Mardi Gras is one of New Orleans oldest traditions and today we got to take a sneak peek into what it takes to bring it all to life. What has now grown into Kern Studios started with Roy Kern, a local artist-turned-sign-painter who worked his way through the Depression by painting names and signs on the bows of freighters and barges. His first float in 1932, was mule drawn and built on the back of a garbage wagon. Now their artistic process utilizes a seven-axis Kuka robot, nicknamed “Pixie,” programmed with 3D modeling software! We watched a short film and were served a delicious slice of king cake before exploring the huge working warehouse. It was super neat to walk among the towering creations, so much creativity and skill! It’s really too bad that we won’t be here in Feb/March for the big day. We took entirely too many photos as you’ll see… and this isn’t even all of them!
More info here.
