There's something about the acts of a good person that can bring out the best in people. That's why I like Felix so much, even though I've never met the man in person. He's the co-moderator of our Bubbling Yahoo Web Group (click & join!) where he welcomes all new members warmly. Also, he often chimes into the discussions with interesting and informative advice.
As you can see on his website www.BubblesBubbles.com, Felix is a kite flyer par-excellance. And an artist. He started making bubble machines to allow everyone on the kite flying field the ability to tell which direction the ground wind was blowing.
Wanted: If you have photos, a favorite story or anything to add to enrich this page, please contact me: RIBubbleGuy@yahoo.com & Thanks!
His interest in bubbles grew, until these days he's known equally as a bubbler and kite enthusiast. Felix travels all around with his machines making bubbles and making people happy. And like I said earlier, good people inspire the best in others. As an example: When I asked for permission to use some content from a DVD featuring Felix bubbling at the Bubbles Over Colorado Festival, this was the reply I received...
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Hi
Keith.
In response to your request to use video footage of Felix
on your website... Being longtime fans, we would be
delighted to have you share with the world any video
footage that you'd like to post.
Wouldn't Planet
Earth be a nicer place with more Felixes in
it?
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Not only did these kind people at Blue Skies Inn allow the use of their video they also let me use any content off of Felix's site that I wanted. They could do that because Felix said it was okay, and because they created the site for Felix as a tribute to his being himself. Due to a complete lack of the knack for self aggrandizement, Felix couldn't be counted on to build a site and toot his own horn, so the folks at Blue Skies Inn did it for him...
A big THANKS goes out to Blue Skies Inn in Manitou Springs, Colorado, for letting me use their footage of Felix bubbling at the Bubbles Over Colorado Fest, and for sharing other Felix stuff too.
Click here to see Felix's biography and design plans for some of his machines plus bonus photos.
Their site included Felix's BUBBLE MANIFESTO, as have other folks who are pro-Felix. I do too, in case you haven't seen it yet. It makes a great introduction to his philosophy:
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Written and lived by Felix Cartagena,
I see bubble making as performance art, but as one step removed. It is not the making of the bubbles but the bubbles themselves that is the performance.
By creating the apparatus that makes the bubbles, there is no artist per se... the machine and the vagaries of the wind create the art.
Every nuance of the wind is captured by the ephemeral film that glimmers and shimmers, making visible the prismatic colors of light. The forms that billow forth are very much subject to one's personal interpretation, much the same as two people looking at a cloud and seeing different things. The addition of music to the performance can influence the mind set of interpretation but certainly is not necessary.
Making bubbles under the cover of darkness is yet another whole experience. Using a 500 watt quartz halogen flood lamp, only the bubbles are illuminated against the velvet of the night.
As an alternative light source, a strobe light freezes the bubbles in an eerie dance. One spectator screamed out as she came upon night bubbles , "Oh my God! This is better than fireworks."
I cannot explain the attraction that people have for soap bubbles. It is beyond science and is somewhere out there on an intuitive and mystical plane. I just know I like to make bubbles. I like to watch bubbles. And I like watching people watching bubbles. It is unspoken harmony with the universe.
Felix
Cartagena
2004
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When you visit www.bubblesbubbles.com, you'll find a nice biography and many more photos of Felix engaged in his many activities. What follows are a few articles and photos that I think you might enjoy...
Press of Atlantic City, The (NJ)
October 11, 1997
He wears a Mr. Bubble T-shirt and a black hat that says, in orange lettering, The Bubble Man.
No, it's not hard to figure out that Felix Cartagena likes bubbles; not the gummy kind, but the soapy type that follow the 50-year-old Delawarean wherever he takes his homemade bubble machine.
And on Friday, The Bubble Man and his Bubble Machine entertained the masses of children that convened on the Ocean City Music Pier for the city's fifth annual Bubble-Blowing Contest.
"As an adult, you really need a reason to do something like this," Cartagena said of his hobby. "I'm paid in giggles and smiles."
A balloon-sculpting clown he is not. For that, all he'd need is a few pieces of elastic, some air and a knowledge of how to twist and twist until a blue poodle is created. Much more goes into Mr. Bubble's ability to entertain.
Let's start with that contraption of his. It's a hand cart with poles holding two ice-cube bins filled with bubble soap about six feet in the air. Motorized, rotating wheels of bubble wands dip into the soap with a fan blowing from behind.
The net result is a steady stream of bubbles sure to turn any group of youngsters into a hyperactive headache.
"I try to make it so people can buy all the stuff," said the 14-year veteran of the bubble entertainment industry. "The fans are from Pep Boys, the motor is from Edmund Scientific and the soap is held in rubber-made ice cube bins."
The idea started as a way for Cartagena, also an avid kite flyer, to monitor ground winds. Admittedly, he didn't like bubbles more than any other child while growing up, but it turned into a hobby which left him purchasing vats of bubble soap.
"The best place to go is Wal-Mart. I'll spend about $300 or $400 on bubble soap there. Some people will spend at least that much on cigarettes or booze, but others are getting something out of what I'm doing," he said. "At the store, they either think I have a lot of kids, or that I'm into something that's really kinky."
But neither is true.
"One time, I was at a senior citizens home and I was told not to expect much reaction from the crowd, but I know what bubbles can do," he said. "By the time I left, there were little, white-haired ladies dancing in the bubbles."
When it comes to the younger audiences, however, Cartagena has another slant.
"I entertain them, but someone else has to take them home, feed them and put them through college," he said. "Smiles and laughs, that's my payoff."
Author: Robin Brown; Staff
News Journal, The (Wilmington, DE)
August 6, 1999
By ROBIN BROWN Bear Bureau reporter
NEWARK -- Big, shimmery bubbles swirl into the air, dream-like, from a funny-looking contraption.
Kids run and jump to get them, as a man pulls a cord to make more. Even without his Mr. Bubble T-shirt, Felix Cartagena is considered the best known of state park volunteers, according to Charles A. Salkin, state parks and recreation director. Several thousand Delawareans volunteer statewide every year, he said. "It would be impossible for us to do what we do without the volunteers," he said.
Cartagena is "a park tradition," said Debbie Paruszewski, White Clay Creek State Park's naturalist. "He is great with kids and parents too."
Newark residents Bob Kraver and Elizabeth Alexander are also important, Paruszewski said. Kraver helps clean the park and feed wildlife. Alexander does publicity and started the popular Nature Nuggets program, where she teaches preschoolers.
Parks statewide rely heavily on volunteer help.
At Cape Henlopen State Park, volunteers clean the trails the first Saturday of every month, park manager Chris Bennett said Thursday. He cited Thom Nobile of Lewes and Bruce Lambly, who lives near the park, as outstanding volunteers. At Fenwick Island/Holts Landing State Park, volunteers come from the Lord Baltimore Lions Club. "We need and highly value their talents, their physical work, their enthusiasm and their love and appreciation of the park resources," Salkin said. "We see them as an extension of the staff."
Eight-year-old Ryan Johnson of Newark is one of many who likes the streamers as headbands. But he likes the bubbles more - the bigger the better. "Really neat," Ryan said. "They have the colors like a rainbow." "It's really fun for the adults as well. It adds atmosphere. Like Lawrence Welk for kids," his dad Greg said.
Joanne Shyr of Newark said, "I really admire him [Cartagena]. He brings a lot of fun for kids and that's really wonderful." Her daughter Anya Williams, 4, chased another bubble as she giggled. "I like the bubbles ? because I like to pop them," she said, with emphasis on "pop."
Cartagena, however, admires volunteers doing office work, labor and other serious tasks. "To me, those volunteers are the ones who should be raised up and praised."
Felix Cartagena, a Newark resident and longtime volunteer at White Clay Creek State Park, works his bubble making machine Wednesday night. Cartagena is also kite-builder and has been featured on television.
TO VOLUNTEER: Anyone interested in volunteering at state parks can call (302) 739-3197 in Dover.
Friends of White Clay Creek State Park want new volunteers call Andrew W. Urquhart, the group's president, at 239-2471. Volunteers are invited to Cape Henlopen State Park's trail cleanup Saturday. It starts at 9 a.m.
Now,
even bubbles are automated // Technical expert spurs big
uprising
Patriot-News, The (Harrisburg, PA)
November 2, 1997
George Fohs finds pleasure in simplicity; in the waft of a
light breeze and the gyrations of a well-formed, shiny
bubble. But Fohs hasn't earned his reputation as The Bubble
Man because he seeks his particular thrills one at a time.
The Boiling Springs man goes at it in a Rube Goldberg sort
of way, building machines that make bubbles in battalions.
'I derive a great deal of pleasure out of doing this and
watching the reaction of people, the joy in their faces,
the laughter, all of those things we don't see enough of in
everyday life,' said Fohs, who has carted his contraptions
to various local festivals. 'Whenever people see the
bubbles they tend to light up.'
Just looking at Fohs' machines can bring a grin.
It is such a contrast to his day job as a technical writer for the Revision Information Design computer services firm in Mechanicsburg. 'That's very precise,' Fohs, 55, said as he demonstrated his gizmo the other day. 'This allows me to get away from precision and just do something that's fun.'
The Baltimore native said his bubble-making grew out of his original hobby and other recreational passion of kite-flying. Fohs said he met his friend and the 'creative guru' of bubble-making, Felix Cartagena of Newark, Del., through kite-flying. All of his machines are built to Cartagena's designs.
Fohs said he has been involved in the sudsy gig on and off for about a decade and in a serious way for the past five years or so. Since moving here from Hanover in 1996, he's been a draw at local events such as A Day at the Lake in Boiling Springs and South Middleton Twp.'s Super Saturday celebration.
'I look for community events where I know there will be a lot of kids around,' Fohs said. 'I don't do this for money. I do it for free. . . .Sometimes, I like to just show up and do it.'
'I enjoy being out on a sunny, hopefully semi-windy day,' he added. 'I derive a lot of pleasure, particularly from the big bubbles. I like to just watch the convolutions they go through and their colors. They're beautiful, especially when the sun hits them in just the right way.'
'This machine uses about a gallon of solution an hour,' he said, watching his whirligig do its thing. 'And I'm usually at most of these events for four to six hours, so I go through a lot of solution.'
'I get a couple of different reactions to what I do; left brain, right brain kind of stuff,' Fohs added. 'The men always look at the machine. They want to see how it works. The women just delight in the bubbles and in their children's delight in them. . . .Kids have to pop the bubbles. That's their thing.'
'I'm also amazed at how totally involved some people can get with it,' he said. 'Naturally, I like those people.'
Winter will bring a temporary halt to his bubble-making, but not to his creativity. Fohs plans to spend the icy months building another bubble machine to expand his unusual arsenal.
'Next year's going to be bubble mania,' he vowed. 'Big time.'
The Renaissance Store ® -Article
Sept. 2005
by Gael Stirler
Felix Cartagena's "Fairy Spheres" are mystifying and beautiful as they float on the breeze, capturing light on a fragile film, glistening with all the colors of the rainbow.
"I see bubble making as performance art, but as one step removed. It is not the making of the bubbles but the bubbles themselves that is the performance." says Cartagena' who loves watching bubbles and watching how people react to bubbles. "It is unspoken harmony with the universe."
<<snip> Photo: Felix Cartagena with his Fairy Sphere Wagon
at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, 2005>
Cartegena is one of a handful of professional bubble artists like Professor Bubbles and Sterling Johnson, the Bubblesmith, who are performing around the country. He has invented a number of "ephemeral sculpture machines," as he calls them, including one that creates bubbles 3 feet wide and 12 feet long. Like a modern da Vinci, he designed and created a renaissance-style deus ex machina to make dancing Fairy Spheres for the children at the Renaissance Faires.
Look for Felix Cartagena at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, and the Maryland Renaissance Festival just outside of Annapolis, Maryland this fall. Visit his Bubble website at www.bubblesbubbles.com
http://www.renstore.com/Bubbles.asp
BUBBLE BATTLE!
FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 2006 @ 6:16 PM
ASTOR PLACE, NYC
Meet at the Cube
After-Action report by Felix to the SBF Group.
I drove up to NYC to participate. I borrowed a friend's "TomTom" GPS mapping unit and was guided
to within a block of the event. Since I left early to give myself plenty of time in case there were
traffic problems and encountered none, I arrived at 2pm, 4 hours before the event. I unloaded the
bubble cart and accoutrements, and pushed it down the block.
The island has in the middle a large metal sculpture called "The Cube", which is upended and mounted on one point of the cube. It can be rotated by people and throughout the time I was waiting numerous passer-bys did so. I wheeled my cart to the island and at the appointed time started cranking out
bubbles.
Most participants had simple bubble wands or battery powered bubble guns. By comparison, I had brought howitzers. There was just enough wind to move the bubbles but not cause any problems.
Because of the output and size of the bubbles my machines make, I became a media star. I expect coverage in the Village Voice, Dutch Television, Public Access TV, and a few other venues. Everyone
was astounded that I drove up from Delaware to participate. New Yorkers can be totally uninhibited and the adults dancing and frolicking in front of my machines showed that to be true.
In all, it was an amazing experience.
Felix
For more about this event, Click Here.
And Finally:
On July 28, 2007 Sterling Johnson posted this to the SoapBubbleFanciers group on Yahoo:
Sterling here:
I received a very touching email from Felix which he invited me to post
here, and I think you should all read what is happening with our friend:
"...well Sterling, I've had a pretty long run, almost 25 years of
bubble making. There are very few people who make bubbles the way I do,
with machines outdoors. Sonny Fenwick (Bubble Truck) and Stretch Coleman
are the only ones that come to mind but you are probably aware of more.
I would say easily in my time, a couple hundred thousand people have
enjoyed my bubbles. The Smithsonian Kite Festival has been my largest
venue with anywhere between 10,000 to 50,000 enjoying the bubbles
(depending on the weather). This year's event probably was the largest
crowd ever. Kendrick Hang's blog captured the feel for what was
happening. I even got a nice mention in the Washington Post, much to the
chagrin of my fellow kite flyers. I think very few bubble makers have
had crowds as large as mine but that is because their audience is static
and not moving. So too, I am usually making bubbles from 10am to 4pm in
most of my appearances. One of my favorite places to bubble is in Ocean
City, Maryland. Depending on the wind, the bubbles may go 10 blocks down
the Boardwalk or across the Boardwalk, bubbling the tram cars as they
pass. Once the tram stopped right in front of the bubble barrage and it
was full of Red Hat Ladies. They giggled, laughed and were singing "I'm
Forever Blowing Bubbles" as the tram pulled out. While kite festivals
have been the mainstay of my bubbling efforts, I have done many other
events such as charity happenings, walk-a-thons, picnics, concerts in
the park, senior citizen bashes,
and even bubble events (wotta concept!). So where is all this babble
leading..........?
I am retiring from bubble making, at least that which involves
the electric machines. There are many reasons, none of which is more
important than the others. In the last few years my allergies, diabetes
and general physical condition have been aggravated by the long hours I
spend making bubbles. The work involved, such as just making the rounds
trying to find bubble soap, charging batteries, set up, clean up and
running all this up and down the steps of my 2nd floor apartment is too
much to handle. The cost of doing all this has gotten to be too much
also. Yeah, I know, I should charge for my services but that, in my
mind, curtails the freedom to do what I do. I make bubbles first of all
for my enjoyment and then the enjoyment it brings others.
Of course, for the time being I still have the Renaissance Bubble
Machine and will occasionally take that to RenFaires. I may even make
another Ephemeral Sculpture Machine. I think I have left a decent legacy
of bubble making. As mentioned to Keith this week, I have many proteges
who make their bubbles under the radar of the "bubble establishment".
All things considered, it is a good time to exit stage right. Tomorrow I
will travel to Lancaster, PA to donate one of my machines to the Amish
community for the enjoyment of their children. After the sad event of
last year it may help in the healing process. One other machine is going
to Stretch, whenever I get the chance to pack it up and send it to him.
The bubble cart and various accessories are going to another"unknown"
bubble maker.
So, I've had my day in the sun... which has lasted almost 25
years. I still have to do a formal letter to my
regular venues to let them know I am retiring but I think they will
understand. As a certain comedian would say... Thanks for the
memories.......................... Felix"