EVENT PREVIEW
Bombshells artful egg hunt
3 p.m. Saturday. Free. Brownwood Park, 602 Brownwood Ave. S.E. in East Atlanta. For information or to check about any weather-related delays or cancellations, go to www.facebook.com/revelforces.
A special Easter egg hunt Saturday is expected to draw more than 100 adults scouring a public park for one-of-a-kind, hand-painted wooden eggs.
While Brownwood Park on Brownwood Avenue S.E. in East Atlanta will be dotted with plastic eggs filled with candy, the coveted find at this egg hunt at 3 p.m. Saturday will be 40 custom-made eggs decorated by artists in Georgia and beyond. Each artist who participated in the event was given a 2 1/2-inch-tall birch wooden egg — and a green light to let their imagination go wild.
The decorated eggs cover a wide range of designs including a moneycat, a Sister Louisa egg and one of the Mexican-American singer Selena, based on her 1994 album cover.
Vanessa Toro and Kathleen McNeill, co-founders of Revel Forces, a company that is dedicated to event planning and community-building events, organized the first Bombshells artful egg hunt last year, which featured 24 custom-designed eggs.
“Everyone is told: do what you want without compromising the shape of the egg. There is just such a wide interpretation, it’s incredible,” said Toro, of Atlanta.
Toro didn’t grow up going to Easter egg hunts or boiling and decorating real eggs, but she loves the small size of an egg and the unique canvas it provides.
“I love things in miniature,” she said. “It’s a perfect vehicle for letting people unleash in a tiny space. I love the artistry.”
Toro also sees this free springtime event as a way to weave together art and public green spaces.
“The spirit of the event is to reawaken the childlike in adults and have them interact with the city we love. Seeing adults and children equally vie for these little works of art is amazing,” Toro said. “From the artists who volunteer to the citizens who eagerly hunt, it’s a wonderful display of the power of community, art and play.”
As far as the name of the event (Bombshells), Toro said she and McNeill did a play on words.
“Bomb, in urban vernacular, is an adjective, like ‘cool’ or ‘awesome,’” she said. “And bombs obviously also have military connotations — Revel Forces likes to take words associated with tactical strikes and missions and associate it with happy things instead.”
You can catch a glimpse of the eggs on Instagram with the #bombshellsatl hashtag.
This year’s event has an additional twist: wearing your Easter best. Organizers are hoping for a crowd of big hats, white gloves and fancy suits.
