First Night Part II: Jennifer Kosharek's Burning Cake.

Work by Jennifer Kosharek

This was the 20th Anniversary for First Night. It is a sound idea, egalitarian and populist in nature that has stood the test of time. Twenty years. To celebrate this, the City chose artist and gallerist Jennifer Kosharek to make an installation in the form of a cake with the help of Duncan McClellan Glass School Project, one of their carpenters and Jorge Vidal.

The end result was a cake nine feet tall, with three tiers and candles on top. People wrote about their year or wishes for 2013 on bits of rag which they affixed around the upper edges of the tiers.






Here are some close-ups of the cake to show the motifs and figures Jennifer painted on  the outer covering of the cake...on the upper edge the rags people wrote on are visible.

This installation proved immensely popular during the evening. A steady procession of smiling people of all ages wrote their notes, played, danced, kissed, and posed around it. All the time Jennifer and her friend and assistant, jewelry maker Amy Marshall, who owns Strands of Sunshine Jewelry on #4, 6th st. N. St. Pete kept people supplied with pens and rags to write on.

Even newlyweds showed up to pose with the cake (later with friends at the cake), then write their hopes just like everyone else did.

                         

                                     Above is a close-up of the notes people left on the cake.


                       

                        Then the time came, the area was cleared out, and we had ignition.

People cheered wildly and looked on in anticipation of their wishes and dreams and how they will unfold in the New Year.

Jorge Vidal and Jennifer Kosharek.

Jennifer Kosharek*

The Burning Cake Installation was a success by any measure. Congratulations to Jennifer Kosharek, Jorge Vidal, Duncan McClellan Glass School Project and First Night for a great interactive installation.

Eve N Odd Gallery is in the Crislip Arcade on the 600 block

* No, that is not a gang hand gesture. It is Jennifer's signal to her three kids that she was thinking of them.

Work by Jennifer Kosharek

This was the 20th Anniversary for First Night. It is a sound idea, egalitarian and populist in nature that has stood the test of time. Twenty years. To celebrate this, the City chose artist and gallerist Jennifer Kosharek to make an installation in the form of a cake with the help of Duncan McClellan Glass School Project, one of their carpenters and Jorge Vidal.

The end result was a cake nine feet tall, with three tiers and candles on top. People wrote about their year or wishes for 2013 on bits of rag which they affixed around the upper edges of the tiers.






Here are some close-ups of the cake to show the motifs and figures Jennifer painted on  the outer covering of the cake...on the upper edge the rags people wrote on are visible.

This installation proved immensely popular during the evening. A steady procession of smiling people of all ages wrote their notes, played, danced, kissed, and posed around it. All the time Jennifer and her friend and assistant, jewelry maker Amy Marshall, who owns Strands of Sunshine Jewelry on #4, 6th st. N. St. Pete kept people supplied with pens and rags to write on.

Even newlyweds showed up to pose with the cake (later with friends at the cake), then write their hopes just like everyone else did.

                         

                                     Above is a close-up of the notes people left on the cake.


                       

                        Then the time came, the area was cleared out, and we had ignition.

People cheered wildly and looked on in anticipation of their wishes and dreams and how they will unfold in the New Year.

Jorge Vidal and Jennifer Kosharek.

Jennifer Kosharek*

The Burning Cake Installation was a success by any measure. Congratulations to Jennifer Kosharek, Jorge Vidal, Duncan McClellan Glass School Project and First Night for a great interactive installation.

Eve N Odd Gallery is in the Crislip Arcade on the 600 block

* No, that is not a gang hand gesture. It is Jennifer's signal to her three kids that she was thinking of them.