Visual Fringe

This is the second year I have exhibited work in Visual Fringe. There was a $20 entry fee that I had forgotten about, but I gladly paid to be part of this amazing event. Anna McCambridge and Jeremy Seghers were behind the table to take my work and welcome me to Fringe. A year ago I started sketching at the Fringe and I felt like a bit of an outsider. This year, attending Fringe feels like going home and every day brings fun reunions with people I have sketched and admired over the year. Just as I did last year. I settled back and did a sketch of the Visual Fringe reception table as art work filtered in. I picked up my Fringe button and Fringe lanyard and was told by Anna to return for the Fringe Gala in a few days. This year since I am a performer in the “Creative Mind Experiment“, I find I can go into any show at any time so long as it isn’t sold out. It looks like I will be doing twice as many sketches of actual shows this year. Fringe this year should be a wild non-stop sketch marathon, so strap in and enjoy the ride!

The first show I had to get a ticket for was Brian Feldman’s “Fringe of Nature.” Sultana Fatima Ali had set up a camping chair in the box office and planned to sit from 4PM when the box office opened till 11PM when Brian planned to sell the first of the $10 tickets. I decided to sit with Sultana with my camping chair and we joked around and watched as the Fringe Festival swirled and accelerated to a fevered pitch. Large lines of people would gather at the theaters and then go in leaving the space quiet again. I wandered off and did a sketch and saw my first show which was “Goblin Party Interactive” put on by Heather Henson and her crew at IBEX Puppetry. “Goblin Party Interactive” was a really fun interactive show and I plan to return to sketch. When I joined Sultana again at about quarter to eleven, she was still the only person in line for “Fringe of Nature.” I joked that she might be in the wrong line and that Brian probably wouldn’t have people stand in a traditional line. There was a large group of people standing in a circle and I rationalized that Brian might expect people to stand in a circular line. Any time I spotted a person with hiking boots or any item of clothing that gave a hint of the great outdoors, I let Sultana know that they might be trying to cut in line. Brian finally did show up and sell the tickets, which were gorgeous, encased in lucite ticket holders, and nice enough to hang on a wall. I will be camping with Brian on my birthday, May 22nd; my wife Terry will be joining me.

Heather Henson at the History Center

Heather Henson the daughter of Jim Henson, of Muppets fame, gave a at a lunchtime bag lunch talk about her fathers work at the History Center. She began the talk by showing early black and white television commercials her dad was doing at the beginning of his career. This early advertising work was surprisingly violent and over the top. The dead pan expressions on the Muppets made the zany skits all the more funny.
There was some trouble with the audio so she began talking over the muffled soundtrack. She explained that Kermit the Frog had originally been made from parts of one of her mother’s coats. In the early days her mom had been much more involved in the day to day production work.
Answering a question from the audience, Heather explained that holidays in the Henson home involved creating everything from scratch. Christmas ornaments would be simple Styrofoam which was then hand decorated by the children.
Heather has formed her own puppet company here in town called Ibex Puppetry and I follow their work as often as I can.