Blaine & Holly Kern Book Signing
631 N Carrollton Ave
New Orleans, LA 70119
USA
“Mr. Mardi Gras” Blaine Kern and his wife Holly will be in the shop signing their new children’s book “A Tree in the Sea,” from River Road Press.
Blaine Kern Artists, the studio Kern founded in 1947, crafts the floats for more than a dozen of Mardi Gras’s most prominent parades, including Rex, Endymion, Muses, Bacchus, Orpheus, and Zulu. Kern pioneered such parade fare as giant prop figures, double-decker floats, multi-unit floats, splashy lighting, and animatronics. Inclusivity was another of his innovations. Now 90, he is no longer directly involved with the studio’s operation, but he keeps tabs on the company and is still the legendary figurehead.
Blaine’s wife Holly wrote “A Tree in the Sea,” while Blaine illustrated the book. Colorful, bright, and engaging, Blaine Kern’s illustrations capture the whimsy and fun of wife Holly Kern’s fanciful story about overcoming differences and the joys of friendship.
In singsong rhyming verse, Holly Kern takes readers on a dreamlike tour under the sea. There, dreamy wanderers meet a tree that is totally out of its element. Rooted to the sea floor yet surrounded by the wonders of the ocean, the tree realized how lonely life is without friends. But it is hard to make friends when we are different. And of course, in “Mr. Mardi Gras” fashion, the book ends with a parade!
Come out and meet the Kerns on Saturday, Feb. 24th from 12-2PM.