I helped Stella Arbelaéz Tascón when she was working on a 14-foot-tall Jailbird in Chief puppet. She researched online videos and websites to figure out how to construct a the puppet. A walker was found and dismantled. She then added backpack straps to the walker frame which became the backpack that she would wear which supported the giant head and torso.
The head was constructed from white flexible plastic hose. She built a simple wooden base from scrap she found in her garage. A metal pipe was mounted to that base to support the head as she worked. She figured out how to take simple tubing and make it into a dimensional face. I didn’t do to many sketches of the process since my hands were busily helping. The puppet needed to be completed before a No Kings Rally just 13 days away.
Once the heads tubing structure was complete the “Skin” was added using paper mache. Stella added al the paper to the delicate features of the face, and I helped by doing the same for the rest of the head. Three layers of the paper mache were added to make the head feel solid to the touch. I was pleased and nervous when Stella asked me to paint the head. Making him look like Trump would be a challenge. I blocked in basic skin colors and added thick eyebrows using yarn. Stella stepped in to add warmth to the cheeks lips and ears. I liked her quick bold painting suggestions, and it affected how I painted moving forward.
I also was put in charge of building Trump’s hands. The hands were just as big as the face and were constructed of a cardboard form for the palms and pool noodles for fingers. Unfortunately, Stella didn’t have enough pink pool noodles for both hands, so I had to get more noodles from Family Dollar. Those noodles were blue and a bit thicker. I had to carve them down with an electric blade to try and match them with the thinner noodles. Spray foam filled al the empty spaces in the palm and helped keep the fingers in place. Like the head paper mache “Skin” was added. It was fun painting the Trumps bruised hands.
It was in the final days of the build that Stella had to figure out the puppet’s torso and jumpsuit. I helped by making a stencil and painting 666 as the prison number on the jumpsuit. She had multiple sleepless nights sewing that giant jumpsuit and assembling everything. I have no idea how she finished everything in time. Unlike her, I had to rest.
This was the second huge project to christen Stella’s new large studio space. Opening the space in the room allowed for larger than life ideas to take form.
The giant head was balanced on a pipe inside the puppet so it could nod. The puppet was so large that two people could fit inside. I needed to hold all the weight of the puppet as Stella strapped on the backpack. Once she was standing and balanced, I could duck out of the puppet. At that point, I would be in charge of holding a long stick which supported the bruised right hand. It is so fun to be the friend of an artist who thinks so big. I am so happy for the time I had to collaborate.