With Fun Inflatables and Bubbles, Artist Reaches Youngsters

It’s no wonder kids really like Michael Marks.

For example, when the 36-year-old artist and teacher visits them at the Children’s Museum of La Habra or when he spends a week at their Orange County school “they see me under a totally positive and exciting artistic circumstance,” Marks said.

Put into language children of all ages can understand, it means he shows them inflatable art, some of it covering the entire length of a football field. One of his art pieces is a 332-foot-long snake that is inflated by a big fan.

And his bubble art, some produced from a coat-hanger “wand” and other types of makeshift wands, comes in rainbow colors and floats around the room.

For his finale, Marks encloses a youngster in a bubble and releases him by popping the bubble.

Marks once built Kingpus the Octopus, which had eight legs that spread 70 feet in every direction. Kids could crawl around in the inflatable creature’s insides and look out its eyes. Kingpus filled an entire school auditorium.

Other inflatable characters are named “The Blob” and “Kinky.”

“I’m trying to instill some futuristic thinking in the kids of today,” said Marks, a wandering artist who frequents Orange County schools and libraries, including a recent stop in Newport Beach for the city’s seventh annual Youth and Family Day.

He is the artist-in-residence for the California Arts Council, based in Sacramento.

“Given the opportunity, a fourth-grader could do almost anything,” said Marks, who worked 10 years as an illustrator for the book and magazine section of “Sesame Street.”

“I spent 10 years being a 5-year-old trying to learn what a 5-year-old wants in the sense of imagery,” Marks said. “It is my desire to work with kids.”

With that understanding, he said, “when I go into a school, I usually win everyone over. The most important feeling comes from the need of young people to experience things that are incredibly worthwhile that gives them a tremendous mental boost.”

When Marks pieces his inflatable art together at schools, he recruits students from each grade to help him patch the artwork together.

“When it’s all finished and they see the result, they know they played a significant part,” he said.

In addition, he said, the idea of building something and watching it come alive “gives them a positive feeling about their own abilities.”

When he finds time to relax in his home in Newhall, Marks takes care of his 300 chickens, the earthworms he raises and the food his raises for his own table.

“I try to manage my own environment,” he added. “We all have to have a certain respect for the Earth.”

San Clemente Fire Capt. Jim Dahl thought driving a fire truck from Florida to California was an interesting way to see the United States. So he did it twice, the second time with his wife, Alice, and daughter, Ingrid, 15.

“It was a whole lot of fun,” said the 18-year department veteran and San Clemente resident. “We had a good time.”

The purpose of the first drive, with San Clemente firefighter Mike Brown, was to deliver a new $195,000 fire truck to his own department.

The purpose of the second was to drive a new 42-foot-long, all-aluminum, air-conditioned, $250,000 pumper to the Brea department.

“New fire trucks are broken in by driving them a lot before they are used,” so flaws are discovered before they go into service, Dahl said.

In each truck, he crossed the country in five days by driving 12 hours a day.

“It’s just like driving a big motor home,” said Dahl, who flew to Florida with his family and then visited Disney World in Florida before the trip back.

And if anyone wanted to take the truck for a joy ride during the family’s overnight layovers, “they would have gotten a surprise,” Dahl said. “The red lights and siren go off if anyone opens a door or window.”

Herbert J. Vida’s columns have mov ed to new days. His People column now appears each Tuesday and Thursday, and Three Cheers appears each Saturday. Submit items to Three Cheers, The Times, c/o Herbert J. Vida, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. (714) 966-5989.