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The loneliness of a busker

April 1, 2014 //
2

fundraising

Today I am quite down. I slept very poorly after yesterday. The interview didn’t go as I expected and I have the feeling I didn’t handle my latest project very well. Now that it is finished and I have had a bit of a breather, I realise that I was once again steaming ahead on a totally different track from all the others involved. Ah well, I guess that is the reason why I will stay a poor artist forever. In the meantime I have placed my busking penguin permanently in the corner of our staircase, hoping he will collect some change. Surprisingly he has… all those loose coins are from when we do the washing. Of course the corner of our steps is not a very public place so there is not much traffic for donations. Wrong decision again! Maybe I should place him at the garden gate, next to the letter box. But then, we live in suburbia… I don’t think it will make much of a difference.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Life, Social Network

Things are heating up

March 31, 2014 //
4

happy man

Life is pretty frantic at the moment. On Thursday the sponge puppet film will be released. Finally I am all set, the poster is printed… But you know how it is, in the end there are always a million things to attend to.  This afternoon, a reporter comes round to interview me about the story… On a different note, the photographer of Artstation must have been really taken by Court Jester, as he immediately posted a picture on their facebook page . Obviously Court Jester did a good job, he made the puppeteer laugh really hard.

In the meantime, I continue stabbing wool tuffs to turn them into little sculptures. This one here is called Keith, as a tribute Keith Haring.  If he had felted, I am pretty sure his figures would have looked somewhat like this.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Hand Puppets, Life, Social Network

Feel good film

March 25, 2014 //
0

Last Saturday we had another Dede Workshop where we created an impromptu film. Impromputu in the sense that the people who attended had to come up with a story. The only hint they have are the puppets I select prior to the participants arriving. No Devil this time! He is on his well-deserved holiday. Instead we had a pretty classic Punch & Judy cast, bar Punch and Judy. Without Devil it took the participants a while to come up with the story, but once they started acting it out, the storyline got fast and furious. If you can’t follow it entirely… don’t worry, you can trust me, there was a happy ending. Nasty Cool Cat has been imprisoned by Bobby the policeman and King and Chamber Maid live to this day.

Unlike the previous films, this one needed a little explanation at the beginning. My friend Cath and I are now wondering if we should adapt the story for a live puppet show.

Hope you enjoy it.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, film, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, workshop

Oops

March 24, 2014 //
2

cow and cushions

I had to go and get my picture taken for the next brochure of the community art school where I am having a puppetry workshop. To make it easier for me, I thought I take two puppets along to help. It went all okay, except that I’d rather had the pics of the puppets published, than my own mug. Anyway when the job was done, we were walking down the road, when Cash Cow all of a sudden stopped and screamed. She had discovered these cushions in the window of a shop. I think she will have nightmares tonight.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Hand Puppets, Life, Promotion

Really… a winner

March 22, 2014 //
4

Today was the big day of the inaugural scarecrow competition at the Beach Haven Community Garden. All I can say: it was such a wonderful event. We had 15 scarecrows in the running, many of them created by groups, rather than individuals. And yes, I thought, judging scarecrows would be easy peasy… No it wasn’t. In the end I had a list of points they had to fulfill, such as being scary, withstanding weather, making noise… Looking great, wasn’t good enough, as they all did.

We were totally overwhelmed by the participation. We had 290 votes by the end of the day and I got a bit nervous, as the one I had selected for my Artist’s Choice Award, was also looking to be winning the People’s Choice Award. In the end a different one turned out to be the people’s darling. One I wouldn’t have chosen, even though it looked scary, it was made of cardboard and the first big deluge (not uncommon in Auckland) would see to it.

Here some impressions of the day.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Competition, Exhibition, Fun, Life, Social Network

The winner is…

March 21, 2014 //
1

byaleaf

I don’t know if I have already mentioned, that I have been assigned to judge the inaugural scarecrow competition at the community garden here in Beach Haven tomorrow. This will be a very busy day for me. I have to go to the garden to look at all the entries, then I have to come back home to run a Dede workshop and back to the garden to announce the winner.

The community garden is relatively new and as it is with such groups, money is an always short. So, I decided to reinvigorate one of my favourite prizes I awarded at many occasions while still studying. Take one bayleaf, spray paint with metalic gold (donated by the artschool) and put in a nice looking but cheap frame from the bargain bin. I wanted to have a leaf in gold, silver and bronze. Unfortunately there were only cans in gold, silver and red. Never mind, red is a nice colour too. The local chocolate shop has also donated four boxes of chocolates. I hope the scarecrows will be happy and the weather gods are favourable.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Competition, Fun, Life, Promotion

A random act of art

March 20, 2014 //
2

The week was pretty hectic, and the poor Dedes fell by the wayside for the time being. However, we will have a Dede Workshop on Saturday and all will be good. In the meantime I want to show you a film created by my artist friend Cath O’Brien. Avid readers of my blog will have heard the name before. Cath is a huge Dede fan and she also created the puppets Trash queen and Sidekick who featured in the last Dede film. Here now her first own film called “A radom act of art”. As usual my place was behind the camera.

Cath runs workshops for children and loves to work with recycled material. If you want to know more, here is the link to her website Makelikeatree.co.nz

Enjoy.

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Categories Absurd, Art, film, Fun, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Water and Yeast

March 15, 2014 //
0

st patricks pig

I overheard a conversation between Pig and Professor, who are preparing for St Patrick’s Day on Monday. They said it’s the celebration of the world famous Irish patron saint of all drunkards. Professor tried to trick Pig into asking Witch to reveal her recipe for making alcohol from water, yeast and sugar. He is adament this recipe has to go into Witch’s new book anyway, as it is terribly important to the survival of a poor artist. Totally out of character, Pig was thinking on his feet and pointed out that Witch is a teetotaller. No chance!

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Categories Absurd, Art, Books, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Social Network

Complaint

March 14, 2014 //
0

pita bread

Witch was cursing and swearing today. Not because her cooking didn’t work out, but because the sky was over cast. She made pita bread for lunch and usually, there is no problem to take the photo right there in the kitchen. The sun shines brightly on the kitchen bench an illuminates the product as in the images on the previous days. Not today… The sun has gone on holiday, and while the pita bread puffed up nicely, the photograph looks flat. Tomorrow we will have a storm and Witch already decided that on a cold windy day she has to make flakey pastry and a yummi pie. I wonder what she will do for a photograph…. Meanwhile all the dedes are happy that she will have to cook pita bread again to take new photos. :)

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Promotion, Social Network

No time at all

March 13, 2014 //
2

Right, Foreign Correspondent, delivered his questions to Witch last night. Needless to say, Witch ignored them. She left three photographs at the bottom of the stairs, as proof that she can’t be bothered with answering questions at the moment.

These are her latest concoctions:  Crumpets, No egg pasta and Water wafers.

crumpets

no egg pasta

water wafers

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life
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