First drafts suck, and that's okay. In 2007, scholar Robert Winter gave a talk where he played some of Beethoven's early drafts for the "Ode to Joy" movement in his ninth symphony. And, well... they're not good. At all. You can watch the whole talk here, but this is the relevant part: It's equalizing, isn't it? Even for a super genius like Beethoven, a piece doesn't just come in a single flash of inspiration. You have to work at it to make it good. A more recent example: When Pixar was writing their first feature film in the 1990s, they knew they wanted to do something about living t ..read more

Back in September I was involved in a music video shoot with Scary Bear Soundtrack -- a band I've collaborated with before -- for their song "Pyongyang". And the video is finally done! My puppets feature heavily in the video, and I even sneak in there myself. We shot the whole thing in one long, exhausting, and extremely fun day. The director, Steven Hunt of SDC Video, was really receptive to suggestions from everyone. Puppeteers often have strong opinions about how their puppets should be filmed, and it was cool that I could say things like "I think this should be a series of two-shots ..read more

For almost a year now, I've been a contributor to the children's website Super Simple. They produce a ton of kids' content for the internet, especially animated YouTube videos. My job has been to create blog posts, mostly about science, with activities that preschoolers can do. Two of my posts have been about puppets, with templates that kids (with their parents' help) can print out and assemble. Here's one that went up today: a puppet of Peekaboo Cat, a character from one of their most popular videos. I'm really pleased with this one; I designed the puppet so that it can actually play pee ..read more

My supporters on Patreon paid for a blue bike light, which I'll be using as a special effect in my puppet show, "Channels". Here's a little video showing how it will work: You can see all my video updates for as little as a dollar a month by becoming a patron ..read more

I've just started a Patreon page for my puppetry projects. If you enjoy my work and want to see me make more of it -- and if you can afford it -- please consider becoming a patron. Thank you ..read more

I created the live visuals for Scary Bear Soundtrack's song "My First Northern Lights" at their concert at the Shanghai Restaurant in Ottawa on 20 October 2017. (The video above was edited by me from footage shot by Julie Cruikshank and Mabe Kwan.) Most live concert visuals are created digitally, but I made mine by pointing a camera at a small-scale puppetry setup, then connecting that camera to a projector. This gave my visuals a unique kind of tangibility. The bear constellation puppet was inspired by a Paleolithic cave painting from France. It's made of cardboard body parts, covered i ..read more

  On October 20, the Abstractions will be performing at a Scary Bear Soundtrack concert at the Shanghai Restaurant on Somerset Street. Scary Bear Soundtrack is an Ottawa-based indie synth pop band fronted by my friend Gloria. Several songs will include my puppets as vocalists or musicians. But one song in particular will feature my first foray into live projected visuals, which are becoming a big thing these days. I'll be making use of some ideas developed for the bear play, which now seems to be on permanent hiatus. Here's a sneak peek preview. If you know the circumpolar conste ..read more

I built the original Mumford at Mermaid Theatre's Animotion. We were given a bunch of empty containers of various shapes and told to make something. As a result, he was the first puppet I ever built that I didn't design first -- I just started building and saw where it took me. I made a big mouth out of yogurt containers and a fat little body out of a milk jug. With those features, I thought maybe he should be an opera singer, which is why I gave him a bow tie and permanently closed eyes. His springy arms were inspired by Tom Servo of Mystery Science Theater 3000. When I started performing ..read more

Lately I've been trying to find ways I can improve my children's puppetry workshops. When I talk about the different kinds of puppets, I explain how shadow puppets work, and I show the kids this picture of a Javanese wayang kulit puppet: But as with Mr. Punch a few years ago, it occurred to me that I ought to have a real shadow puppet to show them. Why pay me to show them a photograph? I enlarged that picture (identified as Sita from the Ramayana) and cut it out. Then I traced it onto card stock and cut out the body, the two upper arms, and the two forearms/hands. In my research ..read more

About a year and a half ago, I shared the trailer for my friend Pixie Cram's short film Joan, an impressionistic retelling of the story of Joan of Arc. Well, the whole film is now online! Check it out: Joan/Jeanne from Pixie Cram on Vimeo. Pixie made Joan during an artist residency at DAÏMÔN centre de production in Gatineau, Quebec. The whole film is stop-motion animation, even the parts with live actors (a process called pixilation). The visual style was inspired by paintings. I assisted with a few of the shots, including the candle flame and the pomegranate, and I played the role o ..read more