The 70's
Above is my first and only puppet I created in 1970. His name was Jeremiah, based on a character I created in a Children's Book Class at The School of Visual Arts , back in 1966.
I have been trying to locate that book, but have so far, had no luck. It was interesting, because
I dummied up the entire book .
The story followed this large Green character, who did everything to fit in with everyone else. The last page he finally found his place in society. He was happy as a lark, sitting in a cage, with a sign above saying "Please don't Feed the Jeremiah"
It was an Anti Children's book. I always pushed the envelope ay SVA. Sometimes the instructors accepted my creativity, sometimes they thought I was a smart *ss.
As an artist, you are always asked to draw something,
or create something for someone.
Susan and I lived in the 840 house, It was an apartment house where some of the wealthy lived, right on the beach. Across the hall were Mike and Judy with their two german shepherds,( Yago, and Tasha,) Bobbi and Joey lived next door,and upstairs was two of the band members of the Vanilla Fudge.
It was Joeys birthday, so they asked me to create a gift for him. Joey was a smoker, but a particular one. He never bought store bought cigarettes, "I don't trust them" , he would say.
He would buy tobacco, papers, and roll his own cigarettes. Below is the mobile gift I made for him. I gave it to him in pieces, in a box. He had to build it himself. based on my directions, and cut outs. He got a kick out of it.
Because you create something for a friend, you must create something for your girl.
Suzy's birthday was coming up, and I had no idea what to get her. Heck, with the cost of the apartment, I had no money anyway.
So I used my hands, and created her, what I called the "Jiggasaurus". It was a jig saw puzzle birthday card. Each piece represented one of my characters, or a portion thereof. I also created a story to go along with it.
Each page was pasted on the walls throughout the apartment. It told of how the Jiggasaurus came to be, as it blew into town with one purpose. To get each piece together, to celebrate Suzy's birthday. It was at least unique. The pages are all but lost, I have but one photo to show you how the Jiggasaurus looked ,in part, for Suzy's Birthday. See Below.
What I find interesting as I dig through my old files, is that , not only the evolution of my art and style, but also at how we dressed , and our appearance back then, either in art or in life.
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.Note the Bell bottoms and the platform shoes. Even I, at 6'2", wore platform shoes...
More Artistic Memoirees to follow later...
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