"Barnacle Bill" Puppet c. 1938

Here's Chris Makrenos's "Barnacle Bill" puppet, with its wood, fabric, and paint, looking all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I'm thinking about the artist and the hours they must have spent on this character, getting to know Barnacle Bill in their head while the puppet slowly came to life. What kind of stories did Makrenos imagine for him? Maybe this puppet was a stand-in for someone in the artist's life, or a figment of their imagination. Look at that velvet coat, how it hangs just so. And those rosy cheeks! It's so clear that the artist cared about the material aspect of this piece. It’s about texture and color, about the act of making. The way the figure stands upright gives him such an aura of determination; like he has something to say. The making of art is an ongoing conversation across time. Each piece builds upon what came before, and in turn, inspires what comes next. Like this puppet, art becomes a vessel for expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.