Speaking of puppetry

Speaking of puppetry in my last post brings me to share this big puppet with you.

This "Charlie Chaplin" puppet is the creation of John Manders.  John is the National Transit Studios resident children's book illustrator.  Now John of course had help with this guy.  He drew up the plans for the puppet and created the skeleton.  But other transit artists, Carol McDonald and Joann Wheeler created his head, hands and feet.  Help with the puppet wasn't limited to just the Transit artists.  The Giant unicycle was created by Bill Kapp and Charlie's clothes were made by Ecclesiastical Threads.  And of course the puppet wouldn't have gone anywhere without  the crew who helped Charlie take part in the Oil Heritage Parade.  Charlie started out pedaling his bike, but by the time he reached the end of the parade (where I was) he needed a little help getting across the finish line.  

Usually the Transit Artists paint a car for the parade but this year they took a different approach.  (A very clever one I think.)  The reason being is that 2014 has been designated as "The Year of Charlie Chaplin."  Many activities are planned around Chaplin for the year, culminating in the First night activities on New Year's Eve.  For more information visit  Oil City Special Events and download a copy of Chaplin Calendar events.  

The reason Chaplin has been adopted as a theme is because he supposedly signed his first movie contract in Oil City.  

This "Charlie" will be making more than one appearance.  He may be seen in upcoming Graffiti Gallery shows and will be present at the Halloween party at the end of October.  

I have Charlie Chaplin's Biography on my Kindle.  Guess it's time to read it....... may lead to some Charlie "inspired" jewelry.  (Mini-bot is telling me to get to it!)

And the winner is......

Last night was the annual Friends of the Transit Event.  (That's why I was working my butt off all last week..... oh if only that really worked.)

Turn out was good (but could have been better) for the festivities.  A new local Reggae Band played for the event.  They were really good (but loud in such a small space.)   With that rhythm and beat we all couldn't help but dance as we walked.  They will be playing in Pittsburgh soon.

The 12 minute paintings done to some lively music added to the festivities and were auctioned off at the end of the evening.

Joann Wheeler, Abby Bunnell and Carol McDonald all completed paintings in their individual styles.

The winner of this year's Friend of the Transit Award went to Marilyn Karns.  Marilyn is a retired kindergarten teacher who for the past ten years has run the National Transit Gallery and set up all the classes that went on for the Oil City Arts Association.  It was an award well deserved and we are all indebted to Marilyn for all she does.

John Manders again donated his time to do caricatures (which is always so popular.)  One of these days I'll bite the bullet and have mine done.

I demonstrated (basically talked about) one of the processes used to create designs for metal clay (particularly the Photo Polymer Plate technique.)  Then I did a brief demo with bronze clay and talked about the differences between silver and the base metal clays.  

The evening ended with the announcement of the winners of the 12 minute paintings.   The winners of the silent auction will be notified in a few days.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was having a scavenger hunt and giving away a piece from the National Transit Series.  Earlier in the day a co-worker I hadn't seen in years stopped in the studio and it was great to see her.  In fact it was so great that her name was drawn for the necklace.  Way to go Vickie Conn.

All in all the yearly fund raiser was a success.  First count estimates that we raised $600 for the Gallery.  Thanks to all who helped.