I walk on stilts, work as an activist and lead group games. I am a puppeteer, print maker, and paper cutter. I live in Saxapahaw on 15 acres of hybrid hippie homestead with my wife Lea, my daughter Althea, our dog Bella and our cat Gertrude. We have been working together now for 7 years on Paperhand, which has been huge in more ways than one. I also met my long time friend and collaborator Jan Burger here. Many of the festival folks have been essential to our venture in puppetry. The community of incredible people I met through the festival was, and is, amazing. I had actually been visiting there to take part in the Haw River Festival for many years. Then I found the jewel of North Carolina, my future wife Lea, and we landed in Saxapahaw, NC. This led to the creation of “Sticks and Stones Theater”, my first attempt to create a puppet company. I lived in Williams, OR for 2 years where I began making masks. My travels took me back and forth across this great land several times, as well as India, all of the Canadian provinces, Mexico again, Guatemala and Honduras. Both were great for me but neither allowed me the time to create. I stopped in NW Connecticut and tried out organic farming and communal living. Sketchbook in hand and adventure on my mind I continued moving and shaking for the next 8 years. By the end of that year all I could think was “gotta go” so I left and went to Mexico.

By far the most important thing that happened to me in Art school was meeting all of my friends there and making art (and trying to make sense of it all) until the sun came up over Eden park. After graduating high school with more “perfect attendance” awards than I care to recall, I went to the Art Academy of Cinti where I completed my “foundations” year. SCPA offered me a routine of practicing with my creativity, a habit I have not been able to get rid of. During that time I majored in art and minored in drama. I attended the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) from the 4th thru the 12 grades. Northside, my little suburb, was a mixed ghetto and made for a mixed childhood.

Growing up was a blur of junk food, community swimming pools and getting chased by the local yahoos who didn’t appreciate my humor. I was born and raised in Cincinnati Not much to say, but it’s a good place to be from. It makes our creations, our performances and Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s existence possible. Paperhand Puppet Intervention is comprised of artists and volunteers who share their energy, creativity, sweat, smarts, strength, support and hold a belief in our vision and promote our mission. We will use this puppetry, performance and creativity to undermine and eradicate greed, hate and fear and promote justice, equality and peace. We will work uncompromisingly to these ends. We will synthesize many art forms including, but never limited to, sculpting, painting, dance, music, improvisation, costume design, set design and theater. We are committed to creating multi-scaled and multi-disciplinary puppet performances that support this vision. Our vision is inspired by our love for the earth and its creatures (including humans). These styles include: giant puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppetry, masks, stilt dancing and anything under the sky that strikes our fancy. Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s mission is to use diverse styles of puppetry and artistic expression to create works that inspire, promote social change and are deeply rewarding for all involved. Paperhand’s parades, pageants, and award winning performances aim to be an inspiration, a call to action, and a celebration for everyone to enjoy! They continue to tell stories, beat drums, sew cloth, get sweaty, push boundaries and carry heavy things to help make the world a better place. Since then, 20 years ago, they have been using papier-mâché, cardboard, bamboo, your old house paints, cloth, and other assorted junk (treasure to us!) to create incredible giant puppets, masks, shadow plays and spectacle performances for all ages. In 1998 Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s directors Donovan Zimmerman and Jan Burger met and began a collaboration of epic proportions.

Amazing puppetry