Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the wonderful world of the puppetry of Noah. You will find the new Puppets Gallery to your right, which I highly recommend browsing. Its actually a collection of his puppets, dolls, marionettes, masks, and I think a few sculptures got in there too. You’ll also find I updated the Sculpture Gallery with a few of Noah’s older classic sculptures most of which were inspired by H.P. Lovecraft stories. They’re very creative works.
An Unusual Gas Station Attendant
The beauty of these puppets and dolls are that most of them were creatively put together with only materials found at a gas station. So you have these dolls or marionettes that came from the simplest everyday items. If something else was added to help make them it was considered cheating.
The marionette above was made to be Noah’s surrogate attendant so he could sleep in the back. Just kidding, but he did position it behind the counter so people coming in to pay for gas would see this unusual attendant wearing a uniform and watching the counter. It would be interesting to find out the strings were there to operate it from elsewhere in the shop, collect money, etc. I don’t think the puppet would pump their gas though.
Paper Clips, Masking Tape, and Coffee
As I said only the bear essentials went into the creation of these puppets, so if it wasn’t found around the convenience store it wasn’t used. The clothes were made from rags or other fabrics found around the store and sometimes soaked in coffee to stain them brown. If you look at their faces some of them were constructed with a paper clip frame and covered in masking tape. Sometimes these faces were covered in “puppet skin,” which hardens and makes a decent skin. I think the actual recipe is classified.
Some of the interesting ones are the little dolls. These little things seem to come from all walks of life ranging from everyday Joe to pirate. There’s even a bondage fetishist! These things wear little clothes sometimes soaked in coffee and whatnot and sometimes colored with markers.
The wire structures inside the heads are pretty intricate with moving mechanisms controlling the eyes and jaw.
Workspaces
There are pros and cons to working on puppets at a gas station. For starters with not much to do as far as workload you may as well spend your time constructively, and getting paid to make art is not a bad gig at all so I think we can call that a pro. A con would be that although it forces creativity to use only found materials, being constricted to use what you see around you may not produce the results you want every time. So aside from the Shell puppets, more complicated puppets can be conceived in the “workshop.”
The workshop wasn’t used entirely for puppets but was initially meant for it, as you can see in this picture. The whole workshop was the rest of Noah’s attic and was the place where many a good artwork was created. It is in the workshop where I made my only sculptures, in the middle on a little sculpture table with a drawer to include all the necessary tools.
So there you have but a glimpse into his puppets but you can see the rest here. Don’t forget to check out the sculptures too.
If you appreciate Noah’s puppets or his methods, let him know by leaving a comment. Until next time, take it easy.
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