Annie Hallatt in Her Playa Workshop

A professional mask maker, Annie Hallatt first created art on the playa in 1994, when Larry Harvey asked her to make giant puppets of “urban totem images” (rat, racoon, pigeon, cockroach.)

The next year she built 10-foot solar-powered, fluid-spouting breasts. She later designed puppets for each of the Operas, including (in 2001) the Minotaur, the Sun, and masks for the Moonbull and Monkey standard-bearers.