I was walking through Union Square this past weekend, and they had a wee art show but I was meeting Z. for lunch, however afterwards I made a point to check it out. I saw one small booth that caused me to laugh. It was for sock puppet portraits, but what caused the tittering was that underneath the primary sign was a secondary sign saying, “The Ultimate Gift of Love”. That was it. I now had to purchase some portraits. I got to meet the portrait-maker, Marty. This is Marty.
Marty has maybe the best hawker thing going. The sock puppets, while lovely, are not anything revolutionary. What makes them oh-so-special is that each one has a name, and a tale to tell, and a MySpace page. (As Marty said, “Even though MySpace is an all-but-defunct social networking methodology, it is still the place for sock puppets.”) I chose three nerdy portraits (Shock! Surprise! So out of character for me! Sarcasm!) which I will share with you now:
– Charles Darwin (from the “Three Guys Named Charles” series, the other two are Charles Dickens and Charles in Charge)
– Herb Bloomquist (a professor of something-or-other)
– Harold Speculex (an accomplished scientist and a model-plane enthusiast)
I must say, going to their MySpace pages and learning them is fine and dandy, but it is so much better to have Marty explain their life stories to you face to face. I believe he’s rockin’ the art booth scene in Union Square on the weekends all summer – if you get a chance, go check him out.
And here’s his site: www.martystuff.com
Oh, and here are pictures of my wee sock portraits:
