Proof of Trolls
Artist: Cory Gilstrap of Imagined Creations
Year: 2021
Materials: Polyethylene sheet foam, fabric, and dye colorant
As a fabricator of sheet-foam sculptures, shape and form play a huge role in perpetrating an image the audience will recognize. In this installation, I hoped to create an ancient artifact suggesting the existence of Trolls. Lore tells of trolls surfacing from dark dwellings during the nighttime hours only to retreat back into the darkness at sunrise. Should a troll be caught by the sun’s rays at dawn, they would be turned to stone for all of eternity.
Wonderland
Artist: Kamla Paints and Georges Elliott
Year: 2019 – 2021
Materials: Acrylic on muslin
About Artists
Cory Gilstrap
Colorado native, Cory Gilstrap, has made puppets for as long as he can remember and is the Design and Production Coordinator for “Imagined Creations,” an anything is possible Fabrication outfit. Cory also heads up the stagecraft & design department at Denver School of the Arts. More than twenty years ago, Cory’s love of the art of puppetry lead him to Hollywood where his talent, enthusiasm and passion for puppets afforded him the opportunity to work with some of television’s finest. Since that time, Cory’s work has been spotlighted in commercials and on such nationally syndicated shows as MTV’s Liquid Television and CBS’s Saturday morning line-up. In addition to designing creations for Film and Television, Cory has become the premier puppeteer and puppet designer for Denver, Colorado’s theatrical community. His work has been showcased in productions by such distinguished organizations as: The Denver Center Theatre Company, The Arvada Center, The Denver Children’s Theater, The Backstage Theater, Aurora Fox Theater, Walden Family Playhouse, Curious Theater Company and many more.
Kamla Presswalla
After graduating from The University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in Fine Arts, Kamla has been working as a scenic on films and in theater, and as a muralist and decorative painter (both commercial and residential) since 1998. Kamla prides herself on her ability to paint almost anything for you the client. From furniture and cabinetry, signs, murals, film and theater sets, soft sculpture, puppets, nurseries, Kamla looks forward to creating the look you desire.
Georges Elliott
Born in 1992, Georges Eliott Loewenguth is a Denverite, where he still resides and works as an emerging artist. Georges is completing his BFA at Metropolitan State University with an emphasis in painting. He has showcased his work in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Denver. Georges recently finished his Thesis for his bachelors and is currently assembling a portfolio for graduate school applications. Georges participated in MOA’s Design and Build program in 2015. Since, he has shown work and led painting workshops at the Veterans Gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District. His expertise lies in oil, acrylic, and watercolor, which he combines to create multimedia works. These works are inspired by his own life experiences and perceptions through family and travel. He explores preconceptions of different ideals that people possess including the outlook on foreign cultures, political agendas, and even as personal as in-depth emotion.
Georges doesn’t paint or create art for the masses but for himself, allowing his most inner thoughts to be brought up onto the substrate while also trying to maintain a visual aesthetic that a viewer can enjoy. Georges’ artistic style walks the line between realism and surrealism, combining different elements of each to make the viewer believe what they see while also knowing that the environment is not real. His work typically includes figures because of his heavy influence from the renaissance and early Greco-Roman sculpture. Georges focuses on piecing together various narratives that speak to his personal experiences while keeping an aura of ambiguity, allowing the viewer to connect and make their own interpretations on the work
