Papio Kinetic Sculpture Parade

May 8, 2018





Morgan and Marky



Adele with Billy Connolly

Papio Kinetic Sculpture Parade

The Keys are known for some wacky things and for having a good time and no event in recent years has encapsulated those things quite as well as the Papio Kinetic Sculpture Parade, which is now in its third year and is put on by the folks at the Key West Art and Historical Society with the help of the creative team over at Wonderdog Productions.



Lea







The parade is the culmination of a weekend full of events inspired by the late Keys Folk artist Stanley Papio, who moved to Key Largo in 1949 at the age of 34. The island was at that time mostly uninhabited and “Barefoot Stanley” established a small welding business there. Over time his welding was mostly confined to the creation of crazy metal sculptures created from all manner of recycled metals.







Ryan

Layla

Papio encouraged people to leave old cars, washing machines, bed springs, and any other metal appliance on his property, which he transformed into his artwork.  Encroaching developers, condominiums and neighbors were opposed to his junk collection; Papio was there first, why should he alter his property?  After all, he was there first.  Papio fought back, he went to jail six times for zoning violations.  This garnered much attention in the media, and soon he encouraged visitors to the Florida Keys to stop at ‘Stanley’s Art Museum’  at MM101 to view the satirical metal sculptures depicting his neighbors, naysayers and people he considered to be ‘environmental rapists’ – admission was 25¢.



Cayman







Morgan

Now his art is widely collected and on display at many museums including throughout the Keys. Even Kathy’s parents have a few pieces of his art they collected over the years of stopping by and visiting Papio. Now he is the inspiration for the annual Kinetic Sculpture Parade that features human-powered creations created from mostly recycled and unwanted materials.

Nathan

Cayman and Esme

Chuck

Steve

Jen and Martina

Some of Key West’s most preeminent artists participate as do many of the local schools, where classrooms are encouraged to create their own artistic moving creations. The parade begins at the Custom’s House museum and goes down Duval Street to Southard where this year it turned toward the new Key West Amphitheatre for an afterparty and concert featuring the band Poi Dog Pondering.





Liz

Dolly



There is also an awards ceremony for those participating but for my money, I think they are all winners. The parade is quickly approaching the Fantasy Fest parade in terms of creativity as there are some truly spectacular entries every year, and while nowhere near as massive as Fantasy Fest, the popularity of the parade is growing each year.

Beth and Pony





Dayna and Suzanne

Randy and Nancy

So many of our friends participate each year and we feel so fortunate to live in such a wonderfully creative community. While I loved all of the entries, there are three friends that I want to recognize for their outstanding efforts. The first is the glorious Steve King, who probably best represents the spirit of Stanley Papio as anyone I know. After helping with and participating with Steve and our friend Rick on Fantasy Fest floats for 15 years, I am well versed in his creative genius. This year he once again created one of the most spectacular entries.

Steve

Steve with actor Billy Connolly





Another friend David Hutchinson once again showed his amazing creativity by creating a beautiful Dragon that was another of the more incredible entries. The eyes of the dragon, which were handmade by Hutch deserve special recognition, it was truly a wonderful piece of movable art.







Elizabeth

Finally the incredible Suzanne Brown who transformed herself in to yet another iconic figure the late Shel Silverstein with her float based on the giving tree. Having known Shel when he was alive and living on William Street, I can attest the resemblance was great. Shel used to stop in to the Reef Relief office to flirt with one of our staff members when I worked there years ago, he would spend literally hours there spinning funny stories. I miss him a great deal, but his stories and songs live on and he was captured wonderfully by Suzanne and her float.

Shel

Shel?

It was a truly wonderful experience, one that will remain with me, until at least next year when the event comes around again. Thanks and congrats to all involved in creating what is fast becoming one of my favorite events.

Virginia wins!