Scenic Art at Animal Kingdom

Living in Orlando, Florida affords one the opportunity to live two lives: 1) As a local, experiencing beautiful towns, wonderful public parks, museums and hidden gems; and 2) As a tourist, visiting all the theme parks and fantastic locations specifically built to help keep a guest in our city fully entertained.  Due to the second, beautiful Scenic Artistry is something to be found in abundance — and much appreciated!

Scenic Artists are those who paint backdrops, prop pieces and other elements for film and theatre sets as well as themed venues.  Normally directed by a Product Designer, Charge Scenic or a Project Manager, they are usually highly skilled and can work independently or with a team, mix colors expertly and keep to a deadline.  I find it a fascinating career and the theme parks here showcase their talented works.  The Hubs and I recently visited Animal Kingdom, which is the Walt Disney theme park that honors nature and conservation.  (In fact, the Animal Kingdom Lodge has rooms that overlook the savanna.)  Here are some pics from our wanderings at Animal Kingdom…

The park focuses much on the environments of Africa and Asia…

(Below) Even the “bamboo” holding up the pathway lights are fauxed.  Here’s a close-up.

(Below) Mt. Everest houses a fantastic roller coaster. I wanted you to see the rusted bridge by the ride.  This close-up is cool and this one’s even closer.

The park also houses many incredible creatures such as elephants, lions, zebras, giraffes, hippos, monkeys, fish, exotic birds, rhinoceros and of course, alligators (which you see everywhere here).  There are also great rides and beautiful landscapes.  One of the more incredible sights is the Tree of Life, which has all kinds of wondrous creatures carved into the “bark”.

I hope you enjoyed this look into scenic artistry and Animal Kingdom. I’ll be sure to post pics up of other locations. In case you did want to visit the theme parks, one of the best resources for information is a series of podcasts by Rick Howard, who films and pens the Travel with Rick blog.  One of my fave blogs to keep up with Orlando happenings is The Orlando Blog.  Of course, if you do decide to visit, let me know!