountain complete with roving chair lifts. Yes, they’ve managed to build a mountain in the Museum.
Yutake Sone and Benjamin Weissman, Untitled, 2007-2009, Acrylic on paper, 38”x75”, photo: SMMoA