Puppet Pie has found a mascot.

I present to you....

PUPPET PIE!

It's a finger puppet. Part of Pie-Pact '08, however I decided that since I have so many things actually named Puppet Pie, that maybe I should keep this one. However *ahem* if you would like your own piece of puppet pie in any flavor of your choosing (most taste like felt), then just let me know & maybe I'll invest the time into making more for Etsy.

~

Also....Tonight our short film project for IFP's winter festival took home 3 awards:
1)Best Story.
*ahem* I'd like to thank Mack Duncan for our lovely brainstorming session & a lack of sleep for providing me with lines so hilarious that I shouldn't write them in a public space.
2)Best Use of Puppets
*ahem* I'd like to thank the panel of judges for making up an award specific to our show. I'd like to apologize to each film that did not get an award tailored to their piece. Specifically, I'm sorry film with the fat-suit. I really thought you should have had the best fat-suit award.
3)First Place (and a cash prize!)
*ahem* um..are you sure? You watched it, right? The one we submitted........Really? Wow. um...thank you? I think. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much.

They took our picture. On the first one I thought, "oh lame, I get my picture taken & I smile like a 3 year old..that's great." On the second I thought "I get a second shot at the photo!" By the third photo I was really just a tad dazed.

The film will be presented at the Phoenix Film Festival on April 7th.

I want to make more films.

being proactive instead of reactive

Of all of the puppets that I've made, I think this frog might be my favorite. I think one of the reasons for that is because I didn't get to keep him for very long. He was shown at a local art gallery in '06 and I wasn't expecting him to sell. I'd made him out of the leftover fabric from a dinosaur costume that I'd made for my son for Halloween that year. At least I think that's where the fabric came from....

I was telling a friend of mine how I am sad that I haven't kept a few key puppets in my building career...the frog, the Phoenix Coyotes Puppets, and a bunny or two. My friend said, "Well, why can't you just recreate the frog?" I thought of a long list of unreasonable reasons to not remake him, one reason being, "I don't have the same fleece." Then thought that I should at least try it no matter what color he is. Green is still the goal, here.

So I've embarked on a make-a-puppet-for-myself adventure. I am not going to post this one to Etsy and I'm not going to use it for any shows (that I know of). I'm taking my time, I'm starting over with things when they don't work right, and I'm allowing myself to put him down without being finished with him. Leaving him alone when he's not finished is actually the hardest part of this project. A) I want to see him done! B) there's a lingering fear that if I put him down, I might never find the time/motivation to pick him up again. So far, I've gone back to him. And, I'm really excited about the whole thing.

I give another workshop to another library for teens & tweens tomorrow..and then again on Thursday & the following Saturday & that ends my library run of workshops. By the way, if you live anywhere near Phoenix, just let me know if you want to know about the workshops in more detail...the Library is paying me to teach, so it's free to anyone ages 12-18.

There. I've updated. Are you happy?

The title was so lame, I changed it.

Now, I told myself at the beginning of this journal that I'd not write about my boring personal life. I justify telling you about both my bronchitis and pink eye (at the same time) because I'm relating it to puppetry somehow.

A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend about interrupted plans..."I'll take January off (HAH!) & hit February really hard...." So, here it is, 1 week into February. I've been sick for nearly 2 weeks. All of my plans for February have been halted. Even January's plans didn't go according to plan. I prepared two shows, gave one workshop, met Dave Goelz & saw Kermit the Frog & Rowlf the dog (& Bert & Ernie & Cantus & Gobo & Gonzo & others...) for the very first time, filmed two puppet videos, taught classes, hosted an out-of-town guest and took at least one shower. All of this despite my wanting to take a little break.

Sometimes it feels like our plans are constantly interrupted. I'm not so sure that's true though, even though it seems to happen a lot. We silly humans remember abnormalities more-so than good ole regular things. So anytime a plan goes.....as planned, then we just assume that to be a normal thing. Anytime it goes down the drain, we remember it... This is something I have to remind myself of. Hey self, remember that time when I had 1 week to make 4 puppets and I did it? That was cool. That was a complete & utter abnormality. Maybe that's why I remember it. Oh the theory works! That makes me clap.

Life events always teach you something if you let them. What have I learned? Maybe it's to be flexible in my plans. To allow my plans to change rather than to be sad that they're not fulfilled. To be accepting of the changes & alter things accordingly. And that my eyes will scream if I forget to use their special eye drops.

Puppeteers Aren't Born

I am learning how to do puppetry for film. Not so much by taking classes, but by filming, then messing up, then filming some more. I'm pretty excited about some of the shots we've gotten & pretty darn upset with myself for other shots.

The director at our theater always tells my students, "Nobody was born knowing how to do this. Everyone has had to make these mistakes and everyone has had to learn how to correct those mistakes."

Sometimes I think I was born knowing how to do all of these amazing things, and then when I do them for the first time (or the 89th time) and it's not perfect, I get frustrated because, dag nabbit I should have gotten that right the first time. I should have known, etc.

I'm making beginner's mistakes & just wish I wasn't a beginner.

Happy New Puppets!

Since I last wrote anything here, a new year has begun, a puppet show has been created, and 4 show puppets have been built. This show was a collaboration between a fellow puppeteer & myself. It was the first show that we've done together in 5 years without another puppeteer whom we regularly performed with. I wasn't sure if we could pull it off. I wasn't sure if our humor would be of the same caliber, or if I could make the amount of puppets needed without his help. I'm so very pleased with how everything turned out. There's a sad empty space where the person in our group used to be, but we've survived our first round of shows without him there. I've passed the test I put myself through. I'm proud of myself. I'm proud of the other puppeteer. We work well together.

I'm going to now go into a mom thing....I can't help but record this little moment. I'm on the laptop in my bed...the boy asleep next to me. His tiny little hand stretched out and relaxed & his fingers are so soft. I keep grabbing them & he clenches them up a bit more. They remind me of his baby hands. I love that he wants to grow up to be an artist. Even if he choses math or sports, I'll be OK. For now, I'll enjoy that he reminds me of his newborn puppy-boy ways when he sleeps.

OK, back to puppet-talk.
With all of the puppets I made this time around, I experimented more with using halves of ping pong balls, instead of whole balls. I think I'll need to be more patient with attaching the ball to the face, so there are no gaps. Filling in the empty spaces with foam is common sense at this point. I love that I'm at a point at which some aspects of puppetry are common sense to me. Not so much for things like arm-rods, or even foam body construction. And a friend did come in and save me with advice for saving a beak.



What's next for puppet building?
I'm going to take my time with some puppets. I'll neglect my Etsy shop just a little bit. I'll spend some serious time with a puppet or two in February. I thought, if this chicken is what I can do in 4 hours...then what could I do with 14 days? Of course, my immediate response is, "well, I can mess around for 12 of those days, think about making the puppet for 2 of those days, then in the last 4 hours I can whip out another one of these." But that's instinct & I'm attempting to go against my instincts.

Oh those little hands on my tummy.....

Happy Merridays!

"Mom! Wake up! The snow if falling from the ground!" This is what I was told at 7:30 this morning by my 4-year-old. Not "Mom, It's Christmas!" no "Mom, Santa brought me stuff!" not even "Hey, Look what I unwrapped for you!" My son knows what's important. His first white Christmas. It's also my first as well. My 30th Christmas & My son's 5th. The weeks leading up to Christmas he said "It always snows on Christmas in Colorado." We didn't want him to be disappointed, so we told him that, no, it doesn't always, in fact...it rarely does. So this morning, he saw it snowing from the ground & had to come tell me. It was much more important than the day that gifts are dumped upon his sweet head. We went downstairs to see the deck looking about an inch or two deep in snow and by now its about 9" deep 14 hours later. It's beautiful. I miss snow a lot. ( Toronto??)

So this week we're with just over half of the cousins. Imagine 10 children under the age of 7 running (and crawling) around the house. Of course Auntie Stacey is friggin rad because she knows all of these neat-o crafts and projects to do. So in one day we made sock puppets, paper-plate puppets, felt finger puppets & stick puppets (I feel wrong calling them rod puppets when they're made with Popsicle sticks). Yep, she's rad. I wish to meet her someday.

I realize this post has very little to do with puppetry or my journey to become a better puppeteer. Taking this break before I need to return home is, I'm sure, part of the journey. Not that the break should exactly be taken. I'll return home late on Sunday & I need 4 show puppets done by Thursday. Like I said in the previous post...baby-steps!

I remember the day when I had someone to help me build puppets. That day was nice. Someday I'll find another helper and I'll look back at this post and giggle and probably say "yeah, I'm still like that, aren't I?"

I feel like I need to end this post with some sort of "may your ___ be ___" statement. I'd sit here and think of a good one without writing in all of the stream-of-consciousness thought's involved in finding something witty to say, but then I'd probably just stare at the fish in the tank next to me in my Father-In-Law's office while they eat their Christmas flakes. And you be way less entertained because then you'd be done reading & you'd have to go back to doing what you were trying to avoid when you began reading this in the first place, so really, I'm doing both of us a favor. So let's stall just a bit more, shall we? Did you like what you got for Christmas? Did your ___ like what you got for them? What did you guys have for lunch? OK This seems one-sided & I tire of your silence.

May the last 6 days of 2007 be better than the best things that happened between January 1st and December 25th (Of 2007). Be well, and I apologize for being ridiculous.

Loving my meat

I've been really busy these past few weeks, but by far my greatest achievement happened yesterday and was the creation of raw meat.

Raw meat was more significant to me than anything else I've done recently. I think it's because I created a finger puppet that got me wanting to create more finger puppets. For so long I was creating for others. Previously I'd made something I liked, and naturally more than one person wanted a 'copy,' so I didn't have the time (or the creative juices) to create for myself anymore. Not for a long time anyway. So, I've stopped taking custom orders in my shop & now, if I don't want to recreate something, then I don't have to. Sure, I could have denied people before, but I'm one of those people who wants to accommodate everyone. If you ask for maize, by golly I'll give you maize...or squid Elvis...or bacon...or other personal-to-a-woman type puppets...

This break really came on the heels of doubting myself as an artist. I had stopped expressing what's inside of me (yes, raw meat is totally inside of me). I was creating what *had* been inside of me but was now put into a tiny felt sculpture. I hope this will also affect my hand puppets. I've lifted the pressure of deadlines & requests in some ways. Of course there area always deadlines for show puppets, but let's take baby-steps.

~

The workshop in Casa Grande went swimmingly. I had a wonderful mixture of adults and kids (ages 10+). Every time I do a workshop, I am absolutely floored by what comes out of the minds of others. I really can't wait to go back. It was lovely. Just being in that city makes me feel warm and fuzzy. The craft store closes at 3:30 on Saturdays. It's very similar to the town in which I grew up. Simply adorable. Granted, it's much larger than my hometown, but the main, downtown area is very similar.

~

First Friday's Artwalk at the Trunk Space was quiet and lovely. The rain kept most people away which, for me, is a very relaxing thing. I adore spending a few quiet hours in the company of friends, drinking an Izzie, surrounded by art & talking about...youtube videos.