About The Artist

    I’ve been creating art my whole life. When I was very young, I would decorate my Great Grandma’s spare bedroom with paper crafts for the holidays. Whether paper chain for Christmas or paper hearts for Valentines Day, my love of the handmade was evident at an early age.

    As I grew older, my love for the holidays grew. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I had so much fun in high school decorating my Mom’s house and yard to the envy of the neighbors. I was and always have been very resourceful, utilizing items around her house. We needed a ghost. Great, where’s a sheet?

    My Grandma helped in encouraging my creativity, I have extremely found memories of helping her decorate at Christmas time. It was something we always did together. She had a beautiful artificial tree that was completely covered in tinsel. In fact, each year she would leave the tinsel on when packing it and add more tinsel when she pulled it out the following year. It was magical. And, don’t get me started on the star. I’ve never seen a star quite like the one on Grandmas tree. It was covered in glitter, 3D and had a rotating center.

    At my first job, when I was 15, I created theme days for the restaurant I worked at. The service staff would dress in costume and I would decorate the whole place. Sometimes the days would correspond with holidays, other times, they carried random themes. 1950’s day was a lot of fun.

    Around 2012, I began creating elaborate art installations for a Chicago nightlife institution for various holidays and special events. I was able to work with multiple mediums. My imagination ran wild. For one install, I created a giant papier mâché Medusa complete with handmade “stone” figures. I loved these installations and I will always consider them as the starting point of what is now Slumbering Alligator.

    Those installations launched me into creating crafts on the regular, making tutorial videos, doing holiday decor for businesses/residences and developing this website. I also was a DIY star finalist on Hallmark channels Emmy nominated television show, Home and Family. 

    The point is, baby, I was born this way. Creating is my passion. Thank you for visiting my site. I hope you enjoy yourself and find inspiration for your own home.

    Mark LaFerney