In memory of Jerry Nelson, 1934-2012.

Jerry Nelson passed away this week and for those of you who don't recognize the name, you may recognize the names of the characters he has played: Sgt. Floyd Pepper, Robin the Frog, Camilla the Chicken, Gobo Frazzle Mr. Snuffleupagus, Count Von Count, Sherlock Hemlock, The Amazing Mumford, Frazzle, Herry Monster, and Mr. Johnson (aka Fat Blue) and Emmet Otter. 

Jerry Nelson was not one, but several of the characters who shaped my childhood, made me laugh and made me cry. Losing Jerry Nelson is a great loss of an incredible talent. But his characters will live on forever.

One of my personal favorites that Jerry puppeteered was Robin the Frog. My first encounter to Robin was on Tales from Muppetland's Frog Prince.  I will never forget the never-ending smile I had on my face (and still to this day just recalling it) while watch Robin and Kermit sing about a frogs life and hearing Robin figure out what  "Bake the hall in the candle of her brain" means. 

An unforgettable Jerry Nelson performance is "Halfway Down the Stairs" as Robin the Frog (lyrics are from an A.Milne poem). This Muppet Show Segment is such an endearing and timeless moment that I wanted to pay tribute through this magical sequence.

Thank you Jerry for all you have done and brought to the world.

In memory of Jerry Nelson, 1934-2012.

For some more beautiful tributes celebrating Jerry's life and work, please go to the Jim Henson Legacy twitter and web pages. 

Sesame Place Photo Shoot!

Was recently at a photo shoot involving the Sesame Street character walk-arounds for Sesame Place. I cannot show all the magical muppetized photos we took but thought I would share some of the good times we had.

Here, Cookie Monster surprised me by helping me out with the grey card. Thank goodness he didn't think it was a cookie!

Here is Design Director Mark Magner hard at work!

A sunny Day in the Life!

My most recent poster celebrates the release of our "Singing With The Stars" DVD. After brainstorming several ideas, I presented the idea of spoofing the iconic cover of The Beatles "St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band". Art Director Mark Magner realized it was a perfect opportunity to create something very special for our fans. Sesame Street has a vast library of characters and fans love to see their old favorites, as well as a few hidden treats.

When Mark saw the statue in the foreground he immediately started searching for the bust of Joe Raposo, the composer who wrote many famous Sesame Street songs including the world-famous theme song. In some older skits with Don Music the bust od Beethoven was swapped out for a bust of Joe Raposo. Mark knew that would be a hit with the fans who recognized the inside joke. When I saw the wax figures of the original Fab Four, I immediately wanted to include some classic Sesame Street Muppets. Of course I had to include a rare, brown Oscar the Grouch, A thinly-feathered Big Bird, and unforgettable Herry Monster.

A few of Sesame Street characters were placed in positions where they had a friendly tie to the person/object on the original Beatles cover, such as Grover as the Mad Hatter in the position of Lewis Caroll, but most were placed strategically so we could include as much as the Sesame Street family as possible.

The spoof was posted today, May 3rd 2012, on social networks, Muppet Wiki and the Sesame Steet blog. So far the numerous responses are wonderfully heartwarming.

Having fun with 'Big Elmo Fun'

This poster was created in celebration of the Sesame Street DVD, by the same name, Big Elmo Fun. 

I've been creating some fun parody posters for Sesame Street that have proven to be a huge success. So, for this DVD feature I wanted to play up the the first segment where Elmo is accidentally turned big and towers over Sesame Street!

I turned to classic movie posters, such as 'King Kong', for inspiration. I wanted the poster to have an old fashioned horror movie feel but still keep the personality of Elmo cheery and Focusing on our great Sesame Street photography (Photography by John E. Barrett, Mark Magner, and art directed by Louis Henry Mitchell)


I created my own textures, filters, and typography to get the look and feel I wanted to achieve. 


In less than 9 hours posted on Facebook,  the poster has proven to be one of the most popular parodies yet with over 3100 likes, 186 shares, and counting!

Elmo in Cast Iron Cook

Here's an activity sheet I worked for the release of the Big Elmo Fun DVD. I decided to base the activity sheet on one of the segments called 'Cast Iron Cook'! 
Given the fun nature of the episode, I wanted to create an activity that was energetic and full of some food fun! 

With a focus on some of our great Sesame Street photography (Photographed by John E. Barrett, Mark Magner, and art directed by Louis Henry Mitchell), I created a two-part activity page. The first section of the activity is finding the differences between the 2 photographs and the second activity is that the rest of the activity is a coloring sheet!

The Activity sheet proved to be a huge success with over 1,100 likes, 85 shares and counting!

Elmo's quick to the finish when he reads his spinach!

Here's a poster I worked on in celebration of the Elmo’s Learning Adventures: Triple Feature DVD! 

In Elmo’s Learning Adventures, one of the features is "Elmo and the Bookaneers", a story about pirates who loved to read. This inspired me to create a Sesame Street spoof based on cartoonist Bud Sagendorf's iconic imagery of Popeye with his spinach (originally created by E. C. Segar). I illustrated this poster, in which Elmo plays the role of Popeye, in hopes of capturing his color palette, illustration style, and feeling of the original. 

I'm happy to say the poster is proving to be very popular and I am thankful that everyone likes this artwork so much. I hope I did Sagendorf and Segar justice!

The Popeye inspired Elmo was posted today, March 8th 2012, on social networks including Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and more. In less than 24 hours this artwork has received over 1,700 likes and over a 150 shares on facebook alone. 

Please check out our Elmo and Sesame Street Facebook pages!

I'm flattered and honored that the Poster has been placed up on Muppet Wiki today as well. 

We also created a fun activity coloring sheet for families to download for their children.