At Luminara II, I made a small box lantern from recycled AOL CDs. After the next festival where bigger CD lanterns got too heavy to carry all night, I asked if I could stay in one place and be an Installation Artist. I'm high concept, low execution, which means lots of packing tape, glue gun and many many CDs. The 250+ Lotus Lanterns” use nearly 2500 CDs and once those are refurbished, I get to play with other combinations and shapes...   I love that our amazing park gets completely reconfigured and returned to normal in one day with a magical evening (even in the rain years!) in between.  Most of us do this for the great camaraderie and the joy of being a part of the magic, but my crew and I are always amazed to feel like the cool kids in the class as people <<ooh>> and <<ahh>> over our part of the park...

by Walter Quan