Harry Mayronne Marionette Artist

Amy Winehouse Marionette

November 22, 2023

She’s done. This one took a while because I started without a design in my head. So I went in a few circles along the way. Fortunately there is a wealth of online info and it really helped. I learned that  her clothes are in (or were in) the Grammy Museum. I didn’t copy a particular outfit, but rather tried to create something based on things that  she did wear. Her visible tattoos are all there.

      The lower part of the figure was a particular challenge. I didn’t  want to include dangling legs and have people say how cute it looks. The fabric is something I’ve had for a long time. I prefer working with natural fabrics, but thought for this one the synthetic would actually work. I had wanted to give the lower portion an interesting silhouette, but opted instead to do do something more like an Indonesian Wayang Golek rod puppet. The black and red fabrics are a 100 thread count cheesecloth dyed using Procian MX dyes. And so she is done. She is now at Creason’s Fine Art Gallery in the French Quarter.

©️2023 Harry Mayronne

The inspiration for one of my characters came from a book by Canadian writer Alain de Botton. “How Proust Can Change Your Life”, a tongue in cheek self-help book based on the writings of Proust, led me to discover French icon and polymath , BORIS VIAN. The fact that he sang and played trumpet in post World War II Paris, and specialized in New Orleans jazz, was particularly intruiging. But it was his anti-war song” Le Deserteur” (1954) that moved me to create Boris in marionette form. 

     Because he had helped introduce New Orleans music to Paris, I decided to introduce New Orleans to Boris Vian at the first New Orleans Giant Puppet Festival. As I listened to his recordings and studied photographs, I began the sculpting process. I searched the internet and, in an interview with his son Patrick, I learned that Boris’s eyes were blue. And that he had died suddenly, during a screening of  a displeasing  filmed version of one of his novels. I decided to have the “Boris” marionette sing "Le Deserteur”. 

     After the Puppet Fest, and in  anticipation of an upcoming trip to Paris, I wrote to Nicole Bertolt, who represents Vian’s literary works. I told the story about the Boris Vian marionette and the audience response in New Orleans. While in Paris, I was invited to visit the apartment. Accompanied by the marionette likeness of Boris, I spent a delightful afternoon with Ms. Bertolt. The following year she made her first trip to New Orleans. And that, my friends, is the Power of Puppets.

©️ 2023 Harry Mayronne