“Couldn’t We Ride” is the name of this sequence from the second Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper (1981), by way of the song that is the soundtrack for the montage sequence of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, who meet in Battersea Park in London after a misunderstanding, and in this makeup romance, ride bikes through the park giddily and are soon joined with their friends in a cathartic moment of peace, love, and understanding. Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets directed this second feature, capitulating on the success of the first Muppet Movie (and Muppet Show and television history before this), specific to this scene the captivating moment of the first film’s iconic scene of Kermit riding a bike. This seemed extraordinary in this time before CGI and other computer generated effects—a puppet, who like Pinocchio had “no strings attached” and no puppeteers hand up its behind animating it—but a seemingly “real” cartoon entity that had a life of its own in the real world, in a scene depicting freedom, singing and biking through a countryside (before the plot thickens of a capitalist bully who wants to steal Kermit—or have Kermit steal his own soul—to promote his Kentucky Fried Chicken-like fried frogs legs franchise!). I remember being a kid in the theater audience with a pronounced “ah” came elicited from the scene, adults and children alike being bewildered and sublimely amused that kindhearted Pygmalion could be brought to life (and almost “Gone Like the Schwinn” when humanities steam roller almost crushes the frog along with the bike before Kermit was able to jump away and join the driver!). For me, I painted a picture from the first film of Kermit on his bike in 2007 (and later in 2014!) that was featured in the 2014 Whitney Biennial along with a salon show of ‘My American Dream’ (the large body of work this is a part of) that was a hit, featured in the New York Times and more, and wanted to try to top myself with this work, like Henson did in this film with this sequence.
Jim Henson never veered away from success, and with vigilance, was also able to keep his artistic integrity totally intact. Sometimes he took risks (Labyrinth, the David Bowie movie with the Muppets!) but even if these didn’t financially or critically work out immediately, they all became beloved, influential, and critically acclaimed “classics (for the most part!) in the end. The Great Muppet Caper doesn’t have the amazing newness of the Muppets in real life surroundings (or the excellent Paul Williams soundtrack!) of the first Muppet Movie, but has charms of its own—a truly child friendly crime mystery thriller (!?) with song, and dance (and musical numbers that also capitulated the artistry and magic of the Muppets, like an Esther Williams synchronized dance musical number with Miss Piggy—who dives and performs underwater with her real life female backup performers). The riding the bikes sequence is a charmer—but multiplies the one Kermit on a bike with many—and has Kermit also doing handstands and tricks on his bike, seemingly impossible unless the Muppets were alive. At the end, when the other Muppet performers join Piggy and Kermit and go off together through the park, they are surrounded by children also on bikes and adults in a blissful scene (including the young Brian Henson, son of Jim, who piloted the group in his own bike, dragging along the moving mechanical giant sculpture of Muppet Marionettes attached to their bikes and one another peddling in unison like the mechanics of a huge clock). For some reason, this image, assumingly taken as a press photo/display card scene, wasn’t used exactly in the film—Kermit after doing handstands doesn’t look where he is going and gets clipped by a branch of a tree, only to fall into the handlebars of his beloved Miss Piggy—but this camera angle, with the closeup of the two and the bunch surrounding them only happens in this photo. I thought it the best image to capture the bucolic nature of the scene. It reminds me of one of my favorite paintings at the Frick—that of the Thomas Gainsborough’s The Mall at Saint James Park, the scene of his then contemporaries, coming out for the day to see and be seen by those promenading in their full regalia, commissioned by King George III in the 1780’s (but rejected ultimately as it depicted the park in too fantastic in a way).
I’m on sabbatical now, just stepping wonderfully down from being Chair of Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking at the University of Southern California, and it’s the first time in my life where I’ve been able to wake up and make paintings every day, all day for more than the summer months. It’s incredible and has given me such a liberated feeling of freedom, I don’t want it to end! I feel especially with this painting, that the act of painting is like rubbing a genie’s lamp hoping and wishing for your life to be saved—and the genie that comes out of the lamp is like my own spirit or soul that helps to bring the painting into life—and indeed with the success of the work, save me and my husband’s life! Riding bikes, skateboards, even motorcycles (and I assume sometimes cars and trains!) can symbolize freedom in films, especially so in this case. The Muppets are seemingly not being controlled by anything but their own volition, and they take advantage of their own agency to be lives of their owns, not manipulated by any puppet masters…. Even the title of the song “Couldn’t We Ride” evokes this—why can’t they ride, too, like humans can, or other beings who have their own agency to make their own decisions and movements and actions that effect their lives. As characters, all the Muppets are about diversity, especially since their fledgling years of prominence as the major component of Sesame Street, the children’s show that came about from the Civil Rights Movement to bring understanding, compassion, and empathy for young people to engender like the multiracial cast of humans that were part of the same urban neighborhood as their multi-colored Muppet counterparts.
Aren’t Kermit and Piggy queer icons? Kermit, famous for “It’s not Easy Being Green” his personal anthem of celebrating difference and accepting one’s true self, has always had a love/hate relationship with Miss Piggy, who as Frank Oz her puppeteer always mentioned “was like a truck driver who wanted to be a Broadway star but had no talent.” Piggy is female; however, she displays as many butch qualities as she does feminine character traits—as does Kermit. As Frank Oz is performing her is she a drag queen? If she has a life of her own but originally developed by a cis male, is she somehow transgendered?! Of course, even in their full-figured versions, one assumes that the Muppets didn’t have genitals, so in some ways their gender fluidity knew no bounds (although most of the performers were male and made them erect and animated with their hands up the puppets behinds—sorry but it’s true, take this where you might want!). As a young closeted (even to myself) queer growing up in the suburbs of Colorado, like many LGBTQ2+ people of my generation (and more!) I identified with the Muppets, especially Kermit, who was always the one who in his sensitive male, but also smart and singled out otherness, seemed gay (like the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, and other TV “sensitive smart and single males”), and I loved the Muppets for their humor and artfulness, but also intrinsically how they celebrated diversity and otherness.
In painting this picture, I identified with each as I was painting them, a different part of me coming out with the personalities of each character as I channeled them. But also, this scene happens in real life nature, and it was a relief and pure joy for me to paint trees and the wilderness of the park, sky, and background. I love early American Modernism, and was thinking quite consciously of Charles Burchfield, Arthur Dove, and of course Georgia O’Keefe and how they were able to bring about the spirit of nature, and how it might transcend objective realities. I also feel in allegiance to the American Transcendentalist movement that perhaps this art came from, the spiritual in nature is poetic to me, and while I’m not religious, I do believe in the spirit, and how the living nature surrounding us embodies this, and how one might be able to bring this out in painting. Henson also had his post Christian Science philosophy (what he grew up with in Mississippi) of, like Fraggle Rock, other worlds of life existing just beyond our human comprehension in the real life of nature! Of course, I love the Impressionists, all of them in different ways, but also how they were able to abstract reality by use of light and the intertwining of brushstrokes that emulate the interrelatedness of all things. For this work Pissarro came to mind, as the intensity of his micromanaging nature to have it turn into something spiritual and painterly spoke to me when painting the trees, also post Impressionism with Van Gogh and his depictions of nature, even the most benign elements—grass in a garden could be elevated to a higher context. I also love Joan Mitchell and the other Ab Ex artists (especially the women!), and how she would paint Monet Giverny and make it her own, only slightly emulating the nature that was driving her almost complete abstractions—but with the essence of reality and color coming through…
While painting, I was thinking of the above as I was listening to my soundtrack on Amazon Music of all the cd’s over the years that I had purchased that are now part of their digitized streaming service. It was like a jukebox of my youth, as I repurchased cd’s of all my favorite albums, mixed in with more contemporary hits by a diverse group and genres of artists. All of this came together when painting this scene of these different diverse iconic characters who all come together to ride. In film as it is with comics, if action of peoples happens from left to right, for Western viewers who also read in this direction, the action can seem like moving into the future, when the opposite happens—when characters go from right to left, it can mean sometimes like they are returning home. After a tumultuous few years of being Chair and teaching, and finally being able to paint full time every day, it was like returning home, to my childhood spirit, something that we can never forget and if we allow to grow, and continue to illuminate our lives in positive ways—that empower us all to make the world a better place with the hope of keeping hope alive, especially in our tumultuous lives.
Muppet lineup in image (from L to R):
Scooter, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Animal, the Swedish Chef, Pops, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great, Floyd Pepper, Janice, and Zoot
Couldn’t We Ride (music and lyrics by Joe Rapioso)
Pretty day
Sunny sky
Lovely pictures
Dance in your eyes
It all seems so right
It all seems so rare
Summer soft
Sudden breeze
Watch the wind
Play tag in the trees
The world is so bright
So perfectly fair
Lovers sing
Children dance
For a minute
We’ve got a chance
Why couldn’t we fly
I know we’d get by
Sunny sky
Pretty day
Just a push
And we’re on the way
Yes couldn’t we ride
Side by side
Why couldn’t we fly
I know we’d get by
Sunny sky
Pretty day
Just a push
And we’re on the way
Yes couldn’t we ride
Side by side
Couldn’t we ride