Jail Bird Trump Puppet Build

Posted on by Thor

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.

No Kings Protest Orlando Florida

Posted on by Thor

Stella Arbeláez Tascón has wanted to build a large puppet for some time. When she found out that a No Kings Protest was being staged nation wide, and in Orlando Florida, she decided it was time to build a 14 foot tall puppet of Donald Trump as a Jailbird in Chief. Such large puppets are often build in Europe but it is a tradition that has not yet taken root in America. I became Stella’s studio assistant to help bring this behemoth to life.

Stella found many videos online that showed how these large puppets could be built. She borrowed from various puppet workshops to come up with her n. A walker was cut apart and when turned upside down to became the spine of the puppet. She borrowed the shoulder straps and belt from an existing backpack and miraculously they fit neatly onto the walker.

The Trump head was constructed from 1/4 inch plastic tubing which formed the three dimensional framework. Paper mache was then added to create the skin of the face. The result was a highly stylized and expressive head. In the final night of construction, I was tasked with building the hands and painting Trump’s’ Orange face. When Stella gave advice on using thin washed of red over the nose, and ears, the face started to gain a ruddy life. Bruises and blotchy skin were replicated. By 3 or 4 in the morning I had to drop off to sleep, but Stella kept working. She had to sew the huge orange prison jumpsuit by the time we would have to leave for the protest in the morning.

The rib cage of the puppet had to be cut back to allow the puppet to fit in the hatchback of her Prius. The giant head could just fit in the passenger front seat. It is an absolute miracle that the entire fourteen foot puppet managed to fit in her Prius.

Stella hired a second puppeteer to handle the extremely large left hand. She dressed like a secret service agent with a white dress shirt, black tie and sun glasses. Since I am living out of a backpack, I didn’t manage to pull together an equally stellar garb. I made due with what I had.

Assembling the puppet and getting Stella set inside was challenging. We practiced the assembly at her studio and then recreated the steps outside the parking garage near Orlando City Hall. The trickiest part of the assembly has snapping the bulk of the puppet onto the walker that Stella had strapped to her back. With the huge Trump head mounted on top, the puppet wanted to topple. I was grateful when everything snapped into place. Stella’s solid hips and low center of gravity were an absolute advantage.

The puppet was so tall that it could not walk under the covered awnings on the side of the skyscraper leading to City Hall Plaza. When we stepped out of the shadows into the open plaza people shouted out, “The hands are too big!” That is my fault, I built those monsters. The puppet would be so much more manageable with tiny little raptor hands. You know what they say about tiny hands, right? Anyway, that was the ongoing joke all day long.

We marched the puppet around every corner of the City Hall complex. In several places the tree branches were too low to allow passage. We found other ways to navigate around. Hundreds of people were gathered. I kept shouting out, “Jailbird in chef coming through!’ to help clear a path. Stella was the brains of the operation. She would let us know which direction to turn and make sure we were all lined up. If one of us walked too fast we could throw off the balance and cause the puppet to topple. When Stella wanted the hands to wave she would let us know. She then wanted us to walk the diamond shaped crosswalk in front of city hall. When we did that the honks and shouting from the cars waiting at the light became overwhelming. Crossing quickly with a fourteen foot puppet isn’t an easy task. The Trump puppet can’t break into a run when the time runs out on the crossing signal.

Since I was busy holding the rod that controls the puppets right hand, I didn’t get any sketching done at the protest. In one of the videos I saw of the protest, I overheard someone saying “Wow pretty awesome.” I was sure he was taking about my stellar puppetry performance in waving that right hand. I was a sweaty mess by the end of the day and muscles I didn’t even know I had were sore, but it was sooooo worth it.

I returned the next day to sketch city hall and then added protestors and the puppet when I got back to my Thornton Park studio. The Jailbird in Chef go plenty of coverage on the news and social media.