MM Challenge 8 * Pop Culture

This is our eighth Mosaic Moments Design Team challenge. We were called to draw inspiration from the pop culture of the year/decade we were born. I briefly puzzled over our pop culture of the year/decade in which we were born topic since I came on the scene close to the last quarter of the decade. I’m a tail-end baby boomer who was a child of the 50s, a teen of the 60s, a collegian in the late 60s and early 70s, a veteran at the tail end of the Vietnam not-a-war, a bicentennial bride, and the list goes on. So I said to myself, “Self, what fits here?” Self responded, “Duh, think!” So I thought until this idea  hit me like a ton of bricks in a snowstorm.

Among my many creative outlets, I write audio plays that we perform in the prison environment. I turned to audio theatre around 2004 out of desperation for inexpensive dramatic programs that required little time and less money to develop. I found the National Audio Theatre Festivals and actively participated in their annual conventions. In 2008 or 2009, one of my ½-hour scripts was selected for production. These photos are of that event in that year. What better inspiration from the 1940s is there than continuing the “old time radio” tradition today?

I explained the inspiration in my journaling: “I was born in 1949; the end of the decade. These were the years that captured the nation’s imagination through radio drama only to be replaced by television during the 50s. This is when radio plays segued into television shows until the art form almost died, except for the efforts of a few diehards. Fast forward to 2013 and the development audio theatre as it is known today. During my life-journey, I managed to merge my passion for story into audio plays that we perform in prisons and in local churches. My journey led me to join the National Audio Theatre Festival where one of my 1/2 hour audio plays titled “Where Eagles Fly” was captured on the air in 2009 at their annual convention in West Plains, Missouri. Many faculty and staff members are professional engineers, vocal artists, musicians and college professors. Participating in this event which breathes life into the story through sound effects, music and vocal acting into a cohesive story was pure joy.”

I used black grid paper for my background and a downloaded alphabet for my titling. I also had one sheet of scrapbook paper that featured icons of the decade. I used that as a unifying element. On Sunday, April 21, I returned from a wholesalers convention which was located 22 miles southwest of Boston. While there, I attended a Graphic 45 calendar class. Some of the stickers from the collection we used fit in nicely and added some vintage elements to my layout.

I also used a Mosiac Moments circle frame to accent the musical aspect of audio theatre.  I topped it what a Graphic 45 “Place in Time” tab for additional accent.

This is a fun project that almost put itself together without me. I had a lot of fun revisiting these memories.