Return to the Green Hills and Blue Skies of Political Art Stimulation

Thirteen years ago I sat for the first time in the green hills of Glover, VT between grasshoppers, freshly cut straw, and fellow spectators on blankets. The warm August afternoon sun felt the same this year as well as the sounds of the live Bread and Puppet band, the dances of the stilt walkers, and lively clown and puppet acts. What has changed in the last 13 years is both myself and the content of the presented political puppet shows. I will not attempt to say all the ways I have changed though Bread and Puppet has been a big influence in my life as a political puppeteer and print maker. One of the first shows I saw 13 years ago was about the flight to save the NYC Community Gardens…. Thanks to Bette Middler and many garden activists over 400+ have been permentely saved. The show that I saw this weekend stared with women and men dancing…. Slowly then men where taken from the dancing womens arms……. and dropped to the ground. This piece was very striking and ended with the this quote:

Iraq War Casualties
Civilian Deaths: More than 1,250,000
US Soldiers Killed: 4,148 wounded: 30,324

The woodfired German sourdough with garlic aioli tasted the same as always and felt like an awaking to my senses similar to the puppet show…and left me thinking… what will it take to waken this country to stop the Iraq war………… I hope we do not have to wait 13 years to find out.