I began to learn how to screen print in the early 2010s. In order to retain my skills, I began a yearly practice of creating lunar new year prints that I give away to friends and family.
A visual list of some of the shows I’ve created over the years.
This is the third vignette in the “how to read a storm” series. polar bear, based on the poem Polar bear by Tara Orzolek (my older sister), explores how climate anxiety seeps into our subconscious and influences the language of dreams. Photo by Claire Bangser. 2025.
Developed at Lìzé Puppet Art Colony with devising help from Jae Sirikarn Bonjungtad, this vingette examines how our own behavioral patterns are affecting our ability to learn and translate the stories created by changing weather patterns. The overall series explores the idea of storms as language and this vignette in particular also looked at English as language-in-common and intentional mistranslation. Photo by Xiao Qian Lin. 2023.
A puppet show for the reception of two friends’ wedding. I interviewed them separately about their relationship and then edited the interviews together to form the audio narrative for the show. 2022.
The second vignette in the “how to read a storm” series. The movie explores how I learned to read the distance of a thunderstorm by watching the movie Poltergeist. Photo by Stefan Petrmichl. 2022.
A toy and object theater piece about how one’s relationship with puddles changes as one ages. Created for the La MaMa Puppet Slam 2021.
Created for The Tiny Paper Theater Festival Spring 2021 under the theme “What We Carry”. I drew inspiration for this short from a conversation between Brené Brown and Sonya Renee Taylor.
A toy theater and table top puppet show made completely out of paper for The Tiny Paper Theater Festival produced by Infinite Futures. The theme of the festival was “What happens next?” 2020.
Created for a virtual puppet slam in Detroit during the COVID-19 pandemic, this piece explores the conflict between the longing for touch and the necessity of distance. 2020.
Insomnia is a table-top and object theatre piece about the intimacy of and longing for sleep. 2019.
I had the great fortune to create a puppet show about the relationship of my friends Alisa and Will as a wedding gift to them. On separate occasions, they each had a very generous conversation with me about how they met, what love is, and proposals. Those interviews served as the soundtrack for this story. Photo by Claire Bangser. 2019.
A hand puppet and object theatre piece about a piece of paper that got me into trouble in high school. Created under the mentorship of Yael Rasooly at the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference. Photo by Richard Termine. 2018.
An examination of police violence through the Martha and the Vandellas hit. Devised at the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference. Photo by Richard Termine. 2018.
A table top puppet show about miscommunication created for the New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival. 2018.
In reverse alphabetical order, a series of collective nouns describing the state of the country through shadow puppets. 2018.
A two character mask piece with narrative music about a chair, letting go, and the decision to stay. Photo by Aaron Porter. 2017.
An exploration of home and leaving. The three-puppeteer puppet (head, hands, feet) is not connected, which both allows for scale shifts and also invites the audience to fill in the gaps. 2017.
A puppet monologue about a trapeze artist who wants to leave the circus. Created under the mentorship of Ronnie Burkett at the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference. Photo by Richard Termine. 2017.
Rodded and stringed marionettes and paper puppets deal with apathy, collective action, and social responsibility. Photo by Ernie Paik at Wayne-O-Rama. 2017.
A short shadow piece inspired by Richard Bradshaw and chickens. 2016.
The story of a giant witch and the townspeople who try to figure her out. This show uses giant puppets, shadow puppets, and abstract cloth puppets to explore ideas of home, belonging, and alienation. Supported by a Family Grant from the Henson Foundation. Photo by Nico Krebil. 2016.
A short table top puppet piece that explores one moment in the arc of a relationship. Created as a participant project at the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference. Photo by Richard Termine. 2015.
Built for winter solstice 2024, this curling kinetic sculpture/puppet reminded us that it is ok to curl up and rest.
Wood dragon head created to celebrate the Lunar New Year 2024. Created from all natural materials: reed, twine, copper wire, cotton yarn, glazed and flattened ceramic beads.
Technically a kinetic sculpture, this is my puppet for winter solstice 2023. I was happy to work with the wind to bring the puppet to life.
Built for winter solstice 2022, this is a hand-cranked carousel of five-pointed origami stars that sits upon the shoulders. Photo by Stefanie Loeb.
I build this scarf marionette in the style of Albrecht Roser with the help of Sarah Frechette. 2022.
An experiment in building tall with natural materials: reed and twine, with a bit of copper wire. 2021. Photo by Jennifer Crawford
Table top puppet carved from basswood. 2021.
A table top puppet created through a class taught by puppet maker Judith Hope. 2020.
Created for my friends Will & Alisa and the puppet show about their relationship I performed at their wedding reception. 2019.
Created for He Waved, a show about miscommunication. 2018.
Created for He Waved, a show about miscommunication. Built using a Fedotov mechanism. 2018.
Created for Mardi Gras 2018. This giant puppet is an experiment in using only natural and sustainable materials: cotton fabric, twine, wood, copper wire, reed, grape wood vine.
A three-puppeteer puppet comprised of head, feet, and hands that grip. 2017.
Giant puppet created out of folded newspapers and bicycle parts. Created for RUBARB Community Bike Shop’s annual fundraiser puppet show. 2017.
Giant puppet with moving trunk. 2017.
A series of shadow puppets in a light box combining a friend’s favorite dive, the inward pike, with my longing for the circus for Io Fête at Corridor Studios in 2015.
A puppet installation about a tic-tac-toe game that ended in a cat’s game. 2014.
The first puppet I ever built! 2011.
I have had the great pleasure to be a part of some incredible projects. Here are some examples.
A collaboration with Alexis Erkert to create a participatory dinner and experimental show in the great hall of her house. All guests were invited to participate in the experimental show as diagramming the sentence "Why did the chicken cross the road?" led to a shadow puppet show about a planet on fire, a discussion of Iberian orcas and three collective breaths. 2024.
A giant collaborative puppet created during La Liga Teatro Elástico’s bamboo workshop at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Team members: Salt, Anni and Emory. Photo by Detroit Puppet Company. 2024.
Artist Catherine Nelson and I have had an ongoing drawing collaboration for the past five years. Pictured is a drawing that was passed back and forth in the mail over a series of months with the instruction: pay attention to what this drawing needs. 2020.
Stefanie Loeb and I created a shadow puppet crankie for the re-release of Leyla McCalla’s “Girl”. Filmed by Ben Depp and with a puppet assist by Phoebe Vlassis. Photo by Stefanie Loeb. 2020.
A short collaborative piece created as Ginger Ryan taught me stop motion animation. 2018.
Brought to Light is a collaboration with journalist Natalie Yahr in which we create shadow puppet shows to accompany true stories.
In the pilot story of what we hope will be an ongoing series, Alejandro Salazar speaks to the often-misunderstood role of reconstruction workers and shows how they might also be slightly reshaping people's hearts. 2017.
Every year I created a bicycle-themed puppet show for RUBARB, a youth-focused, community bike shop in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans. The show pictured above is from The Anatomy of a Volunteer. Photo by Nico Krebil. 2017.
Created in collaboration with Jess Pinkham for the opening day of Country Day Creative Arts summer camp. (If you look closely, you can find an ant climbing up the tree and a fly in the branches.) Photo by Jess Pinkham. 2016.
A series of short, one-puppet monologues created in collaboration with Phoebe Vlassis for a specially created one-person audience theater. Commissioned by Antenna Gallery for presentation during the I AM AN IMPORTANT GIANT exhibition. In this photo we see Maude, a puppet created by Phoebe and the star of the show. 2016.
Created with Whitney Raynor, Josie Scanlon, young artists from Grand Rue, and an all female youth puppeteer troupe, this shadow puppet show debuted at the 4th Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The screen was made from all used materials and the shadow puppets were made from old tires. 2015.
A collaboration with the band The Swamp Lilies for a performance in the Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art. 2013.
Co-created this giant, indoor, interactive play structure made completely from cardboard for Newman Summer Day Camp. Pictured is the Dr. Seuss-inspired entrance. 2013.
15 ft tall ice towers created with cardboard and scaffolding for the Pearl Assemby, a puppet production by Skookum Heebee Tumtum Productions. 2012.
All my shadow puppetry and illustration work finds roots in my love of screen prints and paper cuts.
marigold. 2024
Created for my dad’s 80th birthday. Black paper cut on white paper with watercolors. 2024.
Paper cut of a photograph taken along River Road in St. John’s Parish, also know as cancer alley. Spilt the paper cut into four to mimic the view out of a window and added a pair of human lungs. 2022.
A paper cut of my niece. Cut black paper backed by white and brown paper. 2023.
Paper cut with watercolor created as a tribute to a great cat that passed away this year. 2023.
Paper cut with water colors. 2023
A birthday commission. 2023.
Paper cut for my younger sister of the two of us. 2022.
For a friend. 2023.
For a friend. 2023
paper cut self portrait. 2022.
a paper cut commission for a friend. 2022.
a pape rcut of the couple for a wedding gift. 2022.
Paper cut started in frustration in 2021 and finished in frustration 2022.
A paper cut commission for a friend. For this project, I experimented with adding colored tissue paper for background. 2021.
A paper cut commission for a friend. 2021.
A paper cut commission for a friend. 2021.
a paper cut for a friend. 2021.
Paper cut of swallows feeding. 2021.
Paper cut of grandmother and her granddaughters. 2021.
Paper cut of my nieces for my sister’s birthday. 2021.
My mom commissioned me to create a paper cut of the photo that ran in the newspaper for my aunt’s wedding announcement. 2021.
Commission for a friend. 2021.
A papercut for my mom’s 75th birthday. 2021.
Commissioned papercut. 2021.
Papercut of my younger sister. 2020.
A papercut commission. 2020.
Documentation during the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020.
A papercut inspired by the beginning of my shelter-in-place in a sublet in New Orleans. 2020.
To celebrate my parents’ 50th anniversary, I went through their wedding album and chose a few photos to turn into paper cuts. 2019.
paper cut. 2017.
Created in response to 45’s administration. 2017.
Created in response to 45’s administration. 2017.
Created in response to 45’s administration. silk screen. 2017.
Created in response to 45’s administration. silk screen. 2017.
Created in response to 45's administration. 2017.
I love trying out new materials, new forms of performance, new structures. Here are a few examples.
A kinetic sculpture made with materials from the waste streams in Moab as part of my re-use residency. Inspired by a conversation with a land steward at a community storytelling workshop where we talked about home and belonging and waste and disposability. 2021.
My long-time collaborator asked me to create a stencil from one of her drawings. Made from card stock coated with paper tape. 2023.
experiments using a brush with sum ink. 2022.
An experiment with foam block carving and printing. 2022.
one white and one red stoneware bowl with the outside burnished and the inside glazed. 2022.
As I wanted to delivery my annual lunar new year print safely during the pandemic, I made a fabric mask to resemble a metal ox (2021 is the year of the metal ox) hiding in a bush. Photo by Stefanie Loeb. 2021.
An exercise in creative memory. Took a table top person puppet workshop with Judith Hope with a friend. The workshop was online and we were only able to take notes. Five weeks later, we deciphered those notes and built the puppets above! 2022.
A headpiece created for a member walking with Egg Yolk Jubilee during carnival in New Orleans 2022.
Mask and costume worn as I delivered Lunar New Year cards to friends in town. 2022.
An experiment using an indigo vat dye and soy paste as a resist. 2021.
Created from materials in the Moab waste streams (thrift store, recycling center, landfill), runoff was inspired by another community storytelling workshop where we talked about home, belonging, disposability and waste. This group talked about how we treat both land and people as disposable and it was during this conversation that I first learned about the Moab pile, uranium trailings that threaten the Colorado River. (It is currently and slowly being moved north by train.) 2021.
An attempt to use fabric scrap to make something utilitarian. 2020.
An experiment in casting multiples from a tiny mold. These masks were given away during Mardi Gras 2018.
Learned how to upholster and transformed a couple of bar stools for a friend’s house. 2017.
A present for my niece. This long this box has a lid that slides and a middle section that swivels to reveal a bottom secret compartment. 2014.
Started to make puzzles when my friend introduced me to his scroll saw. 2013.
Last year, she was solitary published rabbits & bees 1. We recently finished part II - page 11 is pictured above - and are eager to start publishing and printing it as soon as pandemic times ease up.
Medusa is a collaboration with Kacy McKinney. Together, we are She Was Solitary. In 2018, we published Trash Island. Currently, we are working on a project about rabbits and bees.
Medusa is a graphic novel that tells the story of Egg Yolk, a curious jellyfish who wonders where his fish and crab friends go when they get lifted out of the water by a net. The story of Egg Yolk and his friends Turrit and Medusa is fictitious, but the narrative is intertwined with interludes that explain scientific concepts such as blooms and marine-life hitchhikers. These interludes are placed strategically throughout the story, so that questions are answered as soon as they might arise in the reader's mind.
I love radio and podcasts. I often record interviews with friends and acquaintances telling stories. Listen to a piece I created for the Third Coast International Audio Festival's Short Docs Challenge all the way back in 2010.
