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On the 2nd Day

December 26, 2015 //
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boxing gloves2 copy

…of Christmas my true love brought to me Two Purple Gloves and a Chicken in a Dead Tree.

Now I am even more bamboozled. They obviously didn’t put much thought into their selection of presents or who is going to deliver them. Isn’t the bunny totally out of season? Also, in the original song, the second present was “two turtle doves”. Doves are the symbol of peace. The gloves and the rabbit’s posture looks more like fighting stance to me. He looks very determined, too.

Previous present

firstdayofxmas

Chicken in a dread tree

 

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Categories Absurd, Art, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships

Right direction

December 17, 2015 //
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devil shaking hands

I can assure you, the Dedes are wrong, I wasn’t slack in the past months. I just had an energy-sucker of a job. I have recently resigned from this absolute terrible workplace. Let me rephrase that, the job as such wasn’t terrible, to be honest it was my dream job. I loved the students and every minute of teaching, but the school was suffering from a bullying culture, created by a bunch of alcoholics. One of them also showed very strong signs of a cluster B personality disorder. I only realised how much the situation sucked me dry – particularly my creativity – once I had resigned. It was an, how can I say that… “interesting” experience and I am surprised that I got to my age without having come across such a dysfunctional workplace before. Unfortunately I am very loyal person and often stick around longer than I should, because I so believe I can make a difference. Not!

Okay this was my rant for the day!

I hope the Dedes understand now why they have been a little neglected lately. And they were right, they didn’t get as much attention as they deserved. My first peace offering to them was, that I set up a new zazzle product for sale: An apron with the image of  Milky Bar Devil presenting his delicious hamburger bun – the cover shot of The Artist’s Survival Cookbook. My old mate Devil got all emotional after he’d realised I am back on board. He shook my hand and said we should renew our pact. I didn’t know we had one!

Artist's Survival Apron
Artist's Survival Apron by dededesign
Many more kitchen apron designs online at zazzle” apron designs on zazzle
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Categories Absurd, Art, bullying, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Promotion, Relationships, Social Network

Moving on

December 15, 2015 //
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moving on

Now we are at this stage again…. the Dedes are getting impatient with me! We had the big book launch, which went very well, thank you. And then they went quiet again. It’s coming up to Christmas and the Dedes will soon have their fourth anniversary. When I reminded them of that and asked what they wanted to do to celebrate it,  Snotty Nosed Prince thew his hands up in disgust. “Four years! We should be more well known by now. What have you done in all those years, girl?” And he had support from the others. “You are useless as an artist, I think we should sack you!” Loudmouth crowed angrily and didn’t waste any time packing my suitcase.

I couldn’t take it anymore, “Well,” I said when I left the studio, “writing a book is the easy part, marketing it is much more difficult.” Personally, I think they should be a bit more supportive and come up with some ideas themselves. After all, I am only one person and there are 64 or so of them.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Books, Comedy, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Self-publishing

Why I play with puppets (13)

November 2, 2015 //
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pig stage fright

The puppets are an amazing tool to foster understanding. For example Pig. In the first week of the superdede competition Pig froze on stage and it became clear he is an alcoholic, but for no fault of his own. In the competition he told the blog readers is because the farmer fed beer to the mother sow to make farrowing easier. So he basically suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome. It also became clear, that Professor and Pig are co-depended. A very common trait in alcoholics.

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Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Medical, Relationships, Social Network

Why I play with puppets (11)

October 26, 2015 //
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halloween

Hermit’s Web was the first public appearance of the Dedes, and someone recommended I should write a blog to keep track of their progess. After the book was published the story continued here. The blog really helped me to find out, what I am doing. To be honest, the puppets don’t have much bite. They are funny in a very subtle way. Sometimes I might be the only one who gets their jokes :). For me it is all about understanding where people come from and how they tick. I don’t care if others deem the puppets silly. I love them. They are a brilliant tool to keep me sane.

This picture was taken on Halloween two years back. I am not a big fan of Halloween, but obviously the Dedes are. (Note: you certainly guessed it, they are all wearing masks with my face on it. Pretty scary!)

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

Why I play with puppets (10)

October 24, 2015 //
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untitled

The Dedepuppets started out as observers of life. These two are pals from the book Hermit’s web or the few friends I need I handcraft myself, that I did in 2012. The brainy Professor and his buddy Pig. They are a couple. The professor loves to talk and drink and comes across as being intelligent. His mate pig loves to drink. Fullstop! He doesn’t say much. And in the book the story goes, he is not a connoisseur at all, he just quaffs down the wine until he is plastered.

(Note: Little did I know back then what it actually means if you have to work with Professor and Pig. Back then I only knew them from a social setting. Socially they can be fun, but at work, oh dear… you don’t want go there!)

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Categories Art, Books, bullying, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Why I play with puppets (6)

September 29, 2015 //
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empathy

Empathy is compassion and understanding of human nature. It enables you to respond genuinely to others’ concerns. Empathy doesn’t mean you take on other people’s fights, rather you support them to find their own way. Think about why you are fighting for something: is it because someone else wants you to, or it will benefit you or benefit the wider society (this come back to self-awareness and motiviation).

Playing with puppets is a wonderful tool to understand where others are coming from. But understanding is not everything, sometimes it simply makes you sick when you clearly see injustice, but can’t do anything about it. The heart bleeds, when you have to watch helplessly how some people in a powerless postition are walked over by people with self-serving motivation. I have been in this situation for the last 15 month. I tried what I could, but finally had to walk away. The bully was simply stronger (they usually are).  At least I know that the people I supported will remember me for the rest of their lives even though I couldn’t help in the end. As life is closely entwined with my art, I have decided that my next book will be an Emotional Intelligence workbook by the Dedes. But first I have to find my creativity and my humour again :)

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Categories Absurd, Art, bullying, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships

Why I play with puppets (3)

September 20, 2015 //
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devil feet

So what does Emotional Intelligence mean? To say it in the words of a layperson: it is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes without being walked over.

And this is where the puppets have been invaluable for me. Here Devil takes measure of my feet to see if the shoe fits. To come up with all the puppet stories, one has to be an excellent observer and understand human interaction.

Before I go on I will quickly run through the 5 pillars of Emotional Intelligence. These are the traits employers are looking for:

  • Self-awareness
  • Motivation
  • Empathy
  • People skills
  • Self-regulation

I will explain those in the next slides.

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

Why I play with puppets (2)

September 16, 2015 //
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images.indd

This is an image from a series of six. In 2013 I put together unlikely couples for an exhibition. Back then I believed you can get on with whoever, simply by making enough of an effort. Yes, that was back then. In the meantime I have learned a hard lesson, and this is how I came across the term Emotional Intelligence (EI). It is one of those things some people possess without actually knowing, others don’t. But obviously one can work on it. I hear it becomes more and more sought after in the corporate world, particularly in leaders.

Categories Art, bullying, Comedy, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships

Where to from here?

September 6, 2015 //
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devil whisper

I have finally uploaded the Artist’s survival cookbook to CreateSpace and ordered two copies. It is not available for purchase yet. The next step is to proof the quality of the images. I have printed two copies here on two different digital printers and both came out a bit too dark, with the blacks clogging up. Knowing how tempramental printers can be (as many small digital printers are not regularly calibrated) I have to get a print from the machine the book will be printed on. Then I’ll have to make a call on whether I need to work on the images to improve the result.

In the meantime, good old Mouse is still on Devil’s case. No matter what Devil says, Mouse is deeply concerned that he is not coping well at the moment. After enough pestering, he finally he told her what he is currently working on, just to shut her up. But she is not allowed to tell anyone else. Now this is a real test of will power for Mouse, as she is such a big gossip. Surprisingly, she has managed to keep the secret so far, though she let slip that all will be revealed by next weekend.

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Categories Absurd, Art, bullying, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Self-publishing
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