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Carly’s table

December 1, 2015 //
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Carly_Photography dede launch

I have to tell you more about the launch of the Artist’s Survival Cookbook. I couldn’t have done it without the help of my amazing friend Carly. We had exactly one hour to set everything up. She just came in with boxes of lovely stoneware and props, I had done the baking, and in no time flat she magically threw together the most fantastic display. On the day, nobody, absolutely nobody, noticed the chairs in the back and how run down the old church hall was. Everybody was stunned by the food display and in the beginning no one dared to help themselves. Everything on the table was there to nibble on. Except for the eggs, they were raw. :)

I will dedicate a post to Carly, who is a photographer and stylist soon, when I have more images.

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Categories Art, Book Launch, Books, craft, Fun, Life, Promotion, workshop

Making it

November 30, 2015 //
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The pop-up kitchen for the launch of the Artist’s Surviva Cookbook was a full success. The time went by so fast and there were plenty of people of all ages who wanted to have a go. There weren’t many kids, which was a bit sad, but you can tell that those who were there really enjoyed it. I heard someone saying: “This is how kid’s birthday parties should be.”

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The photos were taken by Erwin Loosekot

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Categories Art, Book Launch, Books, Fun, Life, Self-publishing, workshop

Why I play with puppets (9)

October 22, 2015 //
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devil hammock

I have started to prepare for my book launch, which will be a pop-up kitchen. I think this is very appropriate for The Artist’s Survival Cookbook. I have been running around to find a suitable venue that I can hire without breaking the bank. (I am back on a serious flour and water diet and unfortunately I can’t pay my dues in buns and doughnuts). There are gazillions of self-published books out there and everybody who has ever published a book can confirm, the most difficult part is the marketing. Particularly when you are a hermit, as a lot of artists are. But in the meantime I have sold some copies via CreateSpace. It is so exciting, when you log in and you see for the first time that the 0 has turned into real a number!

Though I still have to finish my Pecha Kucha presentation that describes why I am playing with puppets. Here we are at slide number 9:

When I first started I with puppets, I was particularly ingtruiged by their completeness. They are viusal, sculptures, actors, storytellers all rolled up in one.  Puppetry has been an anarchic and subversive art throughout history and Peter Schumann, the founder of Bread and Puppetry said: It is an art which is easier researched in police records than in theatre chronicles.

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Categories Art, Book Launch, Fun, Hand Puppets, Self-publishing

Why I play with puppets (8)

October 12, 2015 //
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5 pillars-6

Self-regulation is the last pillar of emotional intelligence. It is absolutely wonderful when you have all these skills, unfortunately not everyone has them and there are people who will take advantage. It is important to know when to step back and let go. Smile when you can’t make a change. Show emotions when it is safe and helps the team.

I have read a lot about emotional intelligence lately and so far I only came across one article that said it is all a load of crap. In this particular article it said the bullies will walk all over you. I still think it is good to stand-up against bullies, or at least try. They will hate you, when you don’t bow to them and will step it up big time. The sad thing is, when management supports bullying behaviour, simply because it is easier not to look too closely what’s wrong with a place. When it starts to affect your health though, it is best to get out. Life is too short!

 

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Categories Absurd, Art, bullying, Hand Puppets, Life

Indie Bookfair

October 4, 2015 //
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The first shipment of the Artist’s Survival Cookbook has arrived. Just in time for the Indie bookfair at the Northshore Event Centre this weekend. For all my overseas friends… the book is now available at Amazon. I haven’t quite figured it out, but they already discounted the book, strange. It is also available on the CreateSpace Store, but here it is my intended price. This is one way of robbing the author of their royalties. Why would anybody buy it on CreateSpace when you can get it cheaper from Amazon, and the shipping is also cheaper there too. Grrrrr. But that is not what I wanted to write about!

The Indie bookfair was a very intersting affair. The exhibitors were small publishing houses, self published authors and companies that offer publishing services for those who want to become published authors. The visitors were mainly the latter or people who knew someone who was exhibiting. So there weren’t many sales to be had all around. I had prepared little bags with one bean plus a Dede instruction card on how to grow the bean, and on the back there was info about the book . At least the visitors were very happy to take the little gift and hopefully they will grow the bean and look up the book on Amazon (slim chance though, but I got some attention). As I was invited by my friend Dee to share her stall, I still came out ahead and Dee herself didn’t do too badly. We both made good contacts with people we can work with in future. And that is invaluable. The comments about the puppets were also nice. A few people knew the puppets from their exhibition and from puppet month last year, so they are little celebrities in their own right.

Personally, I get anxieties when I see so many people in one place all wanting to sell their books. I am pretty sure every single one is worthwhile reading and everyone poured their lifeblood into their work and then there I am, with a book too and wanting to sell it! I think I will have to retreat and play with my puppets again for a little while :)

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Categories Absurd, Art, Books, Exhibition, Hand Puppets, Life, Promotion, Self-publishing

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

Preview on CreateSpace

September 22, 2015 //
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thank you_ copy

I am getting very close now making my famous Artist’s Survival Cookbook available on CreateSpace. After puppeteer-friend Tony had a good read and made correction, the lovely Heather went over the whole thing again with a fine comb. I have entered the latest changes and uploaded the complete file again. That is it now! In the meantime I have created a preview on CreateSpace. Everyone can look at and review the book here: https://www.createspace.com/Preview/1177728

There is an independend book festival on first weekend in October. My garden guru friend Dee has organised a stall and offered to share it with me.  I also have seen the first proof copies from CreateSpace and I am happy with the print result. You guys can not believe how excited I am right now!

 

 

 

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Categories Absurd, Book Launch, Books, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, recipes, Self-publishing

Why I play with puppets (3)

September 20, 2015 //
0

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 (1)

September 14, 2015 //
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The other day I did a presentation about my work. It was basically a Pecha Kucha presentation, although we couldn’t call it that, as the term is trademarked. In case you don’t know how this type of presentation works, it consists of 20 slides and the presenter has exactly 20 seconds to speak to each slide. That is a bit of a challenge. 20 seconds is not very long. Anyway, it was a good exercise to revisit what I do with my Dedes and I will put up the presentation over the next month. The format is pretty much the format of my blog anyway. However, I might add more text than 20 seconds worth.

The title of the presentation was: Why I play with puppets.

I arrived at puppetry from the visual arts angle, not performance, and I immediately appreciated the use of my Dedes for self-exploration. For me, they are magical problem-solvers and I often call them my “voodoo dolls gone mellow.” Since Devil started his new job in an environment with a bullying culture, I have also became aware that these puppets are brilliant for developing emotional intelligence. This is a term I only discovered recently, but all of a sudden everything makes perfect sense.

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Categories Art, bullying, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life

Reality check

May 24, 2015 //
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push push and little ele

The recipes are all done. The Artist’s Survival cookbook is at the layout stage. Hang on, a dear Dede-follower might think, wasn’t the book at the layout stage a month ago? How can it take so long? Yeah, well, I’ve got my tax bill! It is not much, but it depends on the reference point. If you have nothing, not much is too much. Pretty sure plenty of readers can empathise with me here :) It is the equivalent to going to jail in Monopoly: don’t pass GO on your way. Well, not quite. Looking back on last year I have moved substantially, but I am not where I want to be. I moved a little sideways. I have a part-time teaching job that takes up more time than it is supposed to. I am teaching young creatives, and I thoroughly enjoy the contact with the students and their development. Sadly, a clash in teaching philosophies with a colleague results in a lot of friction and ultimately the job takes up more head space than it should. The Dedes suffer.

The tax bill made me do a reality check! No more fluffing around. I have to finish the book and get it out. It will happen, but to speed up the process I will I need a little cash. This will go towards roping in some professionals that can do jobs I can’t do. I would also like to have a small print run of hard cover books.

Therefore I have finally decided to go ahead with a crowd funding campaign. This is not much more than pre-selling the books and it gives me an indication whether people are prepared to buy it. Of course, like any artist I have my doubts at times. And of course I know some of you really enjoy the puppets and the idea. A particularly big THANK YOU goes to Tony and Jürgen for their invaluable support throughout the entire process.

Yesterday I started to make a new flash drama film to support the upcoming campaign. As part of the campaign I will also offer four real Dedes as an incentive for a donation. As you may know, the Dedes are usually not for sale. Sometimes the lil’ Dedes are available. The real Dedes are bigger (between 12 and 15cm) and have a label on their neck to identify them as Dedes. They are the ones that go on exhibitions and star in stop motion films. The lil’Dedes are just puppets that try to be Dedes. They are smaller. You can see the difference in the photo. And while they are still handcrafted I don’t record where they go. The little elephant will go on sale at the Art in Action event at the Michael Park School (Steiner School) in Auckland on the 13 June, where I hold a puppet making and film making workshop.

So far I have sold four of the Dedes (my heart ached each time). I really don’t want to let them go. Two of the buyers allowed their puppets to stay with me. Push Push the elephant is one of them, Harvey the rabbit is the other. Ultimately the puppets become more valuable the more often they show up in films.  One, Lap Dog has gone to a collector I don’t know personally and Punch too aka Han de Vere has gone to a person I didn’t know, but know now. (Message for Han, Top Dog is still waiting to join you! He is still muzzled, sitting in the corner.)

Still, the campaign might not work, as I am not very well connected. I work with puppets and reflect, I am not out there selling myself.  Another (not uncommon) trait a lot of people can empathise with :). However, the book will go ahead, one way or another. It is just a question of how and when. I have finally set a deadline. I will have it done and dusted in July! (this year).  And as I always say to my students. A deadline is a deadline, no expemptions!

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Categories Art, Book Launch, Books, Comedy, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Self-publishing, workshop
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