toy teachers

Four of our students added Bob and me to their puppet show. We played cops, kind of.

toy theater

The Quinnipiac puppetry class wrapped up with five happily surprising toy theater performances.

annunciation

The winter of 2007 has been wonderfully full, too full to blog about yet. To fill in the gap, here is one of my all time favorite paintings, Fra Angelica's Annunciation at the top of the staircase of the San Marco monastary in Florence. When I first saw it 12 years ago it knocked me over, and it continues to whenever it pops up, which it often does at the most interesting times and in the most interesting places.

Happy holidays to all!

shadow puppets

Bob Bresnick, my co-teacher, and the Quinnipiac students' shadow puppet dress rehearsal. Karl and I built and designed this nifty, portable stage. I'm looking forward to using it myself.

CWOS 07: Sunday

Meg, me and Kim on the final day of City Wide this year; our great bright room; Tony; and our annual Thai Taste celebration afterwards: Kevin, Kim, Tony, me and Aidan.

assistant

I really need one, especially so I can relieve my mum who diligently comes and works 16 hour days without (much) complaint, stuffed into my tiny studio with me, matting and framing so I can keep painting. Here she is with the box of prints getting ready for City Wide Open Studios, which has become such a big endeavour.

She has to put up with a lot when I am in pre-CWOS stress. She's learned the trick of making martinis to keep me out of her hair.

CWOS: Toxic School (take 2)

It's my 6th year doing the New Haven City Wide Open Studios Alternative Space. We're back in the former Hamden Middle School, and I'm so happy to be sharing a room with three super talented friends: Tony Baloney Juliano, Meg Giannotti, and Kim Mikenis. This week they've been busy working on cleaning and decorating the Computer Lab, while my space (last photo) is a bit lagging. But with my mom's help, by Saturday it'll be rocking. www.cwos.org for info and directions.

Japanese

A package from Houghton Mifflin arrived today with 2 copies of The Water Gift in Japanese. I was excited enough to blog about it, and while posting I saw this on Blue Rose Girls posted today. My life abounds with synchronicity lately.

The books had neat little scraps of paper in them that are just as interesting and unfathomable to me. Of course I have to give one of these to Kenichi, Waka and Linka.

angel in transit

Figuring out how to pack and ship the angel took about as long as making her. I had to build a form fitting box that fit within another box. I felt bad for the art handlers who had to deal with my detailed instructions, but the Child at Heart people took it in stride. She's currently on display at the Newburyport, MA library, and goes onto the Danforth Museum on October 31 as part of the Robert's Snow exhibition.

in the details

I put the finishing touches on the angel for the Robert's Snow snowflake auction.

QU Puppetry 2007

The fall semester of Quinnipiac University Puppetry that I teach with Bob Bresnick has started. The first week: handpuppets. Not much beats the enjoyment in getting people to interact with puppets. There's all sorts of discomfort, awkwardness and humor, and occasional tiny moments of puppet awakenings which are thrilling.