About Sock Puppet City

Hi, I'm Marty Allen, a multi-disciplinary artist and writer living in Brooklyn. I've been making and selling pictures of sock puppets for over a decade. With the Sock Puppet Portraits, I try to make affordable art for cool and weird kids of all ages. And in everything I make, I aim to create work that is accessible, well-made, and fun. In 2005 I moved to New York and noticed that several people were selling their art in Union Square Park. I filled a green suitcase with small framed photographs of sock puppets, dragged it through the subway and planted it on a TV tray in the park, and a bizarre career was born. Over the years I've created hundreds of portraits and thousands of puppets. They all have names and stories. Some have songs, others star in videos, many are tied to my multimedia band, it's a whole thing. Somewhere along the way I relented to public pressure and started selling a few of the real puppets, too. My first book, Sock Puppet Madness, was published as a direct result of this mad pursuit, and I couldn't begin to articulate how many strange and wonderful collaborations and situations have been born of it. As an artist, I'm chasing a sense of wonder and moments of real and honest connection. Wonderful connection. To you, to myself, to the universe, to all of the stuff. It is an honor every time I can make a piece of art and sell it someone.Read their story