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The PGG & a Spring Water Show

I’ve been somewhat lazy this summer, and with September ten days away, work anxiety is setting in. But the anxiety is nice and focussing – I want to get work done. Lots of work done. I am excited about many of my upcoming projects. The two projects I’m turning my attention to this week (aside from two commissions that must get done) are an upcoming show at the Niagara Artists Centre (NAC) and a puppet show that I’m plotting with my frequent collaborator and good friend, Alexa Fraser.

In September, Puppet-a-Go-Go has a show in the Plate Glass Gallery of the NAC. The show is not a live puppet show, but rather a tableau. An audience of puppets watching a puppet show. All four Puppet-a-Go-Go members have to make a bunch of puppets for the audience and then we each (and this is the part that has me so excited) make a scene – a frozen moment – for the puppets to watch. The scene changes monthly, and my scene – my frozen moment in time – is first up. Seamore (or with those eyes, should it be Seemore?) the Squid, pictured above, is part of the puppet audience, and I’m going to make some other deep sea creatures to sit with him. Seamore is made from an old tablecloth and a too-small dress. I have a fairly intense squidphobia, but a friend of mine who is an excellent storyteller recently told me about an encounter he had with a squid, and the story was so vivid and funny that I felt compelled to stitch together Seamore.

My other current work obsession is the puppet show that Alexa and I are developing for the spring. It involves water, wetsuits, and will likely feature a different puppet cephalopod. More on it as it develops.

The OAC Rocks!

Many thanks to the Ontario Arts Council for supporting me in exhibiting my work in the recent Puppet-a-Go-Go show. I was thrilled to receive word recently that I’m the recipient of an Exhibition Assistance grant. The OAC also generously supported me in the continued development of Virginia, a TYP play that I’m co-creating with Cole Lewis, an artist and friend who I greatly admire. Earlier this month, Cole and I spent two days at Carousel Players working on our script and design with the help of some very talented people, Jessica Carmichael (Artistic Director of Carousel Players), Sam Ferguson (sound designer), Deanna Jones (actor), and Tara Koehler (actor).

Photo courtesy of Carousel Players.

Puppet-a-Go-Go

The Puppet-a-Go-Go show was great fun, though the lead up was a little frantic. Alexa Fraser and I were working  on our marionettes until the last possible moment, and we went from 12 marionettes to 5, but we figured 5 was a party and 12 would be too much. Right? Honestly, we were both so busy completing other projects that we knew we had to reduce the numbers. But we were happy with what we accomplished and the wall of 1000+ finger puppets was a wonder to behold.

Photo of a few of my finger puppets by Joe Lapinski.

Setting for a Fairy Tale

Setting for a Fairy Tale by Joseph Cornell

Setting for a Fairy Tale by Joseph Cornell

With all the mask and puppet making of the past few months, I’ve been itching to get back to some collage work. Making the collages for Alice in Plunderland was completely absorbing. I loved it. I had fun at my show too, and I recently received a generous cheque from the Ontario Arts Council for Exhibition Assistance, making it all the sweeter. Thank you OAC!

Now I’m combing through books to find a fairy tale or legend to illustrate, but the more books I look at, the more source material I flip through, the more I think I want to work on a personal project that I’ve had at the back of my mind for years. I can’t talk about it of course – not until it’s well underway.

As I think about collage, read stories and look at images, one of my favourite pieces of art, Joseph Cornell’s Setting for a Fairy Tale, keeps coming to my mind. It is so simple, elegant, beautiful, and it contains untold stories of promise and heartache.

Ants in the Park

A few months ago, my family and I headed to lovely Montebello Park for an afternoon picnic in support of Our Community Food Store, a wonderful initiative started by my multi-talented neighbour, Karrie Porter. The goal of Our Community Food Store is to open a downtown food coop in St Catharines. After spending seven years passing under the ghastly QEW when we need to buy food, I almost swoon when I think that soon we might be able to walk a few downtown blocks to a well-stocked grocery store run by friendly people.

When we reached the park, I was surprised and delighted to discover three ant masks I’d made for Theatre Beyond Words‘ production of “Tales from the Garden” in action.

In addition to her work on Our Community Food Store and several other project, it turns out that Karrie  was the coordinator for neXt Company Theatre’s Travelling Roadshow, a government-funded initiative for which neXt staged a series of “spontaneous moments of culture” across the Niagara Region and Toronto. “Ants in the Park” was part of the series.