WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – On Day 3 of his confinement in his Australian hotel room for quarantine, David Marriott got bored. He had watched a few seasons of “The Sopranos” and his eyes got tired from reading.
Then his lunch came in a brown paper bowl and he thought, “Aha. That’s a hat waiting to happen.”
The paper cowboy was born.
Using the good quality paper bags his food was delivered every day, Marriott, an art director of TV commercials, began creating an outfit. He added a brim to his hat, then came the waistcoat and chaps. The next? A horse, of course.
He found an ironing board in his closet and tied a desk lamp for the neck and head, creating a skeleton. Coffee pads became the eyes and nostrils. He named the horse Russell after an old father’s joke: “Have you heard of the paper cowboys? They were caught and hanged for rustling. “
The creative world that Marriott created in his Brisbane hotel room became more complicated by the day as he added storylines to video clips he posted online. The Cling Movie Kid became the villain, set out to steal Russell while he was sleeping.
Like Wilson from the movie “Castaway,” Marriott says Russell can also be a sounding board.
“It’s an existential conversation, quite philosophical,” he says. “Like, why are we here? What are we doing?”
And he made the Rydges hotel staff laugh by asking Russell to go for a walk.
“It has raised everyone up,” he said. “The hotel staff are welcoming, but they have all these guests that they can’t see or interact with.”
The story behind Marriott’s quarantine stay is more sober. His father Harry had fallen in his London home and was taken to a hospital where he underwent surgery and began rehabilitation. But then he contracted the corona virus.
“I was really lucky that my mom and sisters were there and they got to see him,” said Marriott. “I would zoom in with him at three in the morning. It was heartbreaking to watch him deteriorate. But I could say goodbye and make peace. ”
Marriott flew over from Australia for the funeral in what he says was a grim journey. Like other Australians returning home, he was quarantined in a hotel for two weeks.
Marriott said he’s been making props all his life. Even when he was a kid, he got in trouble for breaking his father’s tools.
Because quarantined guests are considered potentially contagious, their food comes in disposable packaging and plates that are thrown away rather than recycled, which Marriott found a bit grating. But he said that since the beginning of his stay, he has barely thrown anything away and only had to order a few extras, such as tape and cling film.
And when he leaves on Saturday, he hopes to bring Russell and his other creations with him. He said there was interest from a movie center that Russell wants at an art show.
“He’s a bit of a superstar now,” said Marriott.
After all, he can just fold Russell up and put it in his bag.