Archives for category: Art

I’ve heard the weather is going to pack in. Therefore I’ve spent the morning recording puppet shows. We take them outside on the deck. I like the light there in the morning. First we had to wait for the fog to lift, by the time it was gone, the entire neighbourhood was out and about and hammering away or mowing the lawns.  I always deemed our neighbourhood extremely quiet, but gee, Saturday morning every man and his dog has some business outside. The birds were chirping away as well (I love the song of the tuis) and then Mr Whippy must have done a roaring trade in ice cream, his “Greensleeves” jingle went on like forever.  I thought summer is well and truly over,  obviously not for Mr Whippyyyyyyy.

Anyway, I think I have some snippets I can work with and it will give me something to do, should it rain tomorrow. We recorded Devil and Mouse, when Devil tells Mouse that Hermit has written a book. In the timeline it sits before the other film, where Mouse tells Pirate. But I thought Pirate’s response was a lovely snappy one, so I recorded it first. The conversation between  Devil and Mouse is a little bit longer. But finally, Devil got his wish, he is now going to be in a film as well…

On my way home last night I tried to figure out who I could talk to regarding Devil’s complaint from the day before. Believe me, I know my puppets well and I know what they are going to say. Chance would say: “Go for it”. Pirate would say “Whatever brings in the most dosh”. Mouse is ruled out as everybody would know I have a problem straight away…. I don’t particularly like that.

Anyway when I arrived home, Bad Conscience was already sitting on my couch. He must have let himself in with the key hidden under the planter box. Of all the puppets, Mouse aside, he is the worst to try and discuss issues with. You go round and round in little circles and never get anywhere. Maybe his blurry eyes prevent him from seeing things clearly. Ah well, we spent an evening in silence regurgitating old issues.

Last night Devil paid me a visit. He wanted to talk to me as the spokesperson of the dede puppets. They are all very concerned. I didn’t know the dede puppets had a spokesperson. Honestly I don’t think he was voted in. But he obviously thinks he is the Patron Saint of the dede puppets, as he is the oldest. (Patron Saint… it’s a bit rich isn’t it?)

Anyway, he said they are all concerned about where the dede puppet blog is going. He reminded me I had promised to set it up for the dedes as a forum. He, Devil,  now accuses me of hijacking it for my other artwork. He actually said, “What’s so beautiful about a Giant Weta, all  the dede puppets have nicer eyes…” He quoted the one post where I said it is all about eyes at the moment.

Okay, point taken. Devil himself has gorgeous eyes… I still think (and I am not being defensive here) there should be a place for other photographs on the blog.

So, we had this long and heated discussion about whether I should be allowed to put other artwork up. In the end I had this feeling he was mainly miffed with me because the film features Pirate and Mouse. He insisted it was him who broke the news of the book to Mouse, so he should have been in the film. I promised him he will be in the next one. (We are moving towards winter and I will have more time to do this kind of stuff). I basically made this promise to get him off my back. It was past midnight when he finally disappeared.

It took more than an hour to get the smell of sulpher out of the house. This is the reason, why I normally like to catch up with Devil at the pub.

I think I will canvas the other dede puppets about what they think on the subject. I am still not sure whether he made a mountain out of a mole hill.

Here is something that looked at me from my washing, when I picked it from the line. It is the biggest insect we have in New Zealand, a Giant Weta. At the first glance, one couldn’t call it a pretty creature (needless to say, I dropped the towel, but the Weta held onto it). Looking at it in a photograph so close up, I find it absolutely amazing and it is totally harmless. It’s always worth having a second look.

Ah yes, I have to admit it… whether I want it or not… with the dede puppet project I have entered the Brave New World!

I have finally uploaded the dede puppet film onto Youtube. I thought you could just upload the film by creating an email account. For some reason it didn’t work and I ended up getting a Google+ account. I am happy with my blog, but I still don’t want to have a social network thingummy and keep track of online friends. I have enough to do with following blogs :). Call me old-fashioned, but this was the reason for me writing the Hermit’s Web book. Ah well, I think I have switched everything off that I could possibly switch off… to keep a little bit of privacy.

If you want to see the puppets in action, here is the link to dede puppets – the film.

I have also  finally updated our website zeitgeist-design.co.nz, to include Hermit’s Web.

Staying with images of eyes, with this photograph I always had my difficulties. It is a straight shot, not manipulated in any way. The image made me realise that our cat is blind, not clumsy. The vet later confirmed, there are no clumsy cats. She tricked us for a very long time. It was amazing how she still found her way around the house, though she didn’t want to go into the garden any more. It was a dangerous world for her.

Yet another image where a little creature watches.  Poor thing, she minds her own business laying her “egg” and here I come and intrude. No wonder my puppets have these scary faces. I do seem to have an obsession with eyes.

At the moment I feel like my Nosy Neighbour puppet. In this image by Sonya Roussina he looks pretty depressed. Everything seems to have come to a halt, even though I have so many things nearly finished… My dede puppet film is done, but I can’t put it up on Youtube before I have one more thing sorted on our Web page. I was so sure I will publish both this weekend, but now this weekend is gone and it still isn’t up. Ah well… Such is life. I still haven’t started on my Procrastinator puppet either.

 

 

With this post, my self-imposed seclusion is coming to an end. I am back to writing my blog as part of my daily routine. I had a very, very strong urge to remain silent for a while. I was surprised though, how much I missed writing, even though I am only doing it for a bit over two months. The artworks I have created last week are as private as my thoughts and won’t make it onto the blog.

Another one of my tree eye series.  It is called “Tears from the depth of some divine despair”. Which in turn is the second line of a beautiful poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson called Tears, idle tears. My current tears are not idle: Good bye, mum.