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One of my few pieces based on a real person - aside from actors as characters, that is - this was commissioned by a fellow
congregation member for the Rev. Laura, a UCC minister currently... um... ministering in Salem, Massachusetts. Yes,
THAT Salem. Anyway, I must apologize in advance for the very blurry photos. This piece had a deadline, you see,
which I made somewhere around 1am the morning the piece was to be delivered to her. At the time I did not have my digital
camera and could not check the clarity of the pictures right away. I groggily snapped the pictures of Reverend
Laura's doll against my microwave, wrapped it up, and went to bed, only to get up at 8 that same morning to attend church.
You may be wondering about the monkey puppet. Rev. Laura is also a puppeteer who sometimes uses them as part of
Children's Time, and believe it or not, incorporates them into sermons, albeit more rarely. Her apparent favorite is
Pedro, a monkey always adorned with a scarf, bandana (not banana) and shades. Due to the clandestine nature of this
commission, the only photos I had of Rev. Laura were long-distance shots taken by my client, and being candids, showed different
expressions and not all the angles I needed. As for Pedro, he was recreated from memory. So details I got wrong
are that Pedro is actually operated with his legs wrapped all the way around her waist, and Rev. Laura's vestments are too
short. The facial likeness isn't perfect, either, but I only had long-distance shots to work from.
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