Getting the head painted this early puts us in good position for the parade. Two weeks to go!
Archive for March, 2010
Our boy tries out the Zombi Shakesfish-head prior to papier-mache.
This year was my attractive graphic designer wife’s turn to start our puppet project with an initial design pitch. A fish of dubious taxonomical origin began to emerge.
Given the head will be the focus of the puppet and be much more three dimensional than last year’s dorso-ventrally flattened alien, I resolved to find a new way to create a sturdy frame that wouldn’t require a miniature mountain of styrofoam. Since we had a surplus of used tomato cages lying around, we gave that a try:
I highly recommend using the proper personal protection equipment when working with power tools.
Welcome. Enjoy here the story of The Pink Panic at last year’s Festifools parade.
It seemed like destiny.
Festifools, now it it’s third year, was a year in the making for us. I was enchanted by the idea of a free-for-all parade with the din of bucketdrums and giant, looming puppets where the lines blurred easily between linearity, order or even between spectator and participant. I knew I had to go get me some of that.
The design is loosely borrowed from one of my original characters, a cyclopean alien with sinusoidal lines and veiny texture. The similiarities pretty much diverge there.
The core of the parade is an art course at the University called Art in Public Spaces. They have clay masters followed by plastercastings and a full studio space supported by tuition. I have styrofoam I fish out of lab trash piles in my kitchen’s midnight hours.
Papier mache went well, being the bulk of the work. Lots of wallpaper paste (which is not as easy to find as I originally thought) with scavenged newspaper (also soon to be rare?) rounded out many nights.
Rosey liked to get in the way.
The skeleton was built out of PVC, which again doesn’t have the highbrow aesthetic of bamboo, but at buck and change for a ten foot pole it’s hard to refuse that kind of flexible strength on the cheap. Hot glue did the rest.
Shoe forms as scales/ectodermal nerve plexi/egg sacs. I scored about forty for a couple quarters.
Barely fit in our garage when finished. He stuck out two sides of my truck bed during transport.
Frida Kahlo creeps me out, man.
Ours might have been on the low end, but we beat out just about everyone in terms of sheer size and breadth. The Pink Panic’s wingspan was a full seven yards and loomed about thirteen feet high as I lurched him down Main with my brother and attractive graphic designer wife. Jack was amused when we brought him over. The girl in the stroller next to him totally freaked out and refused to stop screaming. I…I might be responsible for some long term trauma there. I’m totally sorry, little girl.
I will destroy you!
My favorite, the wind was picking up.
We were a bit shocked by the sudden start to the parade, doing our best to get up to the Anorexicsaurus. Our understanding was two lines would approach from each side, pass each other and double back as many times as possible in the hour. Imagine our surprise when a Fool worker began giving us complex directions: Move like a conveyor belt, then we’ll do two passes, three swells and swiftly depart! What? I’m holding a giant puppet, lady. I’m totally going this way.
Great fun, great times. I’m totally stoked for next year.
probichaud
Xenomorph Puppet Foundry 