Archives for category: Self-publishing

author photo I just looked through the launch images my friend Renee had sent me.

I think this is a beautiful one of Hermit. It was taken right after the puppet show and the actors are pretty tired. Ducky, (the one in the foreground) wasn’t part of the actual show, but he has always something to say and wants to be centre stage. Pig (lying on the table) drank the entire bottle of snaps by itself and is now out of it.  Pirate (at the top) casts his good eye around for the next opportunity to make money. And Mouse (on the left) is just exhausted from running around all evening (tongue hanging out). Witch, Devil (very obscured) and Deutsch Fraulein are protecting Hermit from being recognised (:

Of course everybody knows by now Hermit is actually a Hermitess. It is the age of equal opportunity after all…

what's next

When I was tidying up in the Gallery yesterday, I overheard a conversation between Devil’s Advocate and Sunny Boy. Sunny was very excited how well everything went on Thursday night and said confidently we all could go on holiday now – The Gold Coast would be nice, thank you! He even suggested, I should pay for the entire troupe, as I must have made loads of money by selling the book. But Devil’s advocate has a good head on his shoulders and put Sunny right… He said: “This was only the beginning. The majority of work is still to come”. Ah, Sunny is such a dreamer…

So, that was it… the big night… the launch of the Hermit’s Web book. To be honest, I was totally overwhelmed. It was such a wonderful crowd. In the picture above  (taken by Sonya Roussina) they are engaged in watching the dede puppet show. I still haven’t processed all my thoughts about the event. It was just very very exciting.  A big big Thank You to all those who came along. We were close to a hundred people of all ages and the vibes were just fantastic.

And of course a specially big Thank You goes out to all the people who helped me on the night. You were all just brilliant and made my life so easy (:

Sonya took a lot of pictures and I will put a good selection up next week on a seperate page. I just love to see all the smiling faces in the photographs.

While I was doing the puppet show, I didn’t see much, but I clearly felt the excitement of the spectators and I am looking forward to seeing all the other photos.

scared villain This should have been the villain in the puppet show.

Looking at him now, he looks just plain scared, not scary. If I were a puppet, I guess, that would be me at the moment.

I am soooo looking forward to my breakfast on Friday, when it is all over…

CarefulThe book launch is exactly one week away now.

Last night I worked on even more new puppets. I really shouldn’t… there is still so much other stuff to do… I haven’t even build the puppet theatre yet! It’s only in my mind.  I wonder if I will start freaking out at one stage (that might not be a pretty sight for the people around me!). I haven’t asked for RSVP on the invitation, so I have no idea how many people will come. I have heard from a few people who won’t be able to make it, though.

bottle prop A good friend of mine gave me this minature bottle as a prop for the puppet show at the book launch. Pig likes it’s tipple – now that sounds like an old lady, I should say it like it  is – Pig likes to booze!

It is quite funny, my friend is a New Zealander, but she bought this bottle a good thirty, fourty years ago on her OE. And it says on the side of the bottle Produce of Germany. She bought it at a time when I didn’t even know New Zealand existed. The alcohol has long evaporated out of the bottle through the unbroken seal. When we talked about the puppet show she immediately thought of the bottle as the right prop for Pig and digged it out. I wonder what kind of memories she has, when she looks at the bottle.

It is amazing what people keep as mementos. I have a box full “useless” stuff. I started to photograph the items, as each of them conjures up lost friends and time past. I am not lamenting the loss by any means, I just know that every person along my tracks has added to who I am now.

That is what I really wanted to say yesterday about the hammer: we look at the same thing, but we interpret it differently depending on our previous experiences. For me that is the reason why people can never see things quite the same way.

I just bumped into Amanda, who I only met recently, when I picked up my book launch invites from the printers. Turns out she is a fellow blogger. Her blog is about things made from paper called  Love Notes. She told me she has written about the puppets and the Hermit’s Web book. Of course I had to check it out immediately and gosh it sounds really exciting!

This morning I’ve got round to photographing Devil’s Advocate. He looks very mellow and relaxed.

Like all my other work, the puppets are multi-layered, but what I particularly like about them is their interactivity. I love to watch people engage with the puppets. Let somebody get their hands on a puppet and they start acting with them. The least they do is wave… and this is a very friendly gesture, isn’t it? You don’t really need many words, but I can observe their reaction to my artwork, rather than just assuming their perception of it. I love that.

energyI just realised, I am now blogging for one month. One can tell that I am still a newbie, as I am posting every day. I guess, when you are doing it for a while you will slow down. I have learned a thing or two in this first month, but I know I am still at the beginning of my learning curve.

Though, I am surprised how much I am enjoying this process. So far, I have never had the urge to show what I am producing to the world. There are gazillions of really good and gifted people out there… (A fact you become even more aware of, when you engage in the blogging community). The reason why I am really enjoying it, is that I am now sort of cataloguing my own work in my head. It is a retrospective of a non-exhibiting artist. What always seemed to me like a mixed bag, does actually have a common thread.

The puppets for whom I have set up the blog, appear to be the odd ones out. But only visually, only superficially.

The launch of my book is still three weeks away and I am going through all the expected emotions every day. I have finished the Devil’s Advocate puppet. The Procrastinator is still nowhere to be seen. But I have the feeling I moved forward tremendously.

One sentence I have read recently in the paper has lodged itself into my memory: “there is no art without an art market.” I stumbled when I read it, but continued on. Unfortunately I have forgotten the rest of the article and where and when I read it, so I can’t reference it. But this one sentence stuck. I disagree.

deutsch frauleinI mentioned this morning that I believe Deutsch Fraulein would like L’artiste. Deutsch Fraulein started out as princess, therefore her pink dress and the funny little pink pill box on her head. When she was nearly finished, I discovered the German flag on her forehead and I decided to turn her into German girl.

Further to my pondering this morning… Of course only Deutsch Fraulein could mistake the slimy green Monster for a frog and throw him against the wall. After all she grew up with the Grimm’s Fairy Tales. So there were two mistaken identities here: She still thought she is the princess and then she mistook Monster for the frog prince. I don’t really want to explain the reasons for the story,  all I can say I am very fascinated by how much our childhood still affects us even when we are older. The whole writing process opened a big can of worms for me.

L'artiste

The finished french artist

Here he is: the finished L’artiste. The puppet I showed last week  in progress.

I am pretty sure Deutsch Fraulein will fall in love with him when she meets him. (I will have to say something about her, but this post is about L’artiste).

He doesn’t appear to be unhappy, but when one looks closely at his neck, there are little fish visible (you can’t really see it in this pic, it  is too small). In German we have the saying that “somebody is up to their neck in water” (“Das Wasser bis zum Hals stehen”) if somebody is in trouble. Having the fish around his neck says it all, but he seems to care little about it. This saying, I think, is pretty much the same as “being in deep water” in English. Sink or Swim!

But as a second language speaker, you have to think much more careful about proverbs.

I have written the book in English and wasn’t thinking about the German translation at all at the time. There are a lot of similar sayings in both languages. But one in particular will cause me a lot of trouble, should I translate the book. In English you have “skeletons in the cupboard”. (In the book I moved them to the wardrobe – as my cupboard is too small to accommodate my huge family of skeletons). The Germans have a “body in the cellar”. I had totally forgotten until my brother pointed it out.

Of course a skeleton looks different from a body. Maybe I could get away with it, by saying that my bodies have been in the cellar for a very, veeeery long time.