Archives for posts with tag: relationships
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Casting now!

April 2, 2013 //
2

alien and smuggy

The Dedes have a strange hold over me. On the one hand they keep me sane in my current situation, but on the other hand they are driving me totally crazy. I have to admit there is a thin line between the two states of mind.

Over Easter I started my new project, which will take a while, as it is the first time that I am not doing everything myself. I have somebody coming up with a script for a short film. It is a fun project for my tennis club. We are going to explain some of the more obscure rules and how to behave on court.  So far, the project only exists in my head and in our club captain’s head. I would like to get more talent involved and hopefully we can turn the entire thing into a fundraiser for a much needed upgrade of our courts. As everybody knows, as soon as more than one person is involved things get trickier and the different ideas have to be managed somehow. So I thought I would jog things along a bit by creating some footage to help visualise what the puppets are capable of.

First of all I needed to find a good pairing who will play well together. Originally I thought Alien would be perfect but it turned out his infectious smile is quite annoying when it comes to a game of tennis. Nobody would smile throughout an entire game! He played against Smuggy and it was pretty boring. No highlights whatsoever.

mouse and nosy

Mouse and Nosy Neighbour were  another combination I tried. Mouse is a good player and kept a cool head. She was a tad aloof and kept her head high at all times. She obviously had the mental advantage over Nosy Neighbour and just thrashed him. Understandably he wasn’t happy. Who wants to be beaten by a girl!

foxy and socialite

The last combination I tried was Foxy Lady and Socialite. I love how these two eyeball each other all the time. Foxy Ladies’ big eyes come out very well in the game. So I guess they will be the stars of the next film.

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

Payback time

April 1, 2013 //
4

Lartiste art

I am truly relieved. I found L’Artiste safe and sound, though he devised a devilish plan to get back at me. Let me tell you the story:

My dear friend knows all too well how much I dislike having my image displayed publicly. So while he was sitting up on the ladder he got his pencils and crayons out and did a few sketches of me concentrating on my work with the other Dedes. I didn’t even notice, so engrossed was I in what I was doing. Excited about his cunning plan, he shouted himself a bottle of schnaps to celebrate his success. The discarded robe didn’t mean anything sinister either. L’Artiste is generally a very messy worker and wasn’t wearing his tunic at the time. Sure enough, he soiled his robe and swapped it for a new one. Untidy as he is, he didn’t bother throwing the old one in the wash. You should have seen how excited he was about the outcome. He could hardly wait to get back to the gallery and hang the piece today.

I am a good sport, at least I think so, and primarily I am excited he found his spirits again. So I am happy to call it quits. But I certainly hope  that by tomorrow everybody will have forgotten the image.

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

Where is L’Artiste?

March 31, 2013 //
5

artistes end

I am extremely concerned about L’Artiste. Last week he was very frustrated and I thought I would help him out by making him the star of my short film. Originally he was quite chuffed, but when the feedback came in, he changed his mind. Even though we had some good responses and Socialite was so excited and wanted to interview him, it didn’t help. Strangely enough, negativity always seems to be remembered longer than positive remarks, doesn’t it? Sure enough, after cooling down for a while L’Artiste became convinced the film had ruined his reputation. He choose to have some time out and has withdrawn from the Dede community for the time being. I am well aware of how much he needs his solitude every now and then. So I left him to his own devices sitting high up on a ladder yesterday, while I worked with a few other Dedes on a pilot for a new film. Much to my surprise, when I came into the studio this morning he was gone. Only his robe was lying around where he was sitting yesterday and next to it a bottle of high percentage schnaps. Can you understand my worries?

studio-3

When you know the whole picture, I have to confess, I have sugar coated our situation just a tad. I am actually not working in a studio. I am trying to keep up appearances here and studio sounds flash and established. In reality, I am working in a building site. The site currently has no roof and is shrink wrapped. This protects the building from the elements and gives me  the perfect diffused lighting for photography. As it is the Easter holidays there are no builders around. If you have ever lived on a building site you know how awkward it is. As you can imagine the creativity suffers a little. I’ll try to make the best of it :)

But if L’Artiste really has taken to the bottle and wanted to go skinny dipping in a puddle outside the house, as his discarded clothes suggest, he might have come to grief. I had better go searching for him.

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Categories Art, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

Wait, there is more

March 23, 2013 //
0

mouse concernd

“So what do you think?” Mouse asked me.

“About what?” I asked surprised.

“Devil”

“Why, what’s with him?” It’s not easy for me, but I had to pretend I didn’t know anything. Unfortunately, if Mouse knows something, everybody else will know in a flash.

“Don’t tell me he hasn’t seen you. I know that you guys are very close.”

“No, honestly, I don’t know what you are talking about!”

“Devil and Foxy Lady had a showdown on Thursday night when you were out. We were all there. I can tell you, it wasn’t pretty!” This was indeed new to me and it explains why Devil had such a bad night.

“He was a bit huffy when he left, so I thought he might have gone straight to you.”

“No, I didn’t see him. Maybe he is cooling down somewhere.”

Ah so, there seems to be more to the story than Devil had let on. I will have to see what comes to light over the weekend.

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

Devil throws a wobbly

March 22, 2013 //
5

devil resign

This morning when it was still dawn, Devil came to see me. “I have had enough” he started, without beating about the bush. “I can’t do my job when the girls are always interfering. I am resigning!”

“Start again” I said. I wasn’t sure if I had heard him correctly. It was simply too much for me that early in the morning.

“If I hadn’t held my hand up in the first place we would still be flat newspapers, wouldn’t we! Nobody appreciates the work I have put into this whole thing” he continued, ignoring my words.

“When I am gone they will go nowhere fast. That I am sure of. I ask you, who is holding everything together, eh? Who is doing all the work? Didn’t I run the Super Dede Competition before Christmas? Am I not always talking with you to move us forward? Did I not volunteer for the “Embrace Diversity” series first? They are such an ungrateful lot. I am resigning! They will realise very quickly what they’ve lost!”

“Just…”

“You know, I only have to spread the word that I am available. People would love to have me work for them. Most people could do with a bit more devil in them, wouldn’t you think? They just have to let me do my thing! ”

“Think…”

“Only three weeks ago someone asked me if I wanted to work for them but my allegiances were still with the Dedes then. I worked so hard when we were at the burrow and everybody was concerned about you. Snippedy was ready to leave then, but I spoke with an angel’s tongue to convince him we are all in it together. I just should have let it slide. I just can’t do it anymore.”

“Devil!” I exclaimed and stamped my foot on the ground to get his attention. He looked at me stunned and I could finally get a word in. “I beg you, please don’t make any rash decisions. You obviously had a bad night.”

“I have indeed, but I have made up my mind.” He handed me an envelope. It said “Letter of Resignation” in big letters on the outside.

He was obviously not in the mood to listen today, so I took it but said: “Let’s talk about it on Monday.”

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Categories Art, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships, Social Network

What are you thinking?

March 21, 2013 //
5

foxy standing

Sure enough… my unrelated image was a talking point last night. It sounded like there is heaps of stuff going on in the Dede world that I could report on. No need to digress. While they were away in the burrow they didn’t mind me keeping everything going by publishing other images. After all, they had deserted me. But now they are back and they want me to pay full attention to them.

“What are you thinking?” Devil asked me, hands on hips. “Can you tell me the name of the blog again? Or shall I spell it out to you?”

“Come on” Foxy Lady interrupted him. “It was interesting to hear about some history. After all, this is where we come from, isn’t it?” A murmur went through the room. Everybody was surprised she stood up to Devil. He calls himself the spokesperson for the Dedes, but it slowly dawned on me that he is just more vocal about his wishes and opinions than the others. He doesn’t necessarily represent everybody else’s view. Obviously Foxy Lady had finally had enough of his bullying tactics.

“Okay, then…” Devil said self-confidently. “Lets have a show of hands: who thinks it was out of line?”

“No, no. no!” Foxy Lady said before anybody could raise their hands. No one was in a hurry anyway. “You can’t ask for a show of hands! Not when you are in the room. It has to be a secret ballot.”

It was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. Only Devil was breathing fast and shallow and his face turned a smidgen redder. Foxy Lady outwardly looked very relaxed. Only the pitch of her voice gave away that she was well out of her comfort zone.  Good old Mouse came to the rescue by asking innocently: “Do we still have the old box with the slit in the top? Has anybody seen it since the move? And we need some paper.” She looked at me for help.

“I don’t know where the box is, but I can make a new one” I said and got up. “Maybe our readers have an opinion about this as well!”

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

Worst friend ever

March 20, 2013 //
4

peguin

The Dedes might complain about the lack of consultation, but I decided to have one day per week where I put up images unrelated to the Dedes and I am starting today. (Nothing in my life is entirely unrelated to the Dedes, or to put it another way, the Dedes are very much part of my life.) If Devil was here he would tell me off now for waffling, so I will leave it at this.

Anyway, the image I have put up today is from a photo series called “worst friend ever.” For this series, I photographed mementoes of people who once were dear to me, but I have long lost touch with. I have a lot of these (mementoes and people I have lost touch with). The title of the series is of course a reference to me, not the friends I’ve lost touch with.

This little glass penguin is shown larger than it is in reality. It is in fact only about 1 centimetre tall, but it is larger than life. It was given to me by one of my dearest friends when I was in my early twenties. He brought it back from his first trip to Italy. It was an extremely significant trip for him, as it was the first time he was allowed to leave the country after he was realeased from prison. I can assure you this precious one centimeter high piece of glass carries an entire book inside.

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Categories Art, Fun, Life, Photography, Relationships, Social Network

What’s he up to?

March 19, 2013 //
2

devil and fairy

The other day, when I was taking the images for the “Embrace Diversity” series, all the Dedes were on their best behaviour. The idea was to photograph puppets that wouldn’t normally go together, like Rob the thief and Bobby the policeman. Surprisingly, when they forgot about their professions, they are actually not that different at all and they shared a good old yarn over a beer. Foxy Lady – who tangoed with Harvey, the rabbit – told me afterwards how much she enjoyed the dancing. She admitted she was brought up hating rabbits. That was just the way it was at home and she never questioned it. Not in her wildest dreams would she have thought Harvey could be so much fun.

I got six images I am really happy with and they are already on the tshirts now. The only pairing that didn’t work for me was Mrs Esta Blished, the fairy godmother, and Devil. These two where whispering to each other all afternoon. When I looked at the pictures later I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. When the image is cropped to their heads only they look okay. It just looks like Devil is letting Mrs Esta Blished in on a secret. But when you see the entire image, it looks more like he is hassling her. I better watch this. Despite being a devil, I  have never had any complaints about him so far. But then, it could as well mean that nobody dares to speak up. Until I know the whole story  I can’t really use this image.

devil and fairy2

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

Fairy Godmother’s story

March 16, 2013 //
4

esta blished

I am finally ready to tell the story of Fairy Godmother. It is a long story and I have to briefly recap the whole Dede story.

You might know the Dedes have been around for just over a year. I started doing them in December 2011 and they immediately took on a life of their own. Within a week I had created 15 characters. They instantly set forth and forced me to drop everything else I was doing at the time and take pictures of them. When the images turned out well, they went on to demand a story about our relationship. So I sat down and wrote the book “Hermit’s Web or the few friends I need I hand-craft myself”. Their initial success made them so vain that having the book distributed to my close friends wasn’t good enough for them any longer. They wanted to take on the world…

Unfortunately they can’t do it themselves. They have to work with me. And I am the one who is holding it all up, so they tell me. If they had chosen a different artist, if they had landed in someone else’s studio, they would be out there enjoying fame and fortune (or at least, that is what they are constantly telling me). I can assure you they are not always plain fun. They are needy, demanding and ungrateful at times. They are holding me hostage  – but that is a different story. I wanted to let you in on the appearance of Fairy Godmother.

The Dedes, – when the book was published – heard or read somewhere that New Zealand was Guest of Honor at the tremendously important book fair in Frankfurt. Of course their demands didn’t stop with the publication of the book. The next thing was they wanted to go to this big fair. My plea that we were a little late didn’t cut it with them. “That is what we want, make it happen.” they said.

I was extremely fortunate to find someone who still had space on their booth and was willing to take the Dede book to Frankfurt after I had described it as an art book over the phone. I was so overjoyed about the good news that I immediately had to sit down and create the Fairy Godmother for good luck. The head wasn’t even dry when the lady, an academic, rang me back to tell me that my book wasn’t an art book. She said the book was rather childish. Whimsical I prefer to call it, but the word eluded me at the time. I was speechless. Here we are again: what is art?

Anyway, the book went to Frankfurt in the end. When I put the skin on the Dede Fairy Godmother I named her Mrs Esta Blished. Look at her. She turned out to be a tired old Fairy Godmother, who is busy protecting her own achievements. Her wand  is gathering dust in the attic. Personally I think she is a beauty, but she might not appeal to other people. Just like art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

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Categories Art, Books, Creative Writing, Fun, Hand Puppets, Life, Photography, Relationships, Self-publishing, Social Network

Graphic Design vs Art

March 12, 2013 //
10

studio

With what I am currently doing, an old riddle has surfaced again. What is the difference between graphic design and art? Is there a difference or is a graphic designer an artist?

A few years back I had a crucial experience when  I met a gallerist at a work function. She asked me what I do for a living and when I answered I am a graphic artist, she snidely remarked that would be a misnomer. All graphic designers are nothing more than would-be artists. She made a clear distinction between an artist and a designer and it was very obvious she didn’t hold the latter in high esteem.

I thought about this remark for a long time and after a lot of soul searching I figured out that for me personally the main distinction is the client. As a graphic designer I am commissioned to be creative within the framework of the wishes and financials of the client. It requires a lot of tact, but ultimately the client has the final say. To stay true to my soul  I have the option of choosing the clients I want to work for. My ones are mainly not-for-profit and small businesses who just set out. Along my career there were plenty of examples where I was happy I didn’t have to sign my name to the finished work (there are plenty of examples I am proud of too :).  You basically have to keep the customer happy and in the end he puts the bread on your table. If you are lucky you even have wine to go with it.

As an artist I am free. I can create whatever I feel like. No explanation needed. The only limitations are my skills and my ideas. I like to challenge both. Ultimately that is the reason I am an artist. Unfortunately if you want to survive on your art you have to convince others that you are the best otherwise you face starvation. There are so many truly gifted people out there and in the end the one who shouts the loudest will make it. This brings on a totally new set of problems. But one thing is for sure, independent you are not! So far, I have been fortunate enough that I could support my art habit with my other work.

But it is all becoming a bit blurry lately and I seriously have to re-think my double-tracked approach I lived comfortably with for such a long time. This is currently my biggest challenge. Any ideas?

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Categories Art, Hand Puppets, Life, Relationships
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