In the beginning the Dedes and I had a care free life. I did workshops and wrote every morning between 7 and 9, before I trundled off to work.
Looking back at the early days with the puppets, they clearly express my attitude: “There are no real dramas! So, get over it.”
And then I lost two major contracts in my design business, and my part-time teaching job – all at the same time. Tja and everything new I touched seemed to turn to custard straight away. This was a new experience for me!
3 days to go on the crowd funding campaign for the Artist’s survival cookbook and it is clear it didn’t work. Well, to be honest, it would have been a miracle if it had worked, as I am not well connected. Though it was worth a try. It was an interesting experience. What surprised me the most, was how many times I had to explain what crowd funding actually is, even to young people. On a postive note, 7502 hits on the little film is a great result! It is definitely good to have in the marketing mix, though the question is how much effect it will have on the book. I had a look where the most viewers came from and first of course is New Zealand with 3300 views, but the second is Vietnam with 605 views. Even more bamboozling, there are more viewers in Nepal than in Brazil, where I know the Dedes have some really good friends. Beats me :)
Ah well, the Dedes will battle on…
Last weekend I have been working on a film for my crowdfunding campaign. Now that it is finished, I have second thoughts and won’t be using it for it’s intended purpose. When I was riding the bus this morning, I had a more suitable idea. Guess I will be making another film next weekend.
But since I’ve made this one, I might as well show it :)
“Can I have pancakes now?” whined Monkey.
“No you can’t!” said Devil quickly, before Mouse could say yes. Obviously Devil had a bone to pick with Monkey. “Why not?” asked Monkey bewildered.
“Did Judy really say she can’t make pancakes?” Devil asked and looked directly into Monkey’s eyes. Monkey looked at Mouse and then to the floor. It seemed as if he was shrinking a little.
“No, she didn’t, did she?” Devil answered instead and Monkey knew he had been found out. “Did you actually talk to her? Or did you just use her name to put more weight behind your demand?”
Monkey continued looking at the floor and quietly said “maybe.”
The whole story didn’t sit right with Devil and he had figured out, when you are 350 years old, of course you must know how to make pancakes, particularly if you have such a fine pan.
“And worse,” Devil continued “you then called her racist!” Monkey looked up, eyes wide open. “I did not!” he cried defensively.
“You know” Devil said emphatically and wagged his finger right in Monkey’s face “we cannot condone this.”
“But I didn’t, honestly!” Monkey whimpered.
“Shush! It is such an old trick, when you don’t get your way: Just blame it on obvious differences and then call the other one a racist. That kills any discussion.”
“But I didn’t!” Monkey repeated. Mouse, who had listened to the conversation nodded, put her mitten on Devil’s arm and corroborated. “No, he didn’t! He said, as long as it is not motivated by racism, he can live with it.”
“But he still told us a fib to get his way” Devil said adamantly. “I can’t tolerate this either!”
“So, what shall we do?” Mouse asked.
Devil looked in the air for a while thinking about a punishment, then he said “Okay, Monkey has to apologise to Judy for using her well-known name to gain an advantage!”
“I apologise!” Monkey called out instantly. “And I didn’t call her racist. At least I didn’t mean to!”
Devil relaxed a little, but wasn’t entirely convinced it was good enough.
“Can I have a pancake now?” Monkey asked timidly. Devil didn’t answer but Mouse came round. “It’s good enough for me. Fun, Peace and Pancakes, what else do you need?”
2 cups of flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of water or milk or a mixture of both, salt (optional). Butter for the pan
Pour flour in a bowl, add salt, mix in half the liquid with a wooden spoon. Do this little by little, thoroughly stirring to avoid lumps. Add the egg. Stir continuously until the egg is well integrated and then mix in the rest of the water. It should be a thin and runny batter. Add more water if need be.
In a pan heat up the butter with a medium heat until it melts and just starts to brown, then scoop a ladle full of batter into the pan. Tilt the pan around so that the bottom is well covered with the batter. Then wait until it dries from the underside. Flip the pancake over and bake for a further two minutes or so until it is golden brown.
Even though Monkey got his wish, he wasn’t happy eating the pancakes. We are not sure whether the recipe was too basic or because he was told off.
The Dedes have now become extremely wary of Top Dog. They find his antics very irritating. While they try to ignore him and get on with their jobs, they still need to constantly remind themselves that he is a dog after all. And like any good dog he has to sniff around everywhere and try to leave a stronger mark than the last one. It doesn’t help that much, though. His behaviour makes the Dedes feel very uncomfortable. They even feel unsafe in their old hang-out, the art cupboard. Whenever Top Dog approaches the conversation stops. Up till now, their society has been an open one and they had no locks anywhere, not even on the bathroom door. Now, whenever a Dede wants to be left alone they close the door behind them. Unfortunately, whenever Top Dog spots a closed door he needs to knock to see what’s happening. He is so worried about being left out. At least he knocks!
Last night Professor called a meeting as the gossip about Top Dog is rife. The biggest problem was to make sure Top Dog wouldn’t be there. So Professor asked Witch for a knock-out potion he could mix into a bottle of champagne he would then present to Top Dog as a peace offering. As you know, Professor is quite partial to his tipple and has no problem recognising a fellow alcoholic. Yes, that is one of Top Dog’s vices, he loves to get plastered. Initially Witch didn’t want to partake in Professor’s little ruse. She claims to use her herbal knowledge strictly for beneficial causes. But on second thought she agreed with Professor that it was for the benefit of all the other Dedes.
Professor, being one of the first Dedes, has tremedeous experience in deciphering the obvious signs on a Dede. He had prepared a little slide show to enlighten the others.
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.
This week is probably the busiest week I will have all year. It started off on Monday with finishing one puppet workshop. I had done a six week course at Toi Ora, an art trust that works in the mental health sector. This is definitely the area I want to move into. Unfortunately the course didn’t quite work as I envisaged it. I liked the students and the settings, but there were also areas that weren’t sitting right, though I think my blog isn’t the forum to divulge what didn’t work. In the course the participants made their own characters and came up with the story and we celebrated the uplaod of our little film with a red carpet event. It’s a very short film, so we only had a very little red carpet.
And here is the film
The picture today shows a hand-crafted czech witch, which is on display at the Festival. I have my eyes on her as I see myself in her, but I can’t afford the little cutey. Pity.
This week I will give two talks. One at the gallery about “puppets in today’s world” and the other at school about my artwork. I prepared both talks on Saturday, writing down minutely what I want to say. though I know very well its impossible for me to stick to a script. As usual I will digress on the day. On the slightest cue from the audience I am off in a tangent. Though I find writing down speeches a brilliant exercise to focus on what I am doing and condense my thoughts into easy to digest sentences. The talk I will deliver to the students will be mainly inspirational and only in the end I will touch on my own pathway. The key message is that in my opinion there are two approaches to be recognised as artist: Either by your work or by your personality. Ultimately you want to be heard in the world of chatter. If you are aiming to be recognised by your work you need to find your style: your voice. If you want to be recognised for who you are you basically have to make noise, be outrageous in one way or another. Of course nothing is as clear-cut… but there is a chance for the quieter ones amongst us.
At the moment we have school holidays and I did two puppet workshops last week. They couldn’t have be more different. The one I was so looking forward to was a four morning course where the participants were supposed to do the full monty – creating the actors, coming up with the story, making props and then filming the thing. The other one was just one afternoon in the library, where the participants invented an impromptu story and used the Dedes to act it out.
The course in the library was fantastic. It doesn’t take long to set the youngsters (aged between eight and twelve years) off to come up with a weird and wonderful story. There was no stopping them. All of them were running around making up props and chopping and changing the storyline. One of them sneaked in their own puppet. You might notice the non-Dede in the group picture at the end of the film when they celebrate.
Ah well, the other workshop was totally different. First of all it was a different age range. Here the participants were teenagers and puppets are so uncool. It is strange how kids can be so creative when they are twelve and with their thirteenth birthday all the creativity seems to go out the window. And then when they leave school, they are expected to be creative to find a job….
We did get there in the end, though I don’t know how much sticks in their minds, but I’ve learned heaps.
Here is the film from the library.
Enjoy.
We are working on this event for close to eight month now and are just entering the hot phase. Tying up loose ends and promoting! Originally it was called “Puppet Festival”. The manager of the art centre and I, we are both totally excited about the whole affair. We got funding from the local council and everything seems to run smoothly except – and that is the big dampener – whenever we talk about puppets everybody’s eyes seem to glaze over. Strangely though, and I am single minded enough to do that, when you continue to talk, people do get interested in our plans. So, we finally decided to give it a new spin and renamed it to The Festival of Performing Objects. Admittedly it sounds much more grown-up and I actually I do love the new name.
We are still looking for artists who want to take part in the group exhibition and also for performers and stall holders on market day. So, if you live in New Zealand and want to take part, get in touch….
dedepuppets 