Traveller is the first (and only) toy of the NuPenny Toy Store installation that is rendered in color. He is an itinerant earthling with two suitcases who appears as if he is packed and ready to keep moving. Though NuPenny, Traveller is in color because he is the first piece I was able to make since my father died in August of 2012. Dad loved color like no one I’ve ever known. Red is a color I equate with love. This is about him.

“…and if men’s souls were radio equipped

So that we thought the thoughts and dreamed the dreams
Of souls attuned to ours…imagine it,
The satisfaction of a perfect set
So that we could listen in, or turn a screw…

But we are ill-constructed for this age…”

From Machines – Or Men, Elizabeth Newport Hepburn (Poems for a Machine Age, McGraw-Hill, 1941).

NuPenny : Traveller
H17.5” x W11” x D7”. Mixed media, automotive finish, decals. 2013.

Collection of Mark Parker.