From: "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Tue, 06 May 2008 18:11:36 GMT
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Avoiding racism in caricature


I like Suze's approach. 

And she's right about how things change. I just wish it was always for improvement.

Decades ago I visited the home of former President Thomas Jefferson, and asked the lovely white lady in charge of admission, what information did they have about Jefferson's black relatives? It was all lies and a communist plot, the end!  That basically is what I was told.

Nowdays there have been Jefferson family reunions of Black & white descendents, and the article I read read so long ago in Ebony Magazine turned out NOT to be lies or a communist plot. We can always hope that truth will eventually surface. But we also have to keep things in context.

As long as the war in Iraq continues, healthcare diminishes, children continue to be left behind and hungry, homeowners are dispossesed, our military gets umpteen tours of duty, and the dollar value drops  I don't think we are in a position to be overly critical of what people did in 1909/1910.

ALAN COOK


-----Original Message-----
From: SuzPuppetCosmos-AT-aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 6, 2008 10:51 AM
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Avoiding racism in caricature

Hi Creaturise
I think  the symbolism strikes responses
sometimes good sometimes not so good 
because of experience or  inexperience and  ignorance.
We either know too much
or not enough lol.!!
But that should never stop the messenger!
Years ago for a Library I made a line of story puppets 
and performed then gave them the characters.
It was a basically white protestant community.
My George Washington was black (I have his picture before  costuming)
One of the audience said
"Was George Washington a 'colored guy'"?
I told him no but this actor is and he is doing a good job  isn't he?
They agreed.
I am Northern Italian with ancestry of Turkey
 and I never did care much for stupid  rules.
Suze
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 5/6/2008 10:15:24 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
creaturiste-AT-primus.ca writes:

Hi  all.

The current discussion about minstrel shows brings me to think  again on a 
recurring topic in my creative process.
For a long time in  the past, I was blocked, something prevented me from 
doing puppets other  than "white", for fear of shocking or being erroneously 
called a racist. I  was affraid of caricature-like and grotesque features to 
be interpreted as  a generalisation, as a mockery of a large group of people.

Today I  realise what a waste of time that block was! so many faces, so many 
fun  shapes could have been learned and applied! I know for a fact I am not,  
nor could ever be racist. I love human variety too much, am fascinated by  
it.
I'm of confirmed "mixed origins" myself, with ancestry from French,  
Scottish, American, and Native American. I often wished one of those could  
show more, so that I could be a bit more "exotic", but I'm already too  
"diluted".
LoL.

When I do a caricature, I am mocking a specific  person, maybe a specific 
type of person, according to their inner  characteristics. An evil greedy man 
can be of any group. It still hard to  avoid cliches, because of the large 
amount of them in pop culture. Not too  long ago, I realised that no matter 
what I do to represent these inner  traits, I'll resort to physical 
attributes, because that's just how humans  perceive things: through symbols 
and associations.
And no matter what I  do, I can't be making everybody happy. Some will find 
offense. Someone  could actually find a puppet of mine that looks like them 
(without my  intent)! There always seems to be a few "offended" that would 
censor  you.

I've been lucky so far in regards to censorship. Maybe it's  because my 
creatures have not been specific-enough to identify them to an  ethnic group. 
Most of them are fantasy creatures of strange colors, far  enough away from 
anygroup to not cause any stir.

I'll probably  start making portraits in modeling clay soon, as a study of 
the human  face. I might even put those skills to work, start offering a 
puppet  portrait service, caricatured or not.  So I'm glad that self-imposed  
block of mine is almost entirely gone!


What do you think are  the causes for people's anger towards interpretation 
of human  features?
What else does that bring to mind?
As always, I'm very  curious!



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