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all right hello everyone thank you for joining me today my name is Sarah

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Huffman and I am the art rental and sales associate here at the Art Gallery of Alberta we welcome you to our meet

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the artist series a part of Ag a live here at the gallery we embrace the teachings of Tortola

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a cree phrase meaning welcome there is room in our house even the virtual one

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everyone is welcome I’m delighted to be your host for this hour joining me from Red Deer today is

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artist Matt Gould before we dive into the subject I’d like to highlight that this is an interactive event and we’d

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like to hear from you you are welcome to use the chat window on the side screen to share your comments as we discuss Matt’s current

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project if a question goes unnoticed or unanswered at the time please know that we’ll be looking back at that afterwards

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once we get to the end of the event today’s conversation is live and some of

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the themes are political and satirical in nature we support our audiences right

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to form their own differing opinions and reactions to any artists work or statements while also supporting an

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artist’s freedom of imagination and expression even though we may not endorse the views and statements as

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expressed we aim to spark respectful conversation although Matt Gould was

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born and raised in Edmonton Alberta he has lived in Toronto Vancouver the south

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of France as well as a seven year stint sailing the seven seas abroad of cruise

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ships he has been living in Red Deer Alberta since the early two-thousands enjoying and taking advantage of the

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wonderfully complex trails and pathways that crisscross the city Gould has spent

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most of his life in the arts and has expressed himself through painting drawing fiber book illustration singing

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acting script writing and leader direction he has taught contemporary art

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in process at Red Deer college and acted as artistic director and playwright in

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residence for the award-winning tree house youth theatre he has been an active

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of the Alberta Craft Council car FAQ the Red Deer Arts Council and Theatre

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Alberta Matt continues to push boundaries in his studio practice helping one day and I quote to get it

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right please join me join me in welcoming our June meet the artist Matt gold yes never saying you know who I am

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you know why we’re here I’m going to start this evening conversation and

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presentation with a little bit of a slideshow so Sarah if you can go ahead and load up the first one okay there we

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go so that’s my crotch as a ten year old

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sitting in front of a a house that I built so this was just put on to kind of

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show you how I’ve always been making things building things this was a house

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that I built for my troll and in a little corner that you might be able to see there was a secret passage with a

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bookcase and an exit for them to sneak out I put those dead trees up so I just

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kind of chose this to say that I’ve been mucking around on this stuff for a super

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long time and for me story has always been important because we’d act out my brother and I would act out a tremendous

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number of stories around this little troll house before it disappeared into

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the mud pile who knows when okay next slide if we could so with Sarah

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mentioned I was the artistic director of tree house Youth Theatre in Red Deer and this is one of the major puppet pieces

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that we did in a production from 2013 called Red Deer River stories it was the

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official production theatre production of red deer centenary so this is a cow

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called Rosalind of old basing who was a very famous cow in the early 1900s so I

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just want to show you how I’ve always kind of combined narrative with let’s

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say fictional characters puppetry etc etc next one Sarah again trails you Thea

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so these were a series of drawings that I did for the production of Sweeney Todd I said it in Victorian England and I

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used as my drawings inspiration from 18th and 19th century black and white

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drawings so if you can move to the next one this again shows you sort of puppets

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so if those drawn figures behind them this was a big production number called the priest and so each of the characters

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and the actors and the dancers behind had sort of very crude puppets so once

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again over the years I’ve been throwing puppets in and working with them and kind of loving there was different

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levels of story I guess next slide this

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I just doing today I mean you’ve got a million images but it it goes from kind of my sensibility

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and the idea that weird surrealistic sort of stuff pop culture fits in with

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regards the colour and pattern and just ridiculous whatever’s pardon my

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french so that’s Milan well I’m blushing here and a gas mask so I I have as I was

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going through a lot of my photographs and slides deciding what we might use as a tiny presentation to kick this off one

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of the things that I have done you sort of take pictures of slides and I mean take pictures of masks and of course

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puppets and animate kind of figures in that way next please this is a Henry Moore sculpture from

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Toronto so it was just an idea to look at that kind of basic shape and the

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broken-down smoothness of it somehow not necessarily influencing my work but

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sort of next please this was Nick Cave who was a very famous

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african-american artist and he had a big exhibition at the Glen beau this year of his sound suits so he makes these

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massive wonderful combinations of assemblages of bits and bobs and this

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was one of the masks that he created so again I’m always drawn to the face and to the personality and the personage

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next so in this project that I’m working I’ve often referred to and gone back to

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this man’s puppets this is Paul clay who was a very famous artist from Switzerland and in the 1920s and 30s he

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was an instructor of Bauhaus in Germany and he created a series of over 50

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puppets for his nine-year-old son Felix so he created most of the faces and the

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bodies and a woman named Sasha Morgentaler created a lot of the bodies

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and the clothing at the beginning but what I really liked was the sense of the primitive and the raw and the great

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expressive qualities that come from these puppets next this begins to move

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into my own exploration around masks from my own work and this was a a mask

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called he likes fat and it was from nineteen twenty thirteen when I was

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working with leather when I got my introduction to leather so this is based on a cereal box that I took cut up

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decorated and reconstructed so you can wear that mask so again you’re getting that sense of connecting to the theatre

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if you will next this comes back to like

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toys and again things that are animated things that you can interact with a little more this was based on drawings

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the little drawings in black were from children who were expressing concepts

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about war so I I did the needlework in black and the needlework in white is an

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expression of peace and joy so I kind of did a mishmash and these were kids from

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North America and from Iraq and Iran Syria places where those children are

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both seeing violence but we’re still drawing pictures of flowers so for me it was this mishmash and again them a toy

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that connects somehow next and this is

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going to lead us into my work now this was a series of three puppets that I did

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that are at the Albert craft Council that were based on songs by Joni Mitchell who’s a goddess to me

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as far as I’m concerned and this is a big yellow taxi and they talk about the

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lights spilling out onto a parking lot in the water and the puddles and I just

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got the pinks and the neon lights from that kind of a garish thing but it’s

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moving into kind of the the Paul clay you can sort of see the abstract quality of it and then starting to work with

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fabric this is all hand dyed fabric using natural dyes like matter and stuff

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like that so I think that’s the end of the slide thing Sarah okay here I am so

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leading up this this first thing that I was hiding behind he’s actually a puppet

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of me that I did for a protest rally in February and there was a protest at City

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Hall against the United conservative part of the UCP and so a group of us got

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together and I designed the puppets and wrote a script and we did this puppet play that’s the only one that survived

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Keith told me to keep it otherwise I jettisoned all the rest of them so

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what’s led me to this project is the marrying if you will like of theatre

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because I’ve been involved with theatre for a long time and performance and narrative and storytelling so for me

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storytelling is a big deal and writing scripts is my favorite kind of writing

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I like the voices of characters and how they appear and how they begin to function so one of the things that

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happened I’ve sort of created I’m the only member really so far of the Red

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Deer puppetry collective so so we’re starting to I don’t know well soon

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they’ll be coming together to do something anyway blah blah blah I’m

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finding that as an artist yes it’s great to be creating things because I do

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create things I have to kind of make things but in this world we’re living in right now as we all know there’s so much

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going on this is the first time in my life I’m saying I have to respond not only as

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a human being but as an artist and I’ve never done this before I’ve never sort of let’s say gotten on a soapbox if you

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will or said I have to talk about this stuff I have to respond to it so what’s

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what’s led me thus far under this project was coming into a political

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situation in the province and you know Sarah wrote the disclaimer that there’s some kind of political stuff going on

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around you people who people who know me realize that none of this is sort of a surprise but that puppet show was so

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well received in February that I’d written that I said okay I want to

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create these smaller puppets that are still responding to what’s going on

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around me and the government etc so Sarah doesn’t make sense for me to show

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some of the puppets oh I can’t hear you oh I still can’t – okay fine here we go

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so I have chosen to create a series of puppets representing different ministers

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of our current government and I’m in the writing scripts small scripts that we

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hope ultimately will be filmed so we’ll be churning these little stories and

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sketches that are used with puppets so this kind of a lovely child like buying

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into that experience there’s a separation if you will from the real

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person it’s not like I’m standing in front of a camera as a news person or as someone who’s doing a parody of a

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political party or a certain person yeah absolutely yeah so um I’m gonna show you

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the first puppet in and I’ll talk a little bit about the process how I sort

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of created them and all that kind of stuff so the first one some of you may

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recognize them is our Minister of Health

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so this is Tyler shan-dro and as I was working I was saying to Sara earlier I

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made all of the the heads at about the same time because these are made with sort of a cardboard base and then

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plaster and then painting on top so I created all the heads and then it took me a week or so to begin to drill down

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into how I wanted to present them what kind of clothing because as a theatre person when you’re looking at costume

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you down the path to character right mm-hmm so I’ve turned this guy into a

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surgeon so you can see the blood on his uniform and I gave him

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I gave him these pink kind of are purpley kind of scrubs right you sort of

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see maybe nurses where and there’s a little bandana yeah that’s that surgeon’s hat right with the mask so

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again I haven’t worked on his script yet per se mm-hmm but it will come as I as I

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now have him fully formed and then of course if you see him walking away

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nobody saw that there’s this hairy arse hanging out of his so again like when

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you’re telling stories in your work stories it you want to spend that time

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kind of developing the character building layer up after layer at least at least I do right I’m gonna bring up

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on by the way as Sara said before if there are any questions as we’re going

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along like interrupt a digital hand give

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me a digital finger whatever you have to do we did get a comments from Leslie

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Crawford letting you know that she loves your bowtie oh well thanks Leslie and

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who’s this okay this is Adriana Lagrange and she is our Minister of Education mm-hmm so she is a

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very devout Catholic and a right to life er one of the things

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that she did that was quite controversial shortly after she took power was she used school board money to

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bus a bunch of high school students from Red Deer to Edmondson – an anti-abortion marched okay that made the news in a

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variety of ways Jason Kenney didn’t say anything and then a week or so later

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literally there was that student-led walk out for the GSA’s for the game

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right the Great Train Alliance it yeah gay and Straight Alliance and Jason

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Kenney said you know it’s fine you’re protesting but you shouldn’t be taking any time at a school it took like 20

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minutes to a half an hour out of school because I went to the one in red gear yep and yet she had them go to Edmonton

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for five hours on the school board money calling it kind of an import noting so

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she doesn’t have any gold stars in my book so if you can see her her her hair

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it’s not really hair but it’s a hmm brown that’s based on 18th century

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Mexican and Latin American Santos it’s like my Lady of Guadalupe so they’re

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kind of Chrome because she’s sort of like Madonna on a right because she’s

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giving yourself that kind of importance right and what was that material that so

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this material is just a a black cotton gingham okay and then this is wool felt

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so then on her cross on the front mm-hmm I made it quite decorative and yet the

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person hanging on the cross is like a child so in other words she’s crucifying

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education in the province but you know because I’m getting sort of my druthers

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out opinion wise mm-hmm and then I used the colors of black and white and red

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because those are quite fascist colors right so they’re related to strong dictators enough off they’re not

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unequivocal they’re very strong so she’s

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covered in symbolism and then I’ve given her I don’t know if anybody is that can

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people read it is it backwards no no we can see wow so it’s Adrianna Lagrange

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and JC forever mm-hmm so they go back to sort of religious clothing and symbolism mm-hmm

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I just want to talk a little bit about the painting on the faces it’s kind of

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crude and very rough partially because I used a gauze plaster on the form and the

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gauze plaster is quite crude and rough so it’s kind of nice because it takes

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the paint and a certain kind of aggressive way and a sloppy way I couldn’t get into and didn’t want to get

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into a lot of very careful dabbling right it doesn’t give you that clean

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line like it would on a canvas or paper yeah exactly sure it was just messy but

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I also go back to the Paul clay images because they were very kind of crude and I guess in spontaneous innocence right

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there’s a lot of life where I wanted to I was using acrylics I’m I’m a was an

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oil painter and acrylics is different cuz they dry so quickly what definitely

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yeah but then you but then the great thing is you can come back and rework it right away right wait um I’ll take you

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to someone who’s of a different community so I have to make a Rachel

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Notley puppet who she is and for me this

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is this is a very lovely hand dyed it was using chamomile and dyed large and

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heavy linen Wow and each of these designs were I brought this felting

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machine that pushes a bunch of needles in it so it can drive a pattern from

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behind okay I’ve given her a bunch of circles and I joined all of the circles because she’s

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all about connecting yeah absolutely yeah I’m pulling people together so it’s

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kind of a smart this is sort of like a an app or a ski outfit and it’s very so of Coco Chanel an a-line right yeah

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very form-fitting yeah yeah yeah she’s a girl bless your heart so hers you know I

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didn’t give her anything much of a character there was no there was no

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drive to do it no point in bass sense because I’m not being critical of her you might not like everything she’s done

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but you know from my perspective I say yep II saw that I had to put the NDP gay

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and lesbian button on her yeah of course left these and left leaners you know

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will wear buttons and stick them on and wonderful can we chat a little bit more

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about the process for her chamomile dress Oh me I just want to know how I

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can do that for myself well you know it’s it’s quite a process you so when

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you’re using natural dyes to dye fabric you have scour it first I’m scouring it

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it means it’s washing it in in baking soda and a natural cleanser oh the oil out and all of the grease and

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then you have to give it a tan and bath and a tanning bath is tannins yeah for

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different sort of hues and colors you can get a clear tanning which is from oak an oak Burke okay and then you cook

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that and that hasn’t you’ve got to open up all the fibers so what you have to do

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is you’re you’re opening the fiber so that it takes a dye bath right because

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this is a cellulose based fabric as a poke the wool which is protein right

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right wool and silk or protein and cotton and linen and hemp are these guys

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so and you give it a bath in this chamomile die yep

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four hours and then you then you have to dry it then you have to steam it it’s a

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long process those yeah so I don’t I’ve got a quite a bit of dyed fabric that

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I’ve done but I’m sort of careful how I use it right and because the process is so long

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did you go from one puppet to another and slowly work on the fabrics and the

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paintings how was your how was your process like that well good questions so um I start all the heads at the same

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time exactly within the within a few days because they have to be built plastered dried yep and then painted so

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that took you know about a week and then moving into the costumes as I said I

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gave it like a week or two weeks almost before I began to start to work and I’d

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work on each one and I’d have to sort of get like an idea or a vision for them

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right absolutely yeah and then say okay this works for this character it kind of makes sense

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yeah yeah I like you mentioned it plays into their character development and

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what they’re wearing reflects what your thoughts are and and how they’re going to continue living as puppets right

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right exactly sure because at first I thought well I’m gonna make them so I

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can take the costumes off and I could build them into other things and then I

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said ah I’ll glue them yeah just glue it

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well you know what I thought I thought because these people are gonna be in power for a few years and I imagine if

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this process goes on and my response to them is still critical in the way that

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it’s critical wait and I like this project and it doesn’t kill me you know

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oh I want to keep banging away and finding new ways to speak with them

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right absolutely so here is His Holiness Pope Kenny so this again because both he

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and Lagrange are such noisy about Catholics right and they’re making a lot

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of show of their religiosity for better worse and so

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I said okay screw it I’m gonna make him the Pope right a lot of making him like a dictator in a sense but I thought no

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that in some ways is well I’m not saying this is very subtle but bismi a

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different twist absolutely I’ve given him of course the cross and right at the

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top I’ve put a hammer there’s nothing subtle about him you can see the tomb

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Allegro’s in the middle it’s a foot crushing a heart oh so really what I think this guy is

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doing again these are my you know thoughts and feelings about him is he’s he’s crushing the province in the way he

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responds to absolutely everything and presents everything he’s so hard I guess

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you know this doesn’t seem to be any humanity right of course there’s the Pope’s hat so there’s a and there’s also

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a kind of a Punch and Judy feel to the puppets because they’re quite crude right right

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I might have them it’s I’ve got them together and as in a scene it might be you know going at it right here’s the

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back of his that’s his papal train mm-hmm so you can see the oil the oil

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well right there yeah and then you’ve got agricultural animals and industry industry and all

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that kind of stuff so we’ve kind of gotten him on this and this is a really

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beautiful linen Cheech howling fabrics that I got because I looked up I looked

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up clothing in costumes that the Pope’s have worn and would wear like Frank they’re sort of clothing there’s lots of

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gold there’s lots of white embroidery so as you can see right there on the cross

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there’s that fine embroidery that’s a bit of a nod to that weight you may also

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notice that on this piece right at the bottom there I’ve left the threads mm

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and if you’re looking at it from a sort of a deeper level at least when I’m doing it I say okay I leave the threads

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on because mm maybe they’re kind of unraveling or they’re not as perfect as

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they look like or there’s there’s a sense of flaw if you will yeah yeah exactly yeah

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so what came first on on Kenny’s puppet was it his train or hat or the Hat came

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first the hacking first yeah it was a kind of drove the process for what the rest of his garb was yep

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well I woke and I said okay because if I’m I did I did Lagrange first or before

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Kenney so once that established kind of her

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let’s say religiosity or the symbolism around it mm-hmm I moved on to him and I

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said okay you know as I said before do I want to consider him as a dictator would

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I like to go down that way with like a brown shirt in a uniform and a kind of a symbol on the arm is that how I want to

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go but then I thought no because he keeps he must be some kind of a scary

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terrible Catholic in the sense that he he does all this stuff that is so nasty

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it seems the consideration for people at least that’s my sense of him right right

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so um or any questions coming through or

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we just nope no questions coming through all right

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maybe let’s chat about what this looks like in the future and the longevity of

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this project right so for those of you

28:16

who don’t know my all my formal education was in film and animation and

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it essentially never in my whole career because I’m kind of a technophobe and a

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so you know I I didn’t get opportunities I might have I didn’t push

28:35

things through because I was always writing scripts and wanting to direct and things like that um so for me this

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is bringing up the real possibility of and it’s moving back into film right

28:49

creating great little stories I hope great little stories with these

28:54

characters and then developing my film sense and all that kind of stuff so I see them as

29:01

I said I think a little earlier giving them a number of years of life as this

29:07

government stays in power but for me this is also a jumping-off point because

29:13

I’m anxious to create puppets from other way puppets in other ways maybe just

29:19

using painted dyed fabric photographic

29:24

kind of playing around with them stuff like that maybe creating other stories are going to folktales and creating

29:31

puppets around folktales yeah it’s a it’s a starting point and a

29:37

jumping-off point for me yeah do you think that these pieces might be

29:42

available for rental or purchase at some point or even Commission well you know

29:47

as I’m sitting I’m sort of thinking well let’s say that someone wants to buy

29:53

their puppet I can’t imagine Jason Kenney buying history or anything other than burn it but I would be certainly

30:01

open to it with the proviso that I’m kind of holding on to them and sort of

30:06

using them because I’m not really not ready to let them go now even though in

30:11

the future they might because I’ll move on I’ll move on to different things mm-hmm their time will have come and

30:17

gone yeah it’s a possibility and I have no idea where this impulse is gonna take

30:24

me and and what’s what’s gonna transpire down the road I’m like super excited now

30:30

about I guess responding to my environment and giving myself permission

30:35

to write this stuff yeah absolutely and I don’t farm in order to do so that and

30:43

as I was saying earlier today I decided because I’ve started to look up like

30:49

libel laws and as I said before I’m kind of a scared so the idea of really calling these people who they are and

30:56

the films and stuff is a bit nervous making yeah but but so the idea was that

31:03

I was going to create these series of films and I was tentatively title in

31:08

them dispatches from the republic of alberta Stan so then they might be little news

31:18

vignettes right so and I was thinking today of kind of serials that would

31:24

happen before feature-length movies were shown in the 1930s and 40s during the war they’d have these newsreels so these

31:31

might be small newsreels I don’t know so I’m just I’m allowing the characters to

31:37

be built mm-hmm look at shan-dro for example his character is fairly clear

31:44

right and this this curtain behind me

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this curtain with up you see with some bloody hand prints and the torn corners

31:59

and stuff this is SH Andros background this is the Alberta Health Services logo

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so he’s going to come popping out of the curtains and whatever so these are the

32:13

beginning of some of the set pieces all right it looks like we do have a few

32:20

questions here in the chat we’ll start with Cynthia will you be

32:25

doing another public puppet show Oh another public one well yeah yes

32:33

potentially for sure because these all these puppets I have actually made quite

32:38

a large puppet theater side of it which is ridiculously heavy and solidly built

32:46

but supid so that is certainly a possibility because some of these you

32:52

know I might trot out to events and they become part of a live interaction you

32:57

know when I was a number of years ago when I was looking at puppets as well there is or was a puppet group in Syria

33:05

that was the government and they stuffed their puppets in the back of cars and

33:12

they would drive from small town to small town in Syria and their stakes very high I mean they would bring these

33:18

puppets out they would do these super short very critical shows of the government because they

33:24

were government and then pop them in the car and drive away because they could have been arrested and executed so for

33:31

me yes you know when we did that puppet show in February we were quite nervous I

33:38

mean even though we knew the people who were there were protesting the UCP and the government right yeah so but all of

33:45

us the three puppeteers we were really quite nervous because there’s been quite

33:50

a violent push back you know and the election was pretty hard so a long way

33:56

around it is yeah uh and is always a possibility yeah well it’s quite a

34:02

vulnerable position to be in as well I could imagine well especially with the

34:08

big puppet theater I can’t move it’s not only cogs your drawers down so to speak

34:14

and you can’t move right all right we do have another one here from Leslie how

34:19

long does it take to make one puppet oh okay

34:25

so good it depends right so let’s say let’s say it takes about a day a half a

34:31

day to a day once I’m in the groove with the fabric of the materials and the and

34:37

the concept for what they’re gonna wear so to speak so I’d say about a day but

34:42

if we’re even including the painting and stuff although it’s not all one day

34:47

because it has to dry it has to be painted yeah and then you can work on

34:52

the other puppets well that one’s drawing or yeah so what I’m really

34:59

finding I’m I’m loving and see now even as I’m sitting here surrounded by these

35:04

there is a real life to them and a real personality to them because well I feel

35:11

it yeah wonderful another question for you um Glenn do you make puppets for a

35:19

particular role or character or does the character emerge as you make the puppet

35:25

okay well well these ones because they’re very particular and very targeted in a sense I kind of knew what

35:35

I was planning to do with them to start with right because I said okay I want to nail these four or five people

35:41

that are really bothering me right so their personalities were there I looked

35:48

up pictures of them and I think in many ways they are representative of them

35:53

they’re not like super clean portraits but there is something of the element of them I’ve also met Kenny as you can

36:00

maybe notice they’ll let some I’ll put Kenny beside Rachel

36:09

so whoops

36:16

so here’s Kenny and there’s Rachel they

36:24

see how much bigger her head is oh yeah right so I’ve given her more stature and

36:30

therefore from from my sense a little more importance a little more power and I was thinking in the in the film

36:38

production of him he might gone like this and then he’d say hey where’s my

36:43

box brings the box look that’s better right right

36:50

you know we shortened all that kind of stuff yeah so yeah Glennon in answer to that let’s say I let’s say in the future

36:57

I want to do some original stories and original puppets and the puppets may

37:03

come from characters that I’ve already developed mm-hmm but they could you know they could go in Reverse right

37:10

absolutely we do have a question from Sheila as well will there be any more puppets in this series for example Jason

37:17

Nixon why yes Sheila I was not saving

37:23

worst for last but this was the first puppet whose whose body I began to work

37:31

on so this is the Minister of Environment and Parks so part of me if

37:38

you look at this it’s kind of reminiscent of a clown mm-hmm so therefore there’s a bit of disrespect on

37:44

my part not to trash clowns but right then we also on a clown we don’t talk to them with great respect

37:51

but also it’s like a flower petal so therefore the subtext is the

37:58

environment and his gloves if you can see them are made with a floral fabric

38:05

right and brown overalls and a plaid

38:11

shirt because he’s a country boy and there’s this little rabbit so again you

38:17

know I I’m I’m kind of hoping you hoping to use counterpoint in the sense that

38:22

there he is looking kind of cute with this bunny but he’s kind of not cute to nature and then on the back is the tail

38:30

end of the bunny right and this is the one who’s I’m quite a far away down the

38:37

road with his script so I show you while we’re talking about him I’ll show you the the first background I’ve painted

38:43

it’s not finished yet

38:52

so if you can see it whoops oh there we

38:57

go so then you’ve got the ATV the camper

39:03

van and then you’re gonna have him right in the front so will anybody be joining

39:12

him in that scene or is it just him the solo one except what’s gonna join them

39:17

is this fantastic fire no fire blah blah

39:24

blah mhm and here is I made up can you read

39:31

that buzzkill right so this is his during this piece insects come and

39:37

bother him because he’s out camping mm-hmm and he asked why wine having the name did the Lord make mosquitoes and he

39:44

brings this buzz kill and sprays it around and I’ve given him a they know

39:52

and I’ve given him like a wiener roast stick with Donna

39:58

permit so it’s kind of like is he

40:03

– or is he cause he’s in love with fossil fuels is he using dinosaurs I also made uh he’s got a marshmallow

40:10

too so yeah elements for the puppets for

40:16

sure we do have another question from Marilyn you’re a reason that it appears to be a blockhead or did you have any

40:23

any reasoning behind the shapes of the heads for each puppet yeah so I have

40:33

this stuff so here’s another puppet head that I began to work on as a prototype okay and it’s more of like a human head

40:41

shape and so yeah fine because I love this as well it’s gonna be really fun to

40:49

play with however when I was cleaning out our storage room I found a bunch of

40:56

small gift boxes these are the gift boxes so yes yes Mencia these are I

41:05

could say they’re blockhead square heads you as a response to them but also these

41:13

gave really lovely shapes and sand and physical structure for me to work with

41:20

right because what is the process for so you start with your your little gift box

41:26

and then what is the what is the next step do you have to prime it in any way or what so the the neck is a toilet

41:36

paper roll okay eyes for fingers so I might cut a little hole in the bottom of

41:41

the box tape it on you know you can be quite crude you can just use rough tape

41:46

right and then um let’s see if I bring a nose well here I’ll bring I’ll bring

41:54

shan-dro back because he’s got the biggest nose in my cast so you can see

41:59

it from the side mm-hmm and that’s that’s one of the little puppy things

42:05

from an egg carton oh okay alright you tape it on and then you tape anything on

42:12

like the face you can see the side of the face the mouth I mean you can use newspaper which I do and

42:20

then tape and you can be quite crude as you’re putting it on and then I’ve got this strip of it’s this white plaster in

42:28

a roll and you cut a strip or a piece and then literally you take it through

42:35

the water and then you can form it right absolutely fantastic so it’s a paper

42:41

mache yes fancy but easier and we could also I could have been more careful and

42:49

been much smoother about it because I but I’m kinda lazy and I like to I kind

42:55

of like the rope the rawness of it mm-hmm and again that throws us back to the Paul Klee puppets right because

43:02

there’s kind of a a roughness to them which I really like right right and we

43:07

have another question here as well how long is the thought process before making the puppet and I’ll just add on

43:13

that as well how much research have you been doing before taking on each

43:19

character so um I’m part of a writing group that is um pretty constantly

43:27

writing letters to the government they come together and we sort of say okay this is bothering us or this we like or

43:34

whatever it is mostly this bothers us because this is government so that will come together with our ideas and then

43:40

pop letters off into the mail so I’ve been doing a lot of reading this goes more towards the scripts okay because if

43:49

I look at what Jason Kenny’s been doing or Jason Nixon or Tyler Shandra or whatever it is a look at some of their

43:56

policies and some of the issues and the way they’re handling them so that will infuse the character and I do quite a

44:05

bit of research so I’ll do quite a bit of reading but as I said before I’m now at the stage in my life and in my career

44:12

where I’ll sit down and do some work like say intense work half an hour an

44:17

hour or something but then I won’t push it I’ll go away I’m gonna do idea pop in because in the

44:23

past they wouldn’t have in the past that have had this feeling of it being imperative that I ground this thing

44:31

and got it done right I can say you know what I can go sit I can go

44:36

think and then I’ll come back so it’s working maybe smarter at least for my

44:41

process right right well and we had a conversation a while ago in our rental

44:47

and sales that when you were doing a lot of textile work that it you can’t

44:52

necessarily put things back together once you cut it right no cut and you

44:57

have to deal with it so that’s interesting that your practice is continually evolving so that once

45:03

you’re inspired you still have that reflection period as well yeah well and you know it’s funny that you’re meshing

45:09

that because since I started working primarily in textiles about 20-some years ago now um my process has really

45:18

slowed down because you’re making and you’re fitting and they’re sizing it’s a it’s a it’s in a sense emphasizing craft

45:25

in the way that it wasn’t as a painter there was a spontaneity a speed which

45:31

I’d work at least in my younger days and I don’t really I’ve grown to really

45:37

appreciate this and sort of say it’s okay you know we’ve got in this society this idea that artists are crazy and

45:45

fast and they’re going like this all the time and they come out and they’re geniuses and they produce this thing in

45:51

some great big orgasm of artistic temperament right mm-hmm reality for me

45:56

and for lots of artists is you know what the act of creating is really just

46:02

creating a problem solving that problem creating another problem and solving

46:08

that problem so let’s say my problem is I want to create puppets right so I

46:13

presented that as a problem then the next step is ah what kind of puppets and

46:20

then you go down the next and you say okay do I have the energy to do this am I gonna make matter cetera cetera so

46:27

really you you one can pull it back and say guess what this lovely little

46:34

step-by-step thing and then even though some people might say you know for example textile work doesn’t feel as

46:41

spontaneous as a bucket of paint countless for example but what’s

46:49

happening is when I’m in the midst of work I get these lovely surprises and I’ll say oh yeah I can I can do that I

46:56

can modify it this way I can add that so it becomes um really lively mm-hmm

47:02

Oh someone might look at it and say boy look at all that work and all that planning yes of course there’s lots of

47:09

work and lots of planning but when I was talking about the threads on Jason Kenny’s costume mm-hmm cutting them

47:16

letting them be letting it have that roughness right right so I’m still

47:22

totally that’s awesome we do have another question from the Glen are you

47:28

primarily making puppets right now or are you making art in some of the other media you work in as well funny you

47:36

should mention that I’ve just a friend of mine and I are working she does a lot

47:42

of the technical stuff and helps with the fitting and pulling together I have them in the house I could have brought

47:48

them but there are three kinds of animal shaped cushions that we know we stuffed

47:54

with cut-up pieces of cotton so they’ve got a nice vintage feel a very solid

48:00

feel this about a project that we’re working on a little bit but an answer to

48:07

that I would have to say that as I get

48:12

excited about these and maybe we see what begins to happen with them with the films and all that sort of stuff

48:18

I don’t only have so much let’s say energy to devote just something at you

48:23

know um but I you know I ain’t dead yet

48:29

well in this project is really neat because it does encompass a lot of the

48:35

areas that you have worked on in the past so it’s kind of an all-encompassing project yeah right it’s not just

48:42

focusing on one certain thing it’s bringing all of the elements that you’ve worked on yet well exactly so I’m also

48:48

I’m also feeling comfortable to give it the time that it needs because one of

48:56

the reasons I said earlier that I didn’t really sooo a lot of film stuff was because I’m kind of a machine phob so I’ve got a

49:05

camera with the you know it’s got got my phone I’ve got other stuff I’m gonna look at getting a mic I’m gonna learn

49:10

how to edit using this technology and it terrifies the crap out of me and so

49:16

therefore I put it off so I’ll go and I’ll make this fire go and learn how to

49:22

you know do something technical I’m gonna reach out I’m reaching out you

49:29

know technically I don’t know help whatever because you know film isn’t

49:35

something you can just do one person on your own but I’m creating these little worlds analogue scripts so that when I

49:44

really reach out for help then we’ll be able to like in a production meeting way

49:49

because when I was in theater you know you have this costume and stage and lighting and set and then production

49:57

meeting so that’s that’s what will come with this but yeah wonderful I ain’t no

50:03

panic totally okay we’ve got time we’re in a pandemic yeah yeah all right I

50:10

think we do have some time for a couple more questions if anybody wants to message that in the chat function it’s

50:22

very funny doing this because I mean I’m assuming there are some humans out there obviously because you know I’ve been

50:28

getting a few questions and stuff but it’s very hard talking to myself I mean I see you my eyes are pointed right

50:35

right but Riyad this mirror if you will mm-hmm well it’s really nice to get us a feel

50:42

for your studio space as well and seeing where you create and that knowing that

50:47

it’s not a perfect space where you know everything’s in alignment and look at

50:54

ladies and gentlemen yeah isn’t that beauteous yeah well there you go

51:01

it’s art wonderful well I think we will wrap it up okay so much for having this

51:09

discussion with us today Matt it definitely is an honor to work with you and just see where this

51:14

project is going and have these open communications it’s really wonderful well thanks for inviting and goodbye

51:24

everybody yeah absolutely thank you all so much for joining us today the AJ team continues to work hard to bring you

51:30

arced creative projects to at home and engage with you daily we look forward to seeing you at the Art Gallery of Alberta

51:36

and our rentals and sales where you can purchase some of Matt’s work or rent it

51:42

as well if you do have questions about that you can head over to our website

51:52

www.jfn.co.jp/toho stay curious and stay

52:02

connected with us thanks again Matt okay thank you bye bye

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