On Thursday, I was privileged enough to be part of the class who got to hear Penny Francis, who has been, by far, one of my favorite practitioners. She was easy to follow, engaging, and overall I took away something that I had been lacking: confidence.

Puppetry is something I have been interested in since I was fiveish and saw Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock. That's right folks, my puppet obsession didn't begin with the Muppets, it was the five main Fraggles, and the Doozers that got me hooked. Ask any member of my family and they will be sure to tell you with exasperated sighs that the house was always full of some sort of creation. I remember building marionettes with my cousin: cows, horses, dogs. You name it, we built it. In my senior year of high school, I built a lifesized cow out of cardboard, faux fur, straws, and a ton of hot glue. The bones of the cow were anotomically correct and pieces of her were removable so that you could see the effects of mad cow disease.
So for some reason, I decided to put all of this on the back burner, and ignore the fact that something had attracted me to this artform all of my life. When I got to Central, I admit, I was intimidated because I felt like I had missed some vital part of training in order to be a puppeteer, but now, after Penny's lecture, I feel much more confident bringing to the table what I can. I am resourceful and a creator. And I should not feel intimidated by other people's experience because I will have my time to be a craftsman and then an artist.
Here are a few pictures of the puppet heads I have been working on. Enjoy :)