5/18 some notes for residency

I have to write a proposal by May 22 for the residency I’m applying to at Marble House. If/when I do it, I will be choosing the Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary category. As you have to choose between them, mine will be Interdisciplinary. My understanding is that I will be using several kinds of media to make several related projects that all fold into each other and could end up as an installation.

The unique aspect of this is; I am doing puppetry, making my own puppets, from flat paintings to beings/dolls and then animating them in a “puppet show” on Tik Tok. As with old fashioned puppet shows I will be telling a story in very small short scenes. My media will be:

Art: Paintings and works on paper, ie. 2D “flat” images

Art: 3D: mixed media dolls and “creatures”, made from a variety of materials and up there the goal will be to focus on making huge dolls/beings around 4 feet and above maybe to my exact height and to use materials from the outdoors/environment mixed with art materials

Video: A series of Tik Tok videos that will go together and be a construction of a book I started writing but haven’t written. The writing will be to organize each Tik Tok to tell a tiny story or part of a story from the unwritten book, The Art Box, a memoir of my studios, a life in art, art materials, art therapy and art therapy interactions, and other exchanges and experiences in the studios. The focus will be on little items to put in the “Art Box”.

Installation: End goal would be to have an installation maybe both indoors and outdoors. Some of the finished dolls would be outdoors and the rest in an installation room where there would also be paintings/drawings that were used as puppets. I’m not sure how the Tik Toks could be shown. I’d like to have iPads on the walls playing Tik Toks with headphones attached or ideally figure out a way to have the Tik Toks be going on with the sound in the open but one at a time in some kind of loop, maybe random, maybe in order as the different parts of the book. I would like to have an Art Box in the room which would have my “art box” items from the project, maybe notes and drawings that were neither kept nor thrown out.

So that is I guess the description of it.

I need to write about my concept of puppetry and video and why I’m using Tik Toks. I thought of moving to just video, but I want to continue as I’ve been doing with my Tik Toks and figure out how to make a book out of Tik Toks. I’m going to write a “script”, with dolls talking about the project because the artist statement and other statement have to be written.

Then the photos/videos to submit would be Tik Toks about it, photos of dolls and paintings.

Ok. That actually doesn’t seem so chaotic except how to describe what The Art Box book that is now going to turn into vignettes is about and what is it. Next post. I have from tomorrow until Sunday 5/22 to put together my proposal.

What makes it fun and original is my take on puppetry and the idea of using Tik Tok as an art media, not videos of making art, but videos of art talking and my definition/concept of what makes a puppet a puppet, as well as turning a book into a Tik Tok puppet show. I’ll be painting and drawing, making 3D dolls, videoing after writing reflections. Maybe the writing can be part of it in some way. I’d like to write a small paragraph of a vignette and then do the Tik Tok how I do them now. I don’t write a script but if it goes wrong I discard it until it’s good enough and then post it.