Visit with master puppeteer Hobey Ford - Vol. I

A visit with master puppeteer Hobey Ford / Hobey Ford’s Golden Rod Puppets in his studio near Asheville, NC.

In the beginning there was Clyde Hollifield, teacher of Hobey Ford, here a picture taken by Hobey, taken recently at the The Scottish Highlands Games at Grandfather Mountain, http://www.gmhg.org/homepage.shtml :

Hobey Ford “Clyde Hollifield at the Scottish Games” (2018)

The pictures I took and stories to tell are, as usual when visiting interesting people, way too many, even in two BLOG posts. But at least a humble selection here.

[* By the way, Hobey’s website was recently hacked and so is currently in a stage of “currently not up”, but you can find plenty of additional information online, next to his facebook page.]

Hobey Ford started out with a stint at art college but dropped out, the life of a contemporary artists did not appeal to him. Luckily soon after, in 1976, he met his teacher, puppeteer Clyde Hollifield, at a Shoshone Indian community in Carlin, Nevada.

“I hadn’t planned it. I was going to San Francisco Art Institute and while going through through Nevada I recalled reading about a medicine man named Rolling Thunder and stopped and looked him up. He was gone on work as a brakeman om the railroad so his family invited me to camp out on their land and I stayed for two years. Clyde came to visit a Cherokee friend there from NC.” [Hobey Ford, 2018]

Clyde taught him what he knew. In 1987 he got the inspiration for shadow puppetry by Australian puppeteer Richard Bradshaw, whom he met when both were touring Canada with the International Children’s Festival.

Hobey is specialized in rod puppets and shadow puppets, the larger puppets being carved from upholstery foam.
I got interested in his work after seeing some of his highly realistic bird puppets, that he flies almost like kites. He also carves miniature puppets (* see: Darwin and Moti) from hard wood, and then he has also produced some interesting 2D shadow plays, notably the music video “Bring Your Love To Me” by The Avett Brothers.

The Avett Brothers – BRING YOUR LOVE TO ME

Hobey apprenticed in 2016/17 for 6 months Chinese puppeteer Ping Lin from Bejing, who dedicated herself to an all-rounded puppeteer training and is auf der walz, studying under various puppeteers internationally. Ping Lin inspired Chinese style shadow puppet work, like this floral design piece for a shadow piece Hobey is currently working on:

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford studio – paper-cut for shadow puppet” (2018)

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford studio – fox shadow puppet” (2018)

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford studio – antique Chinese leather shadow puppet head – male” (2018)

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford studio – antique Chinese leather shadow puppet head – female” (2018)

Upon Ping Lin’s departure Hobey made her shadow puppet as a memory:

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford studio – shadow puppet head of apprentice Ping Lin” (2018)

this squirrel puppet was created by Ping:

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford studio – apprentice Ping Lin’s squirrel rod puppet” (2018)

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford studio – apprentice Ping Lin’s squirrel rod puppet 2” (2018)

Josiane Keller “hand made THANK YOU card for Hobey Ford” (2018)

These monkey mom Darwin and baby Moti are carved from maple wood and modeled after an original that Hobey’s teacher Clyde Hollifield made:

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford with rod puppet monkey mama Darwin” (2018)

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford with rod puppet monkey mama Darwin 2” (2018)

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford with rod puppet monkey mama Darwin 3” (2018)

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford monkey rod puppets mama Darwin with baby Moti 4” (2018)

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford monkey rod puppets mama Darwin with baby Moti 8” (2018)

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford monkey rod puppets mama Darwin with baby Moti 10” (2018)

Hobey also took a good look at my own Constance puppet, that came along for the visit, (puppets love to meet other puppets):

Josiane Keller “Hobey Ford investigating Constance puppet” (2018)

This expressive little Mexican girl “Beatriz” is from Hobey’s play “MIGRATION”, telling of the migration of people and migrating animals such as the monarch butterfly, polar bear, the godwit bird (a type of sandpiper), and the sperm whale.