Big Bird is so sweet—the secret is that the puppeteer Caroll Spinney who played him (and Oscar the Grouch—a yin-yang of good vs. grouchy) realized that after playing him as a country bumpkin the first few episodes of Sesame Street, that it would be much better to play him as a six-year-old. This worked completely—young viewers could suture into the avatar of the always curious and kind giant yellow bird—and feel their agency (and safety) acknowl-edged and reinforced through a sense of quietude and calm. Although you know Big Bird is played by a man  with his arm controlling the beak, it’s nearly impossible to watch and think of the mechanics of the engineering—he alchemizes completely into the avatar and his spirit drives the performance seamlessly.

Spinney was a bit of a loner, but perfect for the role as the full-bodied, walk-around Muppet who was sepa-rated from his Muppet kin in the live action sequences. Supposedly Sesame Street’s main director Jon Stone didn’t get along with the kind-hearted Spinney, but this perhaps added to the slight melancholy, sadness, and loneliness of Big Bird’s soul—the character always wanted to do good but was also worried that he might be in or get into trouble, and was perpetually misunderstood (no one believed him that his best friend Mr. Snuffleupagus was real!). For the first decades of the show, Big Bird was the biggest star (he was somewhat eclipsed by Elmo in Season 17, 1985–86).

The sequence, from the early ’70s, referenced in this painting is famous—Big Bird is wearing skates, which make him symbolically fly as if he was truly free.  I chose colored pencil on this delicate Japanese rice paper as it feels like a memory from childhood—which it is both for me and the two little kids in the scene.