The Stuff Dremo's are made of...

I would like to first apologise to a few (really, very few) people who were not included in my (rant induced) list of subscribers. There. Are you happy, Mom?

Anyway, on to this weeks wrap up. On Friday, I had a preliminary meeting with a representative from the Spooky Action Theatre Company. They are attempting to adapt the classic sci-fi book Lathe of Heaven into a play. Unfortunately, they are not finished with the adaptation as of yet, and there seemed to be some infrastructure issues with the group. It actually made me cringe a bit, but I actually said "no" to a project, for once. (well it was "maybe", but I doubt that I will ever see the completed script)

In preparation for my painting classes, I decided to get a new paintbox. Having to schlep my oil paints around has always been a real drag for me, but I thought I could bolster my enthusiasm for the class by getting a fresh new paintbox...well I'm here to tell ya, they don't make em like they used ta. I just don't understand why the selection is so small for paintboxes. The way I figure it, there are hundreds of thousands of people taking painting classes every semester. Why are we all forced to all use the same shoddily built pine paintboxes? I give the one I got until mid March until it falls apart...

The Counter Cultural festival went off pretty well on Saturday. While sales were not brisk, they were decent. I was in the odd position of finding that I had some of the most expensive stuff there...Anyway, it was a chance to meet the fine folks of DC Conspiracy, and many other great artists. One of the disappointments of the evening was having to break down our booths at 7pm. I realize that it was to give the bands a chance to play, but I think that many folks were there strictly to shop and drink...and as I have said before, my stuff gains an audience when people are drinking (they suddenly connect with all the pink elephant paintings...)

Closeup shot of my wares at the Counter Culture Festival
Dr. Dremo's, Arlington VA

I am so lucky to have some of the best sales and marketing teams on the planet, KT and Jaya

After that we stopped by Flux. It really reminded me of a Detroit opening, with the grungy "found" space and the attempts at sound art...it felt like any moment the place was going to become a rave (sometimes I miss Detroit)

On Sunday I had a production meeting at Hexagon's shop where I unveiled this design for the "kick":

Kick Scenery sketch Hexagon
Pencil Sketch, Photoshop

It's a retread of scenery that they have laying around the shop. Some of the painters (and carpenters) have been getting nervous about the amount of things to left to do, so I tried to make the kick scenery as simple as possible while still maintaining the directors vision of "smoke and mirrors" and "the center of a carousel". Using real mirrors on stage is kinda a nightmare, so I have limited the number of them to just 6 Ikea mirrors. The rest of the "mirrors" will be CD's glued to the yellow strips...with enough light bouncing off of it, the number should look pretty cool.

One of the things that was accomplished on Saturday was the declaration by the carpenters that the carts are done. That is, the carpenters have finished making the pieces of the carts, so the painters can paint them. These are photos of one of the prototype carts.

"Mock up"of one of five circus carts at the Hexagon Scene ShopThis will be the most assembled any of the five carts will get until we load into the theater. Notice the "fleur" on the bases of the uprights...imagine a whole lot more of that...

There has been movement forward on the Art in Heat show. We have been able to secure the services of Lobsterboy, and will attempt to make his show a major part of what is fast becoming a mini-festival...We are very close to having a graphic for preliminary postcards too. You loyal readers of BTT will be the first to see the graphics when they ready.

I apologise for not having photos of the progress on my Portrait Painting Class, but I have forgotten to take pictures of it every night this week. I'll do a twofer next week!

And lastly, as I write these words, Rep Stage's production of Two by Pinter opens, bringing to a close the nightmare that building and painting that monster was. I look forward to my check, and my mornings back.