Baker Artist Portfolios

In the spring of 2018, with a Neighborhood Lights grant from Baltimore Office Promotion of the Arts as part of Light City,  I had the pleasure of collaborating with an incredible group of residents, community parters, artists, musicians and organizers to create two original shadow puppet plays that imagine a history of Remington and Brooklyn/Curtis Bay from the lens of de-industrialization, distinguishing what makes the neighborhoods distinct and what draws them together.

After hearing the song, "When I Was Your Age," written and performed by Baltimore-based musician Letitia VanSant, on her album, Parts and Labor, I was inspired to use it as a script to create a painted crankie,  connecting the themes of loss and climate change to my own experience  growing up along the Eastern Shore of Maryland as a young child. This piece is a personal response to the helplessness I have felt after the latest climate-based tragedies.

This backlit scrolling panarama (with shadow puppet cameos) was created to accompany the song "Dark Angels" written and recorded by my late uncle Whit Connah. Completed in 2017. The crankie box was made from a vintage suitcase for this project.

"The Holey Land: An Allegory" (2016)

Talk to your Bees is a shadow puppet crankie (see definition below). It's based on The Bee Boy Song by Peter Bellamy, about superstitions around bees and beekeeping.

All papercut artwork on the scroll is hand-cut. This piece is normally shared live and in person in a darkened room. 

*A crankie or moving panorama is a scroll of artwork in a box, often illustrating a story or song that it is performed with. The ream of paper, tyvek,  or fabric is rolled around 2 posts, which is then pulled across the front, much like film in an old camera.