Manitou artist creating massive marionette for Mardi Gras

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — As the Mardi Gras festivities in Manitou Springs draw near, anticipation fills the air, but Sofia Hernandez Crade needs days to slow down as she works away on her larger than life 24-foot-tall puppet.

“Well, once the idea has happened in my brain and I’ve settled on it, it’s just going to happen,” Hernandez Crade said. “Even if I don’t eat or sleep, like I’m going to be able to get it done.”

Returning to her roots in the art world, Hernandez Crade breathes life into this puppet as an homage to the indelible impact of Charles Rockey. Looking back on her childhood, she remembers the thrill of peeking into Rockey’s studio, captivated by the magic of his enchanting creations.

“He had sculptures and these gorgeous, fantastical drawings that were really beautifully rendered and just kind of had an uplifting spirit and then he also did a lot of impressionist paintings, that are kind of Van Gogh-esque of Manitou Springs,” said Hernandez Crade.

Later in life, she was able to cross paths with her artistic inspiration, where Charles Rockey not only provided her with words of encouragement but also kindled a profound motivation within her.

“To me, I think it’s really kind of my love letter to the community and I grew up in this area, Manitou was my first home after college, and I was able to meet Rockey a few times and he was just so encouraging, showing him some of my college work,” Hernandez Crade said. “He really was very generous with his time, and I think it’s such a beautiful thing to be an artist who has all that experience of this prestige, who still is humble enough to really take the time to devote to listening to the next generation and encourage the next generation.”

Her puppet not only honors Rockey, but also embodies human-like qualities with his beard crafted from wigs and his figure molded from papier-mâché.

Through this creation, she not only replicates Rockey’s appearance but also encapsulates his essence, reflecting the profound impact he had on her.

“I knew I wanted to do big,” Hernandez Crade said. “I knew I wanted to do figurative, and I just kind of had this idea of it being an artist who was dancing alongside all of his paintings, so all of his masterpieces had kind of come to life. So, in the parade, it’s going to be, kind of a slew of people dressed as his kind of fairy princesses and beasts and kind of like that renaissance type of fairy tale aesthetic and holding frames.”

Hernandez Crade has invested her own money to make the 24-foot-tall puppet come to life, and said she is hopeful that members of the community who are willing to assist can contribute to her fundraiser page.

There was a period of profound darkness in Hernandez Crade’s life, leaving her without inspiration. Just last year, her brother Demitri Crockett was killed at 19, leaving the family to grapple with an overwhelming sense of loss and grief.

“I think that just with my brother’s passing before that, I had just, I had been doing a lot of work that was more portraiture and I was really happy with it,” Hernandez Crade said. “But I didn’t really feel that kind of surge of excitement of I’m really living and leaning into my full self.”

Now, with a paint brush in hand, this artist will soon unleash a creation unlike any other onto the streets of Manitou Springs. The original date for the celebrations was back in February, but had to be rescheduled due to weather. Now, with the event less than a couple days away, event organizers are excited to bring the Mardi Gras fun into downtown Manitou Springs.

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“We really want that to be a family event, but then also community participation,” said Co-Chair of the Mani-Krewe committee, Laura Ettinger-Harwell said. “We have a memorial crew that will be at the end of the parade that will honor people who have passed in the last year… you can walk with them. It’s like a second line from New Orleans, it’s going to be a lot of fun. They’ll be playing When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Puppets have been integral to this tradition since its inception over three decades ago. While the original creations hold nostalgic significance, they remain cherished and will be included in the festivities, ensuring their continued presence in the celebration.

“We just patch them up a little bit more, throw on a little more paint, that kind of thing,” Ettinger-Harwell said. “But then add another puppet to the collection, and then we work to conserve that, too. So that’s kind of an important piece of what the committee is dedicated to doing.”

Charles Rockey won’t stand alone as a newcomer to the festivities, the Mani-Krewe committee recognized that old puppets need new friends and created an incentive to encourage artists to bring new creations in the parade.

“Then also to make it more sustainable, we are asking an artist each year to add a new puppet to the collection,” Ettinger-Harwell said. “They get a small stipend and this year we asked Kattie Orr, a local artist to make the Mardi Gras monster and he looks fantastic and he will make his debut this Saturday.”

The theme of this year’s Mardi Gras celebrations is ARTopia which encourages artists to reach for the stars in expressing themselves and depicts the overall community’s commitment to fostering creativity.

“We have seen… so many crews just really embracing that and going full on, expressing themselves with that, like Sofia with her giant Rockey puppet, which we’re very excited about,” Ettinger-Harwell said. “It’s like one of the best interpretations of the theme I’ve seen, it’s fantastic.”

As new and familiar puppets grace the streets of Manitou Springs, the timeless message remains unchanged: to instill a sense of celebration and confidence within the Southern Colorado community.

“I hope that adults will feel kind of like they’re kids again, like, ‘oh my gosh, how did that happen,’ and kids will kind of feel like they can make anything and whatever they are interested in is possible,” Hernandez Crade said. “I just think that it’s really important for our community to find ways that we can lean into kind of cultivating these shared experiences in this community and do things that are unexpected, whimsical, wild, weird, and a little bit, just unexpected.”

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