BY CHRISTINA TASCON

Pablo Cano is a painter, sculptor, puppeteer, performer and an engineer enveloped inside a highly imaginative and quietly soulful artist.

Cano’s intricately thought out marionettes have delighted audiences of all ages as performers in his musicals and also as sculptural works of art at gallery exhibitions.  His current work is on display at the Vero Beach Museum of Art in Vero Beach, Florida.  His marionette performance held on April 7th was a sold out show within a short time after being announced.

His work stems from the complex art Dadaist movement  combined with the financially practicality of using recycled materials.

“When I was a student studying for my Fine Arts degree at Queens College, using bits of found items was a very economical way of getting materials for my art,” said Cano.  “I would find items to use in my artwork on the streets and I felt like I had somehow beaten the system.”

Dadaism began in the very early 1900’s after the dark days after World War I.  A movement of artists chose to shock with a sort of anti-art which flaunted the norm of the time using irony, rebellious sentiments and political commentary in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

As a “Dada-ist,” Cano loved the idea of letting the art speak for itself.  His pieces follow the faction of artists before him who believed that the work could have a serious message but presented with humor to soften its delivery while still making its point clearly.

Cano’s “Dr. Death AKA Fidel Castro” as a half man/spider illustrates that with its statement from comparing Castro to a lethal web spinning political insect that devastated many Cuban lives which Cano brings from his Cuban past.

Cano was brought to the States at the age of one with his parents on the last plane out before the Cuban Missile Crisis so this piece is taken directly from his own life.

“The satire is a fascination to me, to convey a part,” he explains.  “It’s been my passion all these years but it has become more abstract and lighter.”

Attending Queens College, he was almost kicked out of the school because the chair did not feel like his assemblage pieces were pertinent to the painting courses he was studying in the Arts College program.

Luckily a New York art critic, Robert Pincus-Witten, was also an art history professor at Queens College and championed Cano’s vision.

“He really saved me.”

Cano began to give shows with his painted and assembled creations each week for his fellow art students at the college gallery.  He also gave a full Marionette Theatre production as his Master’s thesis.

Since then, his stunning and whimsical marionettes has viewers enthralled with his characters fashioned out of discarded electronics used as headpieces; gas-can torsos; and musical instruments formed as assorted body parts.

His marionettes have performed a highly popular commissioned show at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) each year since 1998 and he is considered one of Florida’s premier contemporary fine artists.

All of his performances are filled with music, dance and all the accoutrement of a theatrical marionette stage, but they are much more than a typical puppet show.

Audience members are treated to a bevy of nostalgic sounds as the marionettes are accompanied by live instrumental performances and music from old records played on a phonograph.

Considering how lively and active his characters are during his stage shows, the pieces have to be more than beautiful–they have to also be durable and usable.  This is where Cano’s construction side shines.

“I mostly used trial and error when putting the parts together and try to find pieces that are very light.  My pieces are user friendly as working marionettes, I even put them on wheels occasionally to make them more mobile and easy to maneuver.”

That is especially important when the marionette stands over six feet tall like his Marie Antoinette.

Antoinette sits on a reconstructed office chair frame with an aluminum handle using an old lamp pole stand as the middle base to keep her upright.  A large commercial kitchen strainer forms her bottom half and puffs out her dress which is made from repurposed silver table cloths which Cano got from the MOCA.

Currently it is Cano’s favorite character and he has called her back to the stage for his production at the VBMA.

“The ‘Musical Marionettes’ uses all the veterans in a Vaudeville type production.  I like that because it is like they get a new lease on life and past characters become new ones as they perform to old pop American music.”

Like many assemblage artists, Cano says he gets many of his repurposed items as gifts from friends who somehow want to feel a part in helping him create his art.  They bring him leftover hardware and unusual flea market finds as well as foil from boxes of cigarettes.

“I used to see all these discarded cigarette packs walking the streets of Miami and would pull the silver foil out of the boxes to use on my work.”

He loved the metallic sheen they created but because the marionettes are working pieces, they have the usual wear and occasionally need to be replaced.  The search for cigarette foil is constantly ongoing.

“I recently had a fan sending me some rare magenta cigarette foil.”

Joan Earnhart is a local assemblage mixed media artist who also uses many found and donated items.

” I am always looking at the process and when I looked at Cano’s work at the museum exhibit, the first thing I thought is he collects items for their shape as a part of the unit.  The resulting creation has humor but the point is made and his statement is still there.  His characters are adorable and also so poignant,” says Earnhart.

Cano’s work has a rare combination of not just art to be passively looked at but also creations to be experienced as well.

Viewing his artfully created marionettes as they sit immobile hanging from their strings, they have delicacy and humor along with thoughtfully chosen items which tell their own story.

Visitors in the gallery constantly are pointing and trying to look closer than the ropes will allow to see how they are created.

Tap dancer Katherine Kramer has choreographed eight of Cano’s marionette productions at the MOCA.  They are currently working on a new marionette play written by Carmen Pelaéz in collaboration with Cano.  The “Art of Play” will be opening this Fall, 2013, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, Florida.

As performers, the marionettes also evoke a mood from the audience and have their own tales to tell as characters in a play.

Whether the marionettes dangle quietly waiting to be admired or dancing full tilt on stage in front of an audience, Cano’s art has a legion of collectors, critics and fans who think his work is simply brilliant.

Cano’s exhibit will be on display at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, until May 26th or you may learn more about the artist at http://www.CanoArt.com.  There is even a past marionette show on view on his website.