ADDITIONAL +WORK
Working for several months, collecting and sorting through my work for this updated website has been a very reflective process. Maybe it's the amount of work I've completed. I've done a lot. Maybe it's the many wonderful people I've worked alongside. I've worked with many very gifted individuals and promising organizations. Maybe it's my ability to see my own growth as a designer. I don't know. I haven't accomplished this alone. I've experienced various tiers of success and failure. One thing is certain.
I LOVE what I GET to do for a living! I am fortunate.
- The Dramatic Imagination by Robert Edmond Jones
I absolutely love beautiful hand-rendered scenic designs. Not what you see above, but the classic, old-school, fine-art renderings that display a breathtaking interpretation of a real space in time. They are truly magnificent works of fine art.
I'm developing a greater appreciation for digital models. The costs are as steep as the learning curve. The quality of expectations is even higher. One thing is certain: it will remain part of the wheelhouse permanently. I'm anxious to explore light, atmospherics, and animations next!
I love scenic painting too. A large percentage of my scenic designs (especially my early work) were designed and painted by me. From the largest sets to the smallest properties - it brings me joy. In the best of circumstances, there is something medicinal about painting large-scale, faux imaginary places, facilitating the creation of seemingly real, purposeful living spaces.
Twelth Night - Hand Collage - 1980's Miami concept.
Picasso the Lapine Agile - Hand Collage
Dead Man Walking - Hand Collage
I'm a big fan of collages. They are a quick way to narrow hundreds if not thousands of research images into a composite image communicating your initial response to the director's vision. My early collages were old school: tear, print, cut, and paste (as seen above). In recent years, I've started using more digital resources (as seen below).
The process of using digital tools does not compare to physically altering and reassembling images by hand. The relationship of objects, their visual appeal, the satisfaction of quickly and organically cropping with a pair of scissors, the ripples in the paper, the stray strings of dried glue, and the discovery of scrap materials becoming an unexpected detail is simply an irreplaceable process.
However! I don't disparage digital tools or their users. - I am one of them. I have become very reliant - daily, in fact. There are many resources available that allow artists to communicate more quickly and more efficiently. It would be unfortunate if we didn't, at the very least, acknowledge their existence. It's the world we live in. I use digital resources every day while working in my studio. Each day, I discover "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" (working towards "a sixpence in my shoe..."). Yet, every day, I challenge myself to find the tool that matches the image I desire to create. It's a puzzle and has become part of my process that I strangely enjoy. I am a designer, and as long as I maintain high expectations of what these gadgets we so readily employ must do to support our unique and original ideas (digital or analog), I will remain a designer.
Below is a series of quick digital collages for the scenic and projection design for The Prom. This process allowed the director and other members of the design team to discuss and best understand the environment desired as part of the finished product.
One of several digital collages preparing the The Prom - scenic and projection design.
One of several digital collages preparing the The Prom - scenic and projection design.
One of several digital collages preparing the The Prom - scenic and projection design.
One of several digital collages preparing the The Prom - scenic and projection design.
One of several digital collages preparing the The Prom - scenic and projection design.
Below are a few additional collages to communicate the stages of the design. I do the work when needed to communicate the design idea best. It's not always at the same time in the design process. It's not always as complete, as detailed, or as artistically presentable as desired. Sometimes a collage is intended to communicate color, texture, atmosphere, historical accuracy, or period-specific detail. Sometimes it communicates something entirely different in addition to all or none of the above. It is never intended for public display. It's never finished. It's a living, working, and breathing image as part of the process. It's only one of several tools I adopt to communicate what is desired on set successfully. If I have accomplished this monumental task, I have achieved an ultimate goal.
When you can't afford a surplus army jeep, you design, build, and paint one.
Who say's The Addams' Family better than a torture chair. Design, constructed and painted by me.
When the State Governor needs a big fancy ceremonial cake, you build it.
My Amazon/Walmart carriage.
Building my defenses during post Covid.
