Archives for posts with tag: mood

Harakiri

July 7, 2015 //

Tony had a concerned comment yesterday, that Millie looked quite depressed. I can assure you she is definitely on the mend. Her life in the class room started around six month ago, when my students had the brief to develop a magazine ad series for raw milk. One of the students just couldn’t find an angle into it and so I brought the cow along to illustrate some options. I had found her at the salvation army store the same day. When I came back the next day, the poor little thing was lying neglected on the floor. I just picked her up and hung her in the rafters to symbolise another idea had died. To make sure the message was received, I also stuck a chopstick through her body (and before anybody gets up in arms: It doesn’t go right through. it is attached with blue tack). I do love my job and my students :). The students of course decided the cow has to live!

Tags art, mood

Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun

Millie week

July 6, 2015 //

This week I am working full-time again and have heaps of menial stuff to do as well. The Dedes are waiting and waiting and waiting patiently in the art cupboard until I find the time to attend to them again. I am a little distressed as my creativity is at an all time low. I had to come up with a quick solution to breath some life into my blog. Then I spotted Millie. Millie is a toy cow I donated to my students a while back and ever since she is having a life of her own in the rafters of the class room. The picture shows her how she was chilling over the weekend. She will be the star of my blog this week, sorry Dedes!

Tags art, mood

Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Fun

Break down

June 8, 2015 //

Mouse and L’Artiste have been working hard over the last two weeks to get the crowdfunding campaign together. They made one film, which was far too long and they also realised it looked like they are promoting a cooking show. No, they really wanted to entice people to support their art and their cookbook – the book they’ve spent every free minute on and laboured over for the last six months. They decided to reshoot. They really wanted to get it right. Anyway, they finally got the campaign up. Last weekend Mouse was busy sending out emails telling every man and his dog that the campaign is finally up and running, and then…. nothing!

This morning I found Mouse sitting in a corner of the art cupboard, crying her little heart out. “Nobody wants the book” she said between sobs. “Absolutely nobody! It’s not that they have to give us money for nothing, they’ll get a full-colour book with over 100 pages for it!”

“Give it time” said L’Artiste with a brave face, though I thought I saw the glint of a tear in his eye as well.

Tags art, dede puppets, flour and water, friends, life, mood, story

Categories Absurd, Art, Books, Comedy, Fun, Life, Promotion, recipes, Self-publishing

Carol singing

December 22, 2014 //

If you have read my blog lately, you know that there is a bit of a rift in the Dede world. The whole thing started when Top Dog arrived a few months back and it’s definitely caused by his nature. Like any top dog he wants to be the unquestioned leader. He’ll do anything to get there and doesn’t even shy away from underhanded measures. Some of the Lil’Dedes are growing increasingly wary and they feel more connected to the Dedes rather than the other Lil’Dedes. They’d prefer not to be forced into moving onto the top shelf and would rather like to mix with their Dede colleagues. Is it really so surprising that Lil’Artist dreams of setting up his easel in L’Artiste’s studio? He admires L’Artiste so much and believes he could learn heaps by just breathing the same air. Lil’Elephant would like to become a ballerina just like Push Push, the Dede elephant lady. Who would be a better teacher than someone who has overcome the same obstacles?

So a group of Lil’Dedes took it upon themselves to organise a carol singing evening, a nice little event in the spirit of the season. It was a spur of the moment decision, as the tension in the art cupboard becomes increasingly difficult to cope with. You could immediately see that the three of them went to a lot of trouble. They had constructed a gorgeous Christmas tree, complete with a star on top and presents around the base. Then they got a snow white table cloth out of the linen cupboard, stood up, and sang their little hearts out. It didn’t really matter that their singing was rather bad, because sadly no-one showed up. No Dedes and no lil’Dedes either.

“Ah well”, said Lil’Clown disillusioned after they had sang their repertoire for the fifth time. “The Dedes really don’t like us! Top Dog is right, they think they are better than us.”

I was pretty angry with the Dede’s behaviour. Even if they don’t believe in Christmas, it couldn’t have hurt to show up and show some community spirit. Turns out they didn’t know it was on. When Lil’Clown wanted to send out the invitation email, Empress in Waiting was hogging the computer writing important emails to King on behalf of Top Dog. Lil’Clown couldn’t wait any longer. He still had other preparations to do so he asked Empress in Waiting to send the invitiation once she was done with her stuff. She simply forgot. Yeah, right!

Tags art, Characters, dede puppets, friends, life, mood, personalities, story, story telling, thoughts

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

Mouse snaps

December 12, 2014 //

Top Dog has been with the Dedes for a while now. Everybody was hoping Philosopher was right and Top Dog’s bark was mainly due to insecurities. Naturally the Dedes tried very hard ease possible anxieties and make Top Dog feel welcome. But the nicer the Dedes were the more demanding Top Dog became. “Easy game” he obviously thought, and started to re-organise the art cupboard. Not that he didn’t inform the others about what he was doing. No, a fait accompli, he proudly told each of them what he had done, expecting praise for his initiative. It’s not that he didn’t have any good ideas. Some of them certainly were improvements, but unfortunately most of what he did stuffed up the workflow of the others and made them feel uncomfortable. For example, one day he moved all Mouse’s writing implements from the top left shelf to the bottom right shelf. While he was dusting off his robe and rubbing his hands after the job was finished, he even remarked to Professor; “How can a little mouse be so silly and put her tools on the top shelf?” Professor didn’t know what to say. Like every Dede he knew all too well that Mouse had placed her stuff on the top shelf as she loves climbing and needs the excercise to keep fit. She is so busy she simply doens’t have the time to go to the gym, so she cunningly builds her precious excercises into her daily routine.

Then, when Mouse ran in to quickly grab her notepad before the next meeting… it wasn’t there! No other Dede was around and it took her twenty minutes to find what she was looking for, making her late for her appointment. She was supposed to catch up with Dee for her weekly garden instructions. We all know Dee is a very busy garden guru and she had to leave before Mouse arrived at the vege patch. It was then she had a hissy fit. Top Dog was just strolling through the garden sniffing at the young plants wondering which ones he should pee on to fertilise.

“Stay away from my stuff!” Mouse snapped at him. He looked at her and said: “Only trying to be helpful!” pulled his tail in and walked away. Mouse felt better for it. She is not one to snap easily, but it felt good to have made a stand. Top Dog went straight to his kennel and got his black book out from under the pillow to write down how horrible Mouse had treated him.

Tags art, character traits, Characters, dede puppets, friends, imagination, life, mood, personalities, relationships, story, story telling

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

Chick problems

December 2, 2014 //

The Dedes were told chicken manure is very beneficial for the soil in their new garden. Luckily they have a chook amongst them and Loudmouth was more than happy to do her share and produce the dung. She is very good at it too. However, in the meantime the weather has turned to spring and nature told Loudmouth it is time to brood. One day she plucked all her beautiful feathers from her tummy and sat down in the laying box, making herself comfortable for the next thirty days. The other Dedes tried to talk her out of it, telling her she would need a rooster to be successful. It didn’t help. Then they cooked a beautiful meal for her – food was always her thing and she eats pretty much everything – but no, she didn’t move. They even stole the eggs from under her. Now, she is sitting on nothing but hay. She still isn’t moving. Nature is simply stronger than all reasoning and coaxing. Unfortunately she isn’t very sociable when she is in this mood and she won’t produce much manure or any eggs either.

I am currently making new Lil’Dedes to sell at the Christmas market in three weeks. Mouse, the keen gardener was desperate for some more chicken dung, and asked me to make a fledgling. This worked a breeze. When Loudmouth saw the little one she jumped up and called: “Can I keep this, can I keep this? Pleeeeease!”

“But it isn’t finished yet” I said.

“Don’t worry” she answered “I will see to that” and she shuffled it under her tummy and sat back down.

Tags Characters, dede puppets, lil' dedes, mood, nature, story

Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Hand Puppets

Get real

October 29, 2014 //

I woke up early this morning to pounding rain on the window. A very unusal sound. Normally I wake up to the chickens clucking away, right under my bedroom window, demanding their breakfast. It was early too. I checked on the chickens by looking out the window. The sad little bunch was up and had found refuge under the chicken coop. Lately I have struggled to get up in the morning. It is not like the old days when I would jump out of bed and sit for an hour writing on my blog before breakfast, then go on and do my honest job. But today, after I checked the chickens, I stayed up and thought I would do a spot of early work. To my surprise I found Harvey and Push Push stitting on the studio table having what looked like a deep and meaningful conversation while looking out the window admiring the wonderful red blossoms on the bottle brush tree. Harvey seemed to be peeved off. “Can you imagine?” I heard him say to Push Push. “She has forgotten to remind me of Mr XL’s birthday. She really doesn’t fulfill her obligations to the sponsors.”

“She didn’t forget my sponsor’s birthday in September!” Push Push remarked.

“You can say what you want. She is a slacker! I wish we had the old days back!” At this moment Push Push realised that I was standing in the doorway and signalled wildly at Harvey to shut up. Harvey turned round and said: “Get real! It’s true and she knows it herself!”

“It’s not quite that bad” Push Push tried to appease. But I had to agree with Harvey. He is right and I promised to do better. “Ah well, I know you promises” said Harvey and hopped back into the art cupboard. “You better keep your promise this time” added Push Push in a motherly tone. “Everyone’s patience is wearing a bit thin.”

Tags art, Characters, dede puppets, friends, life, mood, relationships, story, story telling

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

Rapids

October 5, 2014 //

At the moment I am fighting a terrible cold. I seem not to be able to shift it at all. That adds to my stresses at work or maybe I can’t shift it because of what’s going on at work. Personally I try not to get involved in the stress-mongering. As a part-timer I have the luxury to be able to move away and do other things when people get their nickers in the twist, unless of course I have to teach. Unfortunately the last two weeks I had a full-time teaching laod and had no time for myself.

Our school is a relatively new outfit. We don’t have management on site. The managers are somewhere down country and someone from the higher ranks is visiting us every one or two weeks, but not necessarily the same person. We are only a handful of people at our site and pretty much everyone who works at the office believes we should work as a team. Unfortunately one person is a control freak and makes everything their business. If there are some brownie points to be had, this person steamrolls everyone else and hogs the communication channels. I had asked management to proivde us with an organigram as they see the structure in our office, so that we all know where we are standing. I was surprised to hear that they are not willing to give us a firm answer at this point. My conclusion is that we are dealing with a weak management and I have my suspicion that they tell everyone a slightly different version of what they want from us.

This week I have some time off to do a holiday puppet workshop at Studio One with kids between nine and fourteen. I am so looking forward to a good laugh. I will do me wonders.

Tags life, mood, reflections, relationships, thoughts

Categories Absurd, Comedy, Life, Relationships

Travel

June 20, 2014 //

I have started a new teaching job this week and had to fly to Christchurch for induction. The Dedes and I have a deal that when ever I go places I pick one of them to accompany me should there be space in my backpack. I believe they view this as an assurance I will return to them. This time I chose Mr Vague, a placid old fellow who goes with the flow. I certainly couldn’t have coped with one who wanted to paint the town red at night. I knew there would be a lot of information to take in during the day.

Right! He was so placid that he stayed in my backpack pretty much all the time. I was traveling with my new colleague Bonnie, who I met for the first time when I took my seat in the airplane. Mr Vague is very shy. That is why I took him. I thought he might come out of his shell when he is away from the other Dedes. But no, he stayed where he was because he heard us chatting away and did not want to impose. I wanted to show him the town centre that was struck by a horrific earthquake in 2011 and still looks like a battle field. As it is winter, it was dark by the time we left the art school. The town is also closer to the south pole than Auckland and therefore colder. I thought he might be interested in the Cardboard Cathedral, designed by disaster architect Shigeru Ban to temporarily replace the original cathedral that was damanged in the quake. After all, Mr Vague is made from the same material. He took a quick glance and said it is too cold to come out of the warm backpack.

We were there for two days and like all the Dedes he loves breakfast. So a cup of coffee finally lured him out for a quick chat in the morning. The warm ambience of the art noveau cafe suited him well and the coffee was excellent. That is all he needed to be content for another day and have a snooze while I was off to more induction.

The next time I saw him was when I arrived at the airport and heard that our plane would be delayed by 4 hours, which meant we wouldn’t be home before 2am. He shrugged the news off. “Nothing you can do about it” he said and shouted me a beer. Neither of us got flustered – Mr Vague because he had slept for two days, and I because I was too tired.

Tags art, character traits, Characters, dede puppets, life, mood, paper mache, story, story telling

Categories Absurd, Art, Comedy, Hand Puppets, Life

Retrospective

April 13, 2014 //

It is Easter again. It is around this time of the year it’s most noticeable to me that I have moved from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern. The weather is pretty much the same in both countries, but Germany is now moving towards the warm summer months and Easter marks the end of the cold, while here in New Zealand we start to batten down the hatches for winter. Last year at Easter I made my first stop motion film with the Dedes. It was a spur of the moment piece about the life of an artist. I have been wondering for a while if it is time for a remake. Nothing much has changed. A year, though, is not long enough really to justify a remake, or is it? Maybe I’ll make a sequel!

Here is the original.

Looking back even further, two years ago I created this sequence of images for the blog. Not a film yet, but it is clearly pointing towards film making :)