She can sing, too

Wonderwild is proud to present our artist-in-residence Lisa Marie Godfrey. We think the world of her and can't wait to unveil her installation.

"Drawn from conventions of anime, underground comics and the pink-and-turquoise universe of fairy princess toys, Godfrey's angst is that of an adolescent, looking backwards at childhood through the lens of grown-up anxieties. It's the glass-unicorn effect, emphasizing the purity and fragility of childish innocence." - Bill Davenport

Lisa Marie Godfrey (born August 24, 1981) is an American dreamy-folk singer and fine artist based in Houston, TX, where she was born. She studied at The Glassel School of Art in Houston, where she focused on painting, drawing and printmaking. Her works on paper are often combined with small sculptures, found objects, and direct wall painting. She likes to create site specific installations where a personal narrative is always present whether speaking through self representational characters or dreamy landscapes.

Things from the past such as vintage cabinet card photographs, children's books, letters and postcards serve as inspiration as she tries to analyze and understand the past, present, her dreams and reality. Lisa has exhibited in Houston, Austin, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Ottawa and Montreal; and is scheduled for a solo show at Domy Books, Austin, December of 2009. Besides expressing herself visually, she is a self-taught guitarist and singer who started a solo music project titled Air Castle Mystery Solved in March of 2009. Her music has been described as "A cautious relief, like a foot in a cloud..." She is planning to release her first album in November of 2009.

See more of Lisa's work at http://www.lisamariegodfrey.com/.

Cheese, please!

Cheese flavored ice cream? What about a cheesy chocolate bar? Okay, well, if we can't have that, how about a big piece of cheese that the kids can play on? Right on!! Wonderwild will have a collection of equipment designed by child development experts and product designers. When you have a combination like that, it can only result in a lot of fun that's also educational!

Like Grandma's Feather Bed But Better

Who doesn't like jumping on a bed? When was the last time YOU jumped on a bed?!

Well, your chance to do it is coming up soon. We'll be the FIRST in Texas to install this inflatable bed-buster: the Jumpoline. Sort of like a trampoline and an inflatable combined. But it's better. With a trampoline it's difficult to get more than one person jumping without throwing off all the rest. With the Jumpoline, you can have multiple people of various sizes using it quite safely.

I've seen infants who can barely crawl sit on the Jumpoline laughing and giggling while their mothers bounced them up and down. It was the cutest sight.

The above is a picture of an outdoor version. Ours will be indoors and over 28 feet long.

Needless to say, it's going to be great fun for the kids--and a great work out for parents too!

Our Dreamscape of the Playscape

Castles in the air, playscapes in the sky! Our playsystem design is now being finalized by one of the top designers in the business who now lives in the UK. It will stand at 15 feet tall, not too tall to lose the kids, but high enough for them to feel like kings and queens.

Children will have two types of slides to come down off of the playscape, and inside, they'll find lots of challenges--climbing, jumping, running, crawling.

And to top it all off, we have the city's first indoor train track, where kids use their own energy to get each car to move on the tracks! It's a great way for kids to exercise and have fun at the same time.

We showed the images to a few kids and the response was unanimous--we all couldn't wait for the system to be built!