From being a mime to creating art, Shields’ work displayed at Craft Festival
Robert Shields, half of the popular '70s mime duo of Shields & Yarnell, will be among 150 craftsmen and artists from across the country exhibiting and selling their works during The Craft Festival this weekend at Cashman Center, 850 Las Vegas Blvd. North.
The show, which is presented twice each year by Steve Powers, will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. General admission is $6; $5 for people age 65 and older; and $2 for children ages 12-17.
The Craft Festival does not permit mass-produced, imported or commercial items. All work featured, which includes jewelry, pottery, leather, woodwork, fiber, glass, sculpture and fine art, is created by the artist that mans the booth.
The festival also features a wide variety of food and live entertainment.
Shields has been producing art for approximately two decades. He was discovered by Marcel Marceau while performing as a street mime at the Hollywood Wax Museum. Marceau offered the performer a full scholarship to his school of mime in Paris. Shields later returned to California where he worked in San Francisco's Union Square. He met and married Lorene Yarnell in 1972 and the two performed in 1977 and 1978 on their own CBS comedy/variety show. The couple appeared on more than 400 national television shows and their TV special "Toys on the Town" earned an Emmy.
Shields and Yarnell divorced in 1986 and Shields opened a jewelry and art business in Sedona, Ariz.
