Hello friends,

I recently attended an art festival where I created a ton of original, hand made puppets, and clothes. When I got back to Los Angeles, I was driving on the freeway and noticed a flame in my rear view mirror; I immediately pulled over, opened my truck, and saw that one of the huge, 12v batteries I had purchased to power a drivable puppet car had caught fire and was quickly getting bigger. 

As much as I treasured all the art in my car, I knew the battery was seconds away from exploding so I made a run for it. Luckily I was under a highway overpass at the time so I jumped the barrier and could duck for cover under one of the overpass columns. The battery detonated seconds later, blowing out all my windows and sending shrapnel everywhere. I was so fortunate to have had the space to run for cover and was not physically hurt, but everything I was transporting back home was destroyed in five minutes. 

I just learned from my insurance that they'll only cover half the cost of the car, and now all my camping gear, tool chest, power tools, and about 15 handmade puppets and a bin full of handmade costumes are with the big puppet in the sky.

I'm a fabricator and set builder for a living, so as of now I can't start working again until I at least get my tools back. More than half my power tools are gone . If you’ve enjoyed interacting with  the art I’ve made, I’d really appreciate if you could donate! If you can't afford to, I would appreciate pictures of the cheesy puppets to remember it all by.

Some of you who experienced the art installation I was transporting may have interacted with the heart room, which was a secret room inside of a giant puppet where you could talk directly to its heart and share a moment of love. It is my true belief that all the love that was put into that puppet over the course of that weekend was the reason that part of the heart fabric was the only thing that remained not completely burned!



There is a very small chance that I will be entering a lawsuit trying to see if I can be compensated for my losses by the battery company, but the lawyer said that even if I did have a case it wouldn’t be resolved until at least a year and a half from now. If that ended up being the case and I was compensated, any money raised from this fund would  be donated to a charity chosen by community poll or as an art project/experience that could be for all of you!


I am so happy to be alive and kicking and know my beautiful little creatures got the epic ending that they would have wanted. Guess Burning Man came early this year.


EDIT: I updated the goal because I didn't include my deductible!