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.

fresh prints

The Search giclee print from The Water Gift which was sold out is back in stock. Beautifully detailed and color correct printing on premium archival paper. 8 x 15.5 inches. Signed, limited edition of 175. $90. Click here to see a bigger image.



And a new laser print, The Pirate Queen, from What Could Be Better Than This?



Small: 6 x 10 inches $12 + 2.50 s&h
Big: 10 x 16 inches $18 + 3.50 s&h

Email me at merfire@gmail.com.

Robert's Snow angel

I'm just about done with my snowflake contribution to this year's Robert's Snow auction. Below, my snowflakes from the first two years.

Robert

Robert Mercer passed away Monday night. Messages for Grace can be left on her blog or the Blue Rose Blog. The Robert's Snow project, founded in Robert's honor, is still going strong this year. The snowflakes will be auctioned in November and December.

hiatus

You may have noticed a substantial lag on this blog. After feeling guilty about if for a while, I've finally given in to the need for a blog break. I'm filling in weekly over at the Blue Rose Girl blog, you can find me there for now.

Don't worry, I'll be back. Look at the beautiful new website my mom is building me in the meantime. www.paintedbooks.com.

traveling show

I bought this rolling toolbox last year for my puppet class supplies. Over the summer it turned into my traveling show box.


Everything fits perfectly into it, the books, puppets, table set up, and my dance shoes.

The last show I did was in an outdoor courtyard with no wall to tape my 6 x 6 foot paper to, so Karl designed and built me this wall, which is 2 theater flats clamped together and mounted onto feet. It's light weight and fits in my Oldsmobile sedan.
I used to dream about being a traveling gypsy performer, especially the part about having a show that packed up neatly and moved around. I love sets that come apart, and boxes, and fitting things into boxes. I'm sure it's my grandfather's influence again. And my mum, who loves organization.

Petula always takes keen interest in my projects.