As we saw in the Instagram video below, Mother Willard wasn’t able to stick with the planned family outing and instead jumped out of the truck and hid in the bushes.
Later, a mysterious woman stopped at the Way Home General store to purchase a soda.
That day, frantic Willard and Willette looked everywhere for their mother and even distributed “missing” posters. They brought one to Marty.
Marty couldn’t put his finger on it, but something looked awfully familiar about this creature…
Be sure to turn on the captions when you watch the video below!
I made a new creature named Rusty recently and was working on his voice and character all last week when I was driving around in my car. Last weekend I did some puppetry with Rusty and Ms. Blodgett. I had already established that Ms. Blodgett was the neighborhood gossip and meddler, and I had also established that Rusty had entrepreneurial aspirations in the vein of becoming a life coach or other kind of coach (I’m not sure Rusty has clarified what he’s coaching about, only that he wants to be a coach).
I have somehow stumbled upon the concept of “coaching” myself and I find it a fascinating cultural phenomenon. On the one hand, there are many legit consultants out there who are extremely knowledgeable and helpful when it comes to particular topics.
But there is also another type of “coach” in the internet space whose actual knowledge and offer seems unclear, yet who are offering to coach other coaches. The underlying premise and “hook” seems to be financial independence, being one’s own boss and sometimes a sprinkle of “spirituality”.
Many seem to find themselves intrigued by these “offers,” regardless of how foundation-less they sometimes seem, and how closely they sometimes resemble MLMs. I find the whole thing fascinating and that is why I decided that Rusty would be someone seeking this promise of “abundance” and financial freedom. Like many folks, Rusty also has a sincere desire to help others.
Unfortunately, Rusty’s marketing of his coaching offer is thus far limited to the small neighborhood in which Willard resides, where he is unlikely to find his target market niche. He encounters Ms. Blodgett, who is quick to offer her own ideas about his coaching offer while simultaneously criticizing or downright ignoring what he has to say about it. Can his plans–already threatened by his anxiety and social awkwardness–survive her scrutiny? We’ll have to find out!
Meet Kenneth, Willard’s good-natured and fairly oblivious neighbor. Kenneth is never seen without a can of Coke in hand. His “rig”‘s been in the shop which is why you see him walking in the video. He enjoys circulating the neighborhood and chatting with or TO anyone who is outside. In the video below, Willard was overwhelmed because he wasn’t expecting company and hadn’t rehearsed what he wanted to say. Later, he felt very guilty for his lack of responsiveness. He may be slipping past Kenneth’s place under the cover of darkness (so as to avoid more chit-chat) to leave a 12-pack of Coke to make up for it.
The original pattern I used for Kenneth was actually intended to look like a hippo, and I had visions of a kindly lady hippo creature. But as I cut it up and made it an open mouth version, it evolved into more of a monster. As I played with it as a puppet, a classic old man Vermonter accent emerged from my mouth and suddenly Kenneth was born. Lately, I have been thinking about the rural gathering places that I was constantly in and out of as a youth, and the old men that would sit around and chit chat about not very much at all. I suppose Kenneth emerged from the collective memories of this upbringing: loud, gruff, but ultimately well-meaning old men shuffling around the village making small talk. Kenneth represents the creme-de-la-creme of this cohort, as he never participates in spiteful gossip or begrudges the “flatlanders.”
Willard and Willette had a great visit and enjoyed staying up watching paranormal shows and eating snacks, as well as loafing around in their pajamas and having more snacks. Today, it’s time for Willette to leave.
Goodbyes are always poignant, lonesome and sprinkled with a strange sense of relief and a touch of looking around for something to fill the void. Willette will be busy with her trip home, and Willard will re-acquaint himself with an empty house and try to avoid questions from Ms. Blodgett.
I had been thinking for a while of adding an additional creature that would look like a relative of Willard–resembling him, but not identical to him in terms of his facial features. I knew I wanted it to be a female and made of baby pink fabric to match Willard’s baby/pastel tone skin.
At first I thought of making it his mother, but then was leaning more toward a sister. My 89-year-old grandmother, who has become very invested in the Willard storyline, apparently had some of the same thoughts because she suggested a sister named either WillAnn or Wiletta. I settled on Willette.
I fell in love with Willette as soon as I made her. Typically, I make creatures and sell them and they don’t spend much time in my Way Home creature universe. But now that I’ve developed more of a narrative around Willard, I really want to start making dolls that I can keep and continue using in my story telling. This also gives me a good excuse to go shopping for adorable shoes and buy fun fabrics to make outfits for these dolls (and of course, if people want their own versions, I can always do more made-to-order replicas.
If you follow my Instagram you know that Willette contacted Willard online, where she found him after they had been separated at birth. They had a Facetime chat and made plans for a visit, which is what you see below.
I had so much fun making Willard’s house! I have been wanting to create more of an enhanced universe for Willard and Friends for some time now, but couldn’t quite decide how I wanted to do so, and how I could do it within limited space and going too crazy.
The house comes apart if necessary and is made of found cardboard and foam. The only things I purchased were the grass and fence.
Meet Willard.
I had wanted to make a new face pattern inspired by manatees. As I neared completion of this doll, I shared him on a reel as an example of one of my many (most) creatures with eyelids rather than just eyeballs.
Much to my surprise, the reel got more than a million views in less than a week and garnered a lot of attention and comments. It seems the larger internet community is divided as to whether Willard is scary or cute, and whether giving him eyelids did in fact supply him with a soul and personality as I contended it would. Additionally, many commenters felt that Willard ran anywhere on the continuum from sleepy, to burnt out from a soul sucking retail job, to sedated (which I assure was not my intention when creating this doll!) On the whole, people were immediately obsessed and found him sad and adorable which—hello!—he is. And he’s not the first of my dolls to be these things.
Anyway, it was quite the kerfuffle and Willard and I are exhausted! However, being an unintentional joke turned out to be a great way to reach many people who love these creatures and that was a wonderful way to wrap up 2022.
Since my shop drops were already becoming a bit of a skirmish for hopeful buyers, and given the increased interest in purchasing Willard, I will be trying an auction format this time around. Mailing list subscribers will get all of the details tomorrow.
Way Home Art 