A gaggle of Pokemon and other fantastic beasts are on display at the Okotoks Municipal Centre this holiday season.

The creatures are part of a new mural celebrating Christmas and geek culture.

A Geeky 12 Days of Christmas was designed by Robin Thibodeau and a group of local youth artists.

Thibodeau says the youth really responded to combining Christmas with mythical and popular geeky creatures.

"It seems to be a popular thing right now with kids," she said. "It's okay to be a geek, it's almost cool."

While many equate Christmas with traditional music or decorations, this group wanted to try something different with their artistic creation. 

"Traditional is not really what they like to do anymore. To draw eight swans? They weren't really interested in that," Thibodeau said with a laugh. "So I said, 'what about Pokemon? What about Lord of the Rings? What about Harry Potter?'"

The group has been working on the mural each Friday in November, and the plan is to finish up this week ahead of Light Up Okotoks.

While there is lots of work to do, Thibodeau encourages members of the public to come out and see them work.

 "Anybody can come and check it out!" she said. "I had some people on my Instagram say, 'oh I wanted to drop by, but didn't want to interrupt.' But kids love the attention, so please drop by! They won't tell you they love the attention, but they really do like it."

The group will be working on the mural from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. on Friday evening.

Thibodeau offers youth art lessons through her studio the Inspiration Studio Academy of Fine Art. 

 

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