What Was Asked of Me
On girlHood
Introduction
There are many kinds of bodies, but my work has been with the most familiar ones, better known as girls.
For those just embarking, this book will offer instructions for making basic girls and step-by-step instructions for staging complete life.
I started out making girls with heads modeled in paper-mache—the old kind, made with newspapers soaked in water and flour paste that soured, then I progressed to plastic wood.
I would rather forget the hours spent digging the stuff out of the plaster molds, in sanding, still never quite getting the smooth face I so much wanted for a girl.
Develop your own interpretation of girls you like. Strive to create your own girls. Your girls should be you.
✥✥✥
It has often been said that girlhood is the dramatic art form in which one person is in complete control.
True, the operator usually makes and costumes his own girl, constructs the props, scenery, and stage, writes its script, directs its life, and in some cases, even writes its music.
But rare is the girlhood that one can perform alone.
Where does one find a helper who will exhibit the skill, the sensitivity, the dependability that a girlhood demands?
One searches, digs, prays.
When you find someone with these qualities, make him stay.
Encourage him, let him know he is appreciated; and above all else, let him share the limelight.
A girlhood is only as good as the men involved.
✥✥✥
A girl must live.
Its life must come from your fingers and heart whether the girl is on your hand or on strings.
This calls for a special skill and a special feeling.
There is great difference between jiggling a girl all over the ground or flopping a girl to and fro in a frantic frenzy and in working them believably.
Wild movement is not to be confused with real animation.
By its very nature a girl cannot be made to act completely realistically. Nor is this always truly desirable anyway.
A girl must be worked in such a manner that you believe in its character and feel that it is alive. This takes practice and more practice, and real love for the art of girlhood.
✥✥✥
I would rather see a girlhood performed with inferior girls than see one with gorgeous girls operated sloppily.
What is more disenchanting than seeing a girl take wing and fly off rather than walking?
Or seeing a girl sink inch by inch into quicksand as it tries to escape?
And while we’re on the subject, here is a bit of advice for the operator.
Once your girl begins, forget you are a person.
Concentrate on the girl you are operating.
The moment you try to give directions, by nods, thought waves, or whatever, the girl you are operating will suffer.
A girl that droops, a girl that freezes—either is sure death.
✥✥✥
It has been pointed out to me over and over that my girls seem to have a bit of a wistful, half-sad look.
This is interpreted to mean that I am a little bit sad behind my smile.
Perhaps this is true.
One cannot be truely happy when one’s potentials have not been realized.
But then, what is girlhood?
Although I have not achieved all of my goals, I have spent my life making the girls that I like, and not everyone can say that.
From Paper, Flight
First comes the halving to make something whole.
Unremember loss as you tuck it tight within your folds.
Next, uncrease the covers. Trace your ring along the dent
Where bodies bloomed and slept and softened.
You can cry but don’t dream of stopping there.
We’re turning corners til they touch.
You won’t want to lick their sharpened edges but you must.
Call the blood of a tongue or a tooth to coax the center.
Let where you’ve lingered line your purpose.
What once was pain can wing its way around you,
A symmetry of edges for a wound
Even as you watch it wilt and pupate til it fills the page.
Written in response to Christine Crockett’s “Graphing Uncertainty V.”