ELVIS BIRTHDAY FIGHT CLUB TICKETS GO ON SALE AND CHECK OUT OUR PREVIEW VIDEO!

Yep, that's right, Elvis Birthday Fight Club tickets went on sale yesterday...so get yours HERE today!

Also, you should check out our spiffy preview video:

Of course, there is a lot going on behind the scenes with EBFC that I cant share because it would spoil the surprise for you (it hurts me more than it hurts you, trust me) so, you will just have to be content with the preview video for now...

In other news, I am sending the modified Nutcracker from Halloween to the Naughty Snowball 3 this Saturday...so put on your naughty balls...oh, never mind...

Turkey Day Cannibalism, and EBFC Photo Shoot

Landless Theatre Company's latest production of Cannibal! The Musical opened the day after Thanksgiving (opening on Thanksgiving itself would have been way too tacky...) and it is Landless doing what it does best: Cannibalism jokes! Anyway, you should get your tickets today because the show has had a lot of buzz riding on the coattails of Book of Mormon...What, you didn't know that the Tony award winning musical Book of Mormon was also written by the guys who wrote Cannibal! The Musical? Well, now you do....and seeing as Book of Mormon will be sold out from now until "the end times", you best settle for an easily available ticket right here in DC!

Anyway, here's a few photos of the backdrop and some of those pesky actors to whet your appetite (the photos, not the actors, you cannibal!)

CANNIBAL! THE MUSICAL BACKDROP 10'x10' Acrylic on Muslin

Just before thanksgiving we had a chance to take some promo photos (and shoot some video) for the upcoming ELVIS BIRTHDAY FIGHT CLUB (opening Jan 7 in DC and Jan 14 in Baltimore...tickets on sale soon) The good folks at Stereovision photography were gracious enough to take some flattering photos of the King...he looks good for being dead for 34 years....More photos will be leaked as we get closer to the opening....

GET YOUR LANDLESS SEASON SUBSCRIPTIONS...AND "Quickies"

Its that time of year again...time to check out what Landless Theater Company has in store for its upcoming season, and buy a season subscription!

With a Subscription you get three shows for $40! (it would normally cost you $75 for all three!...hell, you would only have to see two of the three shows and you would still be 5 bucks ahead!)

Check out this interview with Artistic Director Andy Baughman about the upcoming season: HERE

Now, on to personal Art By Jared business...The Isuzu Hombre is dead. After 11 years of faithful service (it was a 98 and I got it used in 2001) it has entered the "nickel and dime" phase...(I have already put about 2 grand into it this year...and a $850 fuel pump repair was the last straw). Anyway, the death of the Hombre has caused a veritable work stoppage artistically, seeing as I am frantically trying to find a new (used) truck that will not put me in debtors prison...

However, I do have some things to show. Ever since the Halloween party, I have been setting quick assignments for myself. That is, I have been taking 5"x7" pieces of board (canvasboard, luan, plywood, etc) that have been lying around the studio, and then painting from magazines and whatnot. I have set a rule that each one is declared done in no more than an hour. So, these are not intended as saleable art, but more a way to get me loosened up and thinking through some of the issues that a larger (and longer) painting produce. So, check out these sketches (I've been calling them "quickies") I'd be interested to know which ones are interesting to you...

SPOOKTACULAR XII

Happy Merry X-MASWEEN! Okay, show's over! Mr and Mrs. Claus need to get some rest!

Just a refresher on the design of the Nutcracker....

That's right, I'm such a badass that I am able to make it snow for our Spooky Christmas Halloween party! The nutcracker doesn't seem to mind...

 Here is a video of the nutcracker in action!

The rest of these photos are just a very small sampling of the party...

The Design for Karaoke Hell...

 One of the traditions that we have is to offer paintings as prizes for our guests (this year they won them by playing putt putt into the Nutcrackers mouth...if they got a hole in one, a ping pong ball would fire at them, and they could turn the red balls in for a velvet painting: (Velvet is really hard to photograph...honestly, these looked much cooler in person...I think its got something to do with digital camera's inability to register black correctly, as well as the camera trying to capture the nap of the velvet....)

KRAMPUS 9"x12" Acrylic on Red Velvet

LEG LAMP 6"x12" Acrylic on Black Velvet

SAD TREE 12"x12" Acrylic on Black Velvet

ZOMBIE REINDEER 12"x12" Acrylic on Black Velvet

ZOMBIE PINUP 9"x12" Acrylic on Black Velvet

So, that's most of the Spooktacular craziness...Thanks to everyone who made it out, you guys are truly the life of the party!....during the blackout of the past few weeks I have also been working on several other projects like:

A Concept sketch for a Mayan themed Pop-up

Six Flags Coaster Decor

 

Six Flags Coaster decor

...And things don't show any sign of slowing down in November!

Ballroom Boxing is finished

Here you go, I have put the final touches and a coat of varnish on Ballroom Boxing.

Ballroom Boxing 48"x24" Acrylic on Canvas

Now that this painting is finished, I can start on the real heavy lifting of the Halloween Party!

I would also like to share that we made some real progress this week on picking fighters for Elvis' Birthday Fight Club...its gonna be one helluva rumble!

Big Fence & Ballroom boxing progress

Turns out that Six Flags really liked the "broken fence" I designed (see photo of partially completed fence below) So much so that they wanted another one...

Hole in Fence for backwoods bloodshed...without the final paint job...

However, the second one they wanted needed to be 20 feet tall...So, I came up with this design, with two options...let me know which one you like better...

I like the really large "painted-in-blood" sign...

...But I could also see the need for some modesty....

 Also this week I was able to move forward a good bit on the Ballroom Boxing painting....

Ballroom Boxing shot on the easel from my camera phone...

Same painting with a bit of color (and glare) correction...

I feel that I am within striking distance for this painting...I didn't anticipate the complexity of a crowd scene, but I think that I can make it work if I just keep making the center of the picture the main light source, and silhouetting the crowd is with the glow of the ring...

Next week I should start getting more progress shots of the designs for Halloween (seeing as we will officially be in October by then!)

Broken Fences & Giant Nutcracking

I have been making lots of progress on Ballroom Boxing (I had hopes that I would finish it this week, but that seems unlikely now, considering how slow the going has been) but I forgot to take pictures of it...so, I promise progress photos next week!

Six Flags has been a bit of a slog, but they finally decided on a final (less interesting IMHO) design this past Monday.

In the end they "just wanted a broken fence" and "can you please add lighting to the rendering"...Okay, done. "that's too much lighting"...

So, here is the final version, with toned down lighting, and all of the props removed...

On the plus side, they were all very impressed with the other renderings, and would like to work with me on other projects that are more...scripted... Stay tuned, I'll send photos of the final product once it gets built (which should be in short order, because Fright Fest starts October 1!)

Speaking of Halloween, I have started to begin to design the backyard scenery for SPOOKTACULAR XII "the Spooktacular that stole X-Mass and punched it in the face"...what better to get into the evil Christmas spirit than a giant nutcracker head for the back yard?!

My thought is that "Mr. Chompers" (provisional name...what do you call a guy who only wants nuts in his mouth all day? I'll be taking nominations in the comments...) will also be the "game" for the backyard...I was originally thinking of a skee-ball type game, where you roll balls into his mouth...but the more I think about it, the more I like a putt-putt game (the balls are smaller, of a predictable weight and readily available) So this is not the final incarnation of the giant nutcracker head, just the start of the journey (which ends in 37 days!)

Slightly farther down the pike, but also approaching just as fast is Elvis' Birthday Fight Club...we are starting to have meetings and we are likely to pick the fighters in the next few weeks. I've created a sample "fight card" in order to get the writers excited about the prospect of some juicy gladiatorial combat!

Imagination Stage Open House and Backwoods Bloodshed

For those of you keeping score, I did not post last week. I was in super crunch time for the Imagination Stage Open House, and did not have time to devote to telling you all about how I didn't have enough time to...tell you...about how...never mind...

So, here's some photographic highlights of the set from the highly successful Open House:

The P-Nokio boombox still stapled to the easel (8'h x12'w)

Blurry Photo of the boombox in the dance studio

A "frozen" P-Nokio actor (the white witch froze everyone) and some of the kids sent to save him

Kids getting instructions on how to find the white witch

The Imagination Land Map still stapled to the easel (8'h x 12'w)

Imagination Land Map setup in the lobby

Aladdin rides his magic carpet

Rapunzel's Tower

Rapunzel's Tower with alligator filled moat

Closeup of the Wardrobe

Folks going through the wardrobe into Narnia...

The White Witch tries to freeze all of the kids!

As you can see, a good time was had by all...I am looking forward to next year's Open House already!

The other design work I had started this weekend was developing some scenery for the Six Flags "Backwoods Bloodshed" (the haunted trail behind the amusement park) Here, presented without comment are some of the designs I have submitted (lord only knows which ones they will like...)