Finished my latest.

Assemblage dimensional mixed media piece- Primarily acrylic and paper on 18×24 canvas board.

I loved Puff the Magic Dragon as a kid.

The movie played on network TV at least a couple of times a year and I never, ever missed a chance to see it. It was like those Charlie Brown specials we grew up with as Gen-X that are now owned by the computer fruit company. I adored Snoopy and the gang, (let’s face it, was anyone really rooting for Charlie Brown? Especially when the World War I Flying Ace was behind enemy lines on his dog house???) but something about Jackie Paper really called to me.

It was a little sad. It was a little disturbing, how poor Jackie was locked inside his own head and couldn’t say a word until Puff showed him how to free himself. Sure, watching it now, I’d just be like, “Oh! Jackie has Autism!” but in the show the doctors had no idea what was wrong with Jackie, how to fix him or how to help him talk. They just gave his tearful parents the sad news, shut his bedroom door and left him to sit on his bed and stare at the floor, locked away, unreachable by anyone, even himself.
Until Puff comes to the window.

Those of you that know, know. Those that don’t, I will summarize. Puff pulls a ‘version’ of Jackie from inside himself. He tells him,” the living thing inside you- the thing that causes you to laugh, cry, care, and makes apples crunchy- is safely kept in your left ear. He pulls the living thing out of real Jackie and puts it into a life-size Jackie made of paper. This version of Jackie can talk. He can laugh, cry, care, brave pirates, sneezes, bake cherry pies and more. He can build boats with guitars and save fallen stars. In the end, he even saves a depressed Puff and Puff’s beautiful seaside home in Hona-Lee.

Before the cartoon, I remember going down the road to my friend Angela’s house… she lived next door to us on Blair Avenue, behind the cemetery in Camdenton. I couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 years old. She had a record player in her room and we would play those little story books that chime for you to turn the page… and I’d beg her to play Peter Paul and Mary’s Puff the Magic Dragon over and over and over. I’m sure she got quite sick of it, but she was a sweetheart and indulged me anyway.

The song is much sadder than the movie. There’s really no happy ending. Jackie goes on adventures with Puff, braving pirates and meeting royalty while perched on the dragon’s tail. There are painted wings and giant rings, strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff. Then Jackie grows up and just stops coming to see Puff. Puff crawls into his cave, sad, alone and that’s it. The End.
I always felt it was a commentary on how we lose the magic as we grow up. Adult shit gets it the way and we forget where we put it, it gets boxed up, shoved aside, put away and we never pick it up again. Most of us anyway.
In the movie Jackie rescues Puff from the dismal Sneezes, everyone gets chicken soup, they sing happy songs. Then Jackie goes home and Puff puts Jackie Paper back into Jackie Draper and POOF! He can talk! He’s cured. He has suddenly remembered that apples are crunchy and that he can laugh, cry and care with the best of them. His parents are overjoyed. Puff winks slyly at the window like he knew this would be the outcome all along. Happy ending.

I work daily with autistic kiddos that are locked inside their heads in a similar fashion. I’m lucky enough to have never experienced the frustration and despair that must come with that particular affliction. I have had plenty of bouts of lonely depression, anxiety and not fitting in with other people in general in my life. I think most of us, even if you aren’t experiencing it on the level of Jackie Paper, you can still relate. Almost all of us have been faced with a fear or a struggle that made us feel isolated or at a loss for words, that seemed insurmountable on our own.

for my painting. A re-imagining of Jackie Paper from my beloved cartoon. Puff looks a bit more dragon-like, less cuddly and squishy than in the cartoon. I wanted the focus on Jackie though, so Puff blends well with the background. I used lots of metallics so that the painting looks different depending on your perspective and it looks VERY different in a low lit room vs with a light shining directly on it. The starfish light up and cast a glow, a nod to the star Jackie Paper saved from the jealous, ugly clouds when it fell from the sky into their boat. Of course, there is a pirate ship on the horizon. 🙂

Jackie herself is on paper, added to the painting after the fact. I wanted her to look like a paper cut out. Her wings are layered paper gilded in silver. The swan and paper boats in front of her are all real origami, it was a challenge folding them that small! The boats are coated in crayon. This might be my only regret, but what’s done is done. The painting will now melt if exposed to high heat. But I wanted it authentic. Paper boats coated in real wax!

Danny has promised to make me a shadow-box style frame for it. We’ll have to have it fitted with a piece of glass. This should hopefully protect the paper and crayon parts from dust and yellowing over time. It will still have to be kept in a climate controlled space though.

The box of wax next to Jackie’s feet has several of the boat colors in it, tied up with real string. There are balls of real string at her feet. I wanted her wearing a sort of sexy girl Halloween pirate’s outfit, so she’s in black and red with a garter around one thigh. I thought about doing a hat, but I wanted you to be able to see her slightly haphazardly piled up hair. She’s barefoot, her hair is wild, she’s making paper boats with her friend Puff by her side. She very much looks like an adult, but hasn’t lost the magic of being a kid. She never forgot.

And she never deserted him.

-B