Art/Ship-O-Matic/Fools

The "O" in the middle is the "eye of the storm" this past week. The two major developments are site selection at Art-o-Matic, and finishing the scenery for Lobsterboy's Ship-o-Fools...

Since its always great to have boobies be the first thing to appear when you open the blog, I have chosen to post my Lobsterboy scenery first:

Mermaid figurehead, SR
Lobsterboys' Ship-o-Fools, Painted luan flats Aprox 7'x11'

Barnacled pier and treasure chest, SL
Lobsterboy's Ship-o-Fools, Painted luan flats Aprox 7'x11'

These are going to be the flanking pieces around the Squid and Whale backdrop from the Toxic Tiki show last spring. The Mermaid will get some real tassels, so that she will comply with the law (I wonder if that really applies to scenery...) Unfortunately, that is the extent of the "functionality" of the scenery...i.e. it doesn't have an ass for anything to come out of....

The other major development was the site selection at Art-o-Matic. KT and I got there on Sunday and picked through the scraps that the other artists had left from Saturday. I think we did pretty well, we got the first room when you turn right from the info desk on the 6th floor (the room number is 6T17, in the red section) I have one roommate, who's phone number on his card is not connected...so I have yet to coordinate with him about what part of the room is his vs. mine.

Room 6T17 Red, Art-o-Matic
Ably demonstrated by KT

I think I will be doing some sort of installation in my room...perhaps a big tiki in the corner. If I luck out and get the whole wall (not pictured, but its on the right) I might stick the mermaid on the wall...

One of the things I need to do for Hukilau is send some of my promotional materials to them for their website. They specifically asked for a logo, so I have been kicking around making a new logo in conjunction with a new business card. Let me know what you think.

New logo design on redesigned business card

Speaking of logos, I also developed a logo for Jarett Bakers new theatrical sound company...he said he wanted a pinup girl sitting on his lettering...

Theater Image logo girl

All that's left now is to show you my schoolwork. 14 Paintings was a another day of figurative abstraction, this time centering on line. We started a discussion on Brice Marden in class (actually Steven was kinda dissing him) so I ended up trying to make a similar sort of painting. I really just wound up doodling with the paint...which is where I don't like to be when I am making abstract work...I don't think that this a very good painting in the end.

14 Paintings...Fifth painting
Figurative abstraction with lines

In Academic Portrait painting I actually got a chance to paint. I was really suffering from not having the color "permanent rose", which is a magenta-like color...the model has a magenta-purple dress on, and she has read hair. So I borrowed some from a classmate and the whole painting brightened up. I only have two more sessions with this model...

Academic Portrait Painting
Second model third session

Next week I will have photos of this Sunday's Lobsterboy's Ship-o-Fools @ the Birchmere!

New Directions...Old Business

This last week heralded the coming of the "lets get down to business" side of making art. What I mean to say is that I took stock of the projects that I have coming up (Lobsterboy's ship of fools, Art-o-Matic, WPAC's 9x10, Hukilau, and Art In Heat) and started to plan out how I was going to make so much work in such a short amount of time...but first, I needed to take some good photos of the Hexagon Show:

Strike While the Irony's Hot, Hexagon

False proscenium with circus cartsStrike While the Irony's Hot, Hexagon

Freak banners

I have yet to hear from the official Hexagon photographer about getting some shots with actors in them...but I don't think these are too shabby for my old film camera...(BTW, there is still a chance to see the show if you are reading this before April 1)

The strategy I think I am going to employ for the painting I will be doing for the upcoming shows is based on the idea that I need to be channeled...like a mighty river (hey, its my narcissistic blog, I'll be as hyperbolic as I wanna be!) So I have set forth to create a set of six "thesis" paintings. That is, six totally different paintings (thematically) and then pursue further paintings from the most successful of those original six...So if you want to get a glimpse of the headwaters of the mighty stream of consciousness that is Artbyjared, you'll have to swing by my booth (or wall, or room or whatever is left for me to claim) at Art-o-Matic!

For St. Patty's day, KT, Jared R, Mark, Amy and Sara all made our debut (in attendance) to Blobs Park. Brave Combo was playing...and we did the chicken dance. Nuf Said.

Over the course of this week I have been laying plans for the Lobsterboy's Ship of Fools (Birchmere April 1) and I actually got around to designing some scenery, here's a peek:Stage Left Mermaid

She'll be great with real tassels! (check out her burlesque feather fan)

Lastly, I am happy to report that I have classwork to show you, since I did not have jury duty, nor was it any sort of holiday.

14 paintings in 14 weeks
Painting 4, figurative abstraction

This week, Steven had a model roam around the studio while we painted one figure on top of the other. Eventually we were supposed to achieve a "DeKooning-esque" painting...I stuck to a limited palette and wrestled with the oil paint a bit...this represents 4 hours of work...I cant tell if it confirms or denies my ability as an abstract painter...

Academic Portrait Painting
Second Model, second session

I told you last time that I had a really hard time with this model...She's in a funny place (well, I am in a funny place) and I just couldn't get the figure right...turns out that I need to be looking at the model from the right side of my canvas (since I am right eyed, I think). I did as much and found the results improved dramatically (so much so that I feel confident showing you the results here) There are three more days with this model...I hope that my three day lag behind the rest of the class will not prevent me from finishing...

CD and CB in DC with Me

I don't know how this has slipped my mind, but the official "pre-marketing" campaign has started for Art in Heat. Which means you should be on the lookout for this postcard EVERYWHERE!

As the card says, you can get all the up-to-the-minute-dirt at www.artinheat.com

Other than that oversight, I have little in the way of actual work to show for this week...Mostly because I was showing my parents around DC all weekend. It was a weekend of nonstop theater for them, so I hope that they went home for a bit of well deserved rest. When they got in on Friday, I took them to the new portrait gallery, in an effort to open up a dialog about painting with my father. He finds the whole business of "being an Artist" a bit mysterious in the first place, let alone that his son has chosen it has a vocation. After that we saw The Constant Wife at Olney. A very good show, even by Olney standards. The next day we spent shopping and tasting wine at the wine tasting event downtown, topping the evening off at Hexagon's production of Strike While the Irony's Hot. My parents seemed appropriately pleased with the quality of the show (and appropriately proud of the scenery), however it did lead my father into discussions with me about "getting a 'community theater' reputation"...On Sunday, my Mother was treated to close to $1000.00 worth of shoes. (she obviously didn't intend to spend that much, but she bought three pair, and can you really put a price on comfort? More importantly, she deserves to have them) In the evening we went to see the final performance of Lipscynca's Passion of the Crawford. It was a bizarre show, but quite memorable (it may haunt my nightmares for years to come) On Monday, I trundled them off to DCA...and I haven't heard from them since...(perhaps I'll email them after this post)

In the course of events, I also ordered two more segments of Pipe and Drape, so that I can A) use them for scenery for Lobsterboy's Ship of Fools, and B) use them as my "booth" at Hukilau!

servitude) for Art-o-And lastly, I got in line (and paid my money, and signed up for my 15 hours of indenturedMatic! So check back here soon for concurrent posts about Lobsterboy's Ship of Fools at the Birchmere on Sunday April 1, and the Opening of Art-o-Matic on Friday April 13!

Guilty!...of not blogging!

My absence from the bloggosphere has largely been due to the murder trial I was serving as a juror on. In the end we found the guy guilty of shooting his AK47 into the street (and killing one person) in Southwest DC. I hope that he has a good long time to think about what he did. As for me, I am glad that I am getting my life back...

Lots of things have happened since we last, er, spoke. Since then, Hexagon has loaded into Duke Ellington, and has opened. One of the last pieces of the set design was the "freak banners". The idea was to have a large sideshow banner "wall" that would portray different politicians as "freaks"...below are the eight that made the cut. They are all 8'x8', and painted over a four day period.I didn't really know who Sam Brownback was...now he 's running for President...in fact, there are so few caricatures of him, that he turned out looking a bit like Al Gore!Tony Snow is another relatively nondescript white guys...so I played up the whole FOX NEWS connection...
I hope that BtT wont get banned in Iran for this!
The older writers in Hexagon are a bit paranoid about Blackberrys...then again, how do you make fun of a mayor who has been in office for only a month!
Because of Anna Nicole Smith, this has become "old news"...I still think its funny...BTW, she is being propelled by a can of "pepper spray"!

Not limited enough!

I didn't want to be too mean here...but I think that the pink power suit says it all...

He's so cute!This is a fire truck that will be on one one of the carts for the traditional "save the baby" clown fireman routine...Here is a bad cameraphone photo of dry tech...you get an idea of how the banners look all together...This is a picture of the "false proscenium arch" sitting just off the stage floor, ready to be hoisted into position. Its about a 30' span, with no cables holding it up from above! The whole thing weighs about 200 lb...
And here it is during dry tech. The arch is up and lit (the little lights even chase), the spotlight operators are inside, and you can see three of the five carts in this picture.

I think that this is going to be a really great production this year, I have tickets for this Saturday, so next week I can give you my review. I would like to encourage anyone reading this to think about going to see this show. Since all proceeds go to Ronald McDonald house, it is theater for a good cause, not just my designs...

Other than Hexagon, these past few weeks of jury duty have given me a chance to, do my taxes, hang out at the Raven with Greg and Scott, go to Dr Sketchy's at Palace of Wonders...(we are now looking into having Molly Crabbapple be the third event in the Art in Heat lineup)

I also did not win any WATCH awards...as usual, I was robbed (I was nominated for Best Set Design, Noises off and also Best set Painting, Pirates of Penzance)

The other GINORMOUS event that happened was Tug of War at Hemphill. All of the big lowbrow folks were included in the show (I got to meet Glenn Barr!) and that of course includes Scott Brooks. If you missed the opening, then you missed the opportunity to buy Scott's work...snooze you loose!

Me, Scott and Greg at Tug of War (it was really hot inside...because it had these three hot artists, duh!)

Lastly, the other project I have been working on is being the scenic painter for Rep Stage's production of Bach at Leipzig. It is a "Milagros..." designed set, so there is plenty of painting to do. I spent the better part of three days painting faux marble for the floor!
Somehow the cameraphone makes this marble look really fake. In person it is (if I may immodestly say so) really quite convincing. This is 24 panels out of 200...

Because of my Jury duty, I have not been to class for the last two weeks (actually three because of the Presidents day holliday...and its "spring break" next week...for a total of 4 weeks before I return!) so I have no classwork to show...

Mardi Gras, Babies, PJs and Valentines...

I took Friday off "sick"...by the end of it I was pretty sick, so my moral compass still points, er, in the good direction...ANYWAY, I was called in by Walt of Production Solutions (an old friend from Baltimore, who has moved to Florida, but occasionally needs my mad painting skilz for one of his events) to help paint faces on his "wizard of Oz" characters that will be on the proscenium for the Mardi Gras event held every year at the Marriott in DC...( an event that I normally am pushing debutantes around at, but not this year) That was all I was told at the beginning of the day. So when I arrived, there were some really misshapen Styrofoam bodies with Styrofoam wig heads attached...I was to make them look like the Oz characters...Not only paint, but also dress! Below are my results for the two witches.Glenda and the Wicked Witch of the West, Styrofoam dummies
Painting and dressing for Mardi Gras Party

Here is a picture of the ballroom on Friday, before the dinner, which is not the "main event" that happens on Saturday...Ballroom of the indoor Mardi Gras at the Marriott in DC

I was also able to catch up with old friends...Deb and I recreated these "Rex" characters for the giant hanging centerpiece for the main event...I though I would never see him again!Me and one of the 2005 Mardi Gras "Rex" Paper Mache Statues

Walt and Pat and everyone working on the project had been up for 36 hours when I got to the hotel, I put in 12 hours and they were still going when I left...I talked briefly to Walt yesterday, and he sounded rough, but alive...

On Saturday KT and I went to New Jersey to Ethan and Liz's baby shower. On the way we found a flea market and I couldn't resist snapping a shot of KT with one of those big cowboys...KT with new friend, Cowtown NJ

In the evening, we drove back to Rockville for Chris and Elizabeth's Pajama party. I was pretty wiped out by this time, so I kept a low profile, but there are photos (which I will mercifully not post here) of much nakedness and hula-hooping...

A bit hung over on Sunday, I helped move the Hexagon set forward by a few yards. This next week is going to be the crucial one, where we paint the freak banners...and load into the theater starts tomorrow!

My Corcoran Monday started off pretty good. The 14 paintings assignment was to paint the interior of the room, paying attention to the tones from inside to outside. Some of the examples were people like Matisse. I chose a corner of the room and wound up with a "ashcan school-esque" painting. There was a group discussion about the Gopnick piece about the Corcoran on Sunday, which evolved into a "is painting dead" conversation. In the end, Steven commented that my painting was like an allegory for the death of painting...all the tools, alone, in a handmade environment, old and quaint. I think its interesting that the conversation helped to subconsciously inform the painting...narrative will always creep into the work, whether you like it or not...14 Paintings in 14 weeks, week 3
Interior spaces, Oil on Canvas

I am not posting a picture of the Academic portrait painting because it was such a bad drawing. I got a really bad angle on the model, and I couldn't get the figure to fit into my canvas...it is really rare for me to have such a hard time with a model, but she is in such a funny pose from my angle, I had to start over twice! the worst part is that she is going to be the 7 week pose, so I will be forced to paint this funny pose for almost two months!

bar...as a way of introducing characters to the paintings...but not in the entirely "shag" sort of way, but more as emotional stand ins...The Astronaut for We had a snow day on Tuesday, and I spent it being slobbolicious...(with the blog I can actually count when I was slobbolicious last...its been a while) But I did get motivated enough to paint a quick sketch. Its an idea I have been kicking around. I have a "slapdash" way of painting when I don't care about the final product that sometimes has more life to it than the plodding way I have to make the cut paper pieces. So I decided to paint an astronaut and a sloth bear at a tikimanliness and yet venerability, the sloth bear for social awkwardness and being strong/cuddly...for example...I don't know if the tiki folks will be able to penetrate that deep into the pictures but I think that they might open me up for new directions for the work...Astronaut and Sloth Bear at the Tiki Bar
Oil on Board, 11X14

I applied and received confirmation (in about one hour) to be in the WPA/C 9x10 Show
Which is kinda a crap shoot, since its basically two walls in a new gallery, but I don't know when the show will be, and I wont know until a week or so beforehand...so I'll keep you folks updated when I get my dates! (oh, and I heard Art-o-Matic will happen in April!)

Lastly, I took KT to the Burlesque-a-pades at the Birchmere. That show gets better every year. Korn Mo was fantastic, and the MC, Murry Hill was a riot! Trixie and Monkey were in with the Pontani sisters, and you can see how much of a pro the two of them are when they are working with topflight folks like the folks at the Burlesque-a-pades. This also gave me a chance to check out the sight lines for my upcoming design for Lobsterboy's Ship of Fools in April...

...AND were vending @ the Hukilau...the Huki-uki-uki-luki-lauuuuu...

As the title suggests, I have officially thrown my hat in the ring for the Hukilau. Which means that I will be needing to kick the Tiki art into high gear between now and June (It scares me a bit that the Hukilau will be a short two weeks before Art In Heat...but who needs sleep anyway?) I will even be flying down...so you know that this is going to be a historic hukilau...

However, before we can sip from the tiki mug in paradise, we must first finish building the big top. The progress at Hexagon has been swift, and I believe that all of the technical challenges of the proscenium arch have been resolved. What is left now is to paint it. Below is a sketch of the design for one side (or "leg") of the arch.

Paint Elevation for Proscenium Arch Leg

Strike While the Irony's Hot, Hexagon

As you can see, there will be a follow spot operator in each tower. The paint job is being ably executed by Chuck...who is a graphic designer, and is very good at painting ornament. To give you an idea of the scale, the height for each leg is 19 feet. The running joke around Hexagon is that "its a good thing we don't open 'till June" (we open in three weeks, March 2nd!) you can get tickets here.

Before I get to the Academic stuff, I should mention that Jaya's Superbowl party was this last Sunday. It was a really great time, especially since she reserved a seat for me for the whole game (it wasn't a bad game either) but the real highlight was Prince. BEST HALFTIME SHOW EVER!

This week I also said goodbye to the Tiger Eating Roy, velvet painting. It now adorns the wall of Yancy's house. He won it fair-and-square at the Halloween party. Hopefully he will cherish its velvety terror the way I did.

So lets start with 14 Paintings... This was another horrible still life project. Steven wanted us to mix complementary colors to get different grays. I was a bit hung over from the Superbowl, so I did my best with what was there. I had a rectangular canvas, so I zeroed in on the carafe. I tried my best to get the reflections and a sense of transparency...which I think I achieved in my own awkward way. Which led me to the big question from that class...When I try to draw things accurately, they always come out a bit awkward, but in my own way. I am not trying to force an artificial "style" or "look", it just comes out that way. Should I fight this, or embrace it? Or should I exaggerate it? I have no doubts about my draftsmanship if I were given a dictum that "all must look as it does in reality"...I could knuckle down and do it if necessary. But we are not in that sort of environment. So when I am painting a still life, should I be guarding against my quirks, or embracing them?

14 paintings in 14 weeks, Second Week
Greys from Complementary Colors, Still Life

Academic Portrait Painting is a difficult class. Mostly because I am mentally exhausted after my morning workout painting crappy still life's. But also because I paint so quickly, I am left with having to entirely rework a mostly finished canvas. Since its oil paint, I needed to add a coat of medium to reactivate the surface of the (now dry) painting. You can see where some of it has run below the chin. Hopefully it will dry clear in a few months. Natasha said that I still needed to add color, and that my picture was too graphic and "like a grisaille". So I tried to add color that would help make the painting more of a painting, instead of a picture of the model (I hope that makes sense) In the end, I had to make hard decisions about how to make the hair (she changed it back to cornrows, but in different places) and add earrings. This was a great first painting for this class, and I am looking forward to the next "full figure" pose, which will be over the course of seven (7!) sessions...

Academic Portrait Painting, first pose, third and final session.

Corcoran Mondays Week 2

As promised, here are the updates to the classwork from last Monday.

Academic Portrait Painting First pose, second session

So, I was able to apply paint during this session. My impulse was to just use thin washes to preserve the drawing underneath as a guide, however, Natasha instructed me to use lots of paint. I did what she said, and applied more paint, but I did it timidly, knowing that I have another four hours ahead of me next week...that's where I will really pour on the lusty brushwork! The model changed her hair from last week, from those cornrows into a straightened swept back sort of thing...that's why the hair is so nebulous. I will also add her earrings, which should make her less masculine...

14 Paintings in 14 weeks, first week
Black and white still life

The first week of actual painting comprised of a intentionally bad still life setup (I believe it was a test) of just black and white and reflective objects. We were restricted to black and white paint. The bad cameraphone photo shows some areas as pink...my apologies. Texture was what I tried to focus on, so again the photo fails...Looking around the room, it seems like I am one of the few experienced painters in the class. It seems that this class will not be what I expected at the start (seeing as I have taken this type of class many times before) but it will be a real good examination of my preconceptions and methodologies in painting...That, in the end, seems to be what Steven's teaching philosophy is all about.

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.

Corcoran Mondays

So, my interview with the MICA folks only went so-so. They just don't seem to "get it" there. I was told as much, actually. They said that they "didn't know what to make of my theater work", and couldn't visualize where my work would go. That in combination with the fact that when the "mentors" look at the candidates, they would choose people who they think that they could work with (read "This guy is too much of a pain in the ass because he doesn't fit our expectations, or fit into our mold of what an artist should become, and taking him on would be too much work for me") What I took away from this meeting was that if I wanted to be accepted into their program, I would need to: Drop the theater work, become less "design" oriented, and provide more emotion in my work...I am really starting to think that the benefits of the structure of this program are not worth sacrificing my identity, process and treasure (60k is no laughing matter!)

But exposition on why grad school sucks is not why I am writing this blog, and its not how to keep my three subscribers reading every week (hi Scott, Sara and Greg!) perhaps I should shoot myself and just get it over with.... :)

On the positive front, I started my Continuing Education classes at the Corcoran on Monday. The first class is "14 Paintings in 14 weeks"...which is an ironic title, since we did not paint on the first week...perhaps I will have to paint two paintings in one week in order to catch up!

The second class of the day is "Academic Portrait Painting", in which we at least drew. Below is the product of the first day of class. Academic Portrait Painting, First Session. Charcoal on Canvas.

This model sat down and immediately cast her eyes at my easel. She then seemed to find it hard to keep her eyes open...so that is why she looks kinda sleepy while kinda confrontational...I tried to take a cameraphone picture of her at the end of class (to compare my drawing to) but she insisted that I would have to pay her for 2 hours of modeling if I take a picture. I told her that "If I'm paying for two hours, I'm going to put her in a pose that I want". The next step is to spray fixative, and then paint on top of the charcoal. I'll send along more shots as the painting progresses...

And Finally, Please come out to Dr. Dremo's in Arlington for the Counter Cultural Festival on Saturday. I'll be one of the vendors, and be soakin' up the scene all night! More info go to: www.dcconspiracy.com

Portfolio Assemby Complete!

I have just completed one of those tasks that is never really complete. I updated my portfolio. It takes forever, is never as cool as you would like and starts your subconscious on a "gut check" about your career. But its so good to have it done. I will soon be able to offer you an in depth glimpse into said portfolio, online. That's because I have been feeding discs, with portfolio images to Bennu Enterprises, to update www.artbyjared.com

Other goings on this week involved a Hexagon meeting about the "kick" number, and what its scenery (as well as content) will entail. I also made some designs for the "frills" of circus wagons, which are coming along beautifully.

Trixie and I have been going back and forth about making a new sardine can to replace her current one which looks less and less like a sardine can. So I did this quick redesign:
You are all sworn to secrecy about the inner workings of this piece of scenery. (its not really like a magic cabinet, so you can see the inner mechanisms...which are really just there to make it easy for her to transport)

I also have been making stabs at getting a good proposal for a valance for the Palace of Wonders. Here's a design that didn't quite make the cut......Which is kinda frustrating, because I don't think that they understand my process...I don't start by making "great art", I try to provoke a reaction, so that a dialog gets started...its just a sketch...

This was also the weekend of Mark and Amy's disco party. They really know how to throw a shin-dig. I also got to use the Elvis suit one last time (this month!) because it happened to be thematic! (although Elvis was not really "Disco"...I like to think I added a bit of rockabilly to the evening with my presence)

On Sunday KT and I caught Sleeping Arrangements at Theater J. It wasn't really my cup of tea, but I did come away with one good sentiment from the play:

Most problems in life can be improved by a stay in an expensive hotel room.

The other remarkable thing about the production was that the set designer got her MFA from Wayne State University...GO TARTARS!

This week also started my next stint at Rep Stage painting the set for some Pinter play. They are woefully behind on construction at this point, and it is going to be a stressful build, but I am up for the challenge!

I also have been trying to "make friends" on Myspace, so if you are reading this...won't you please be my friend? You can contact me on MySpace here:

http://www.myspace.com/artbyjared

Well, I guess you should wish me luck at my portfolio review on Friday. I hope that all of this work on the portfolio makes a good impression!

What do you mean my content sucks?

You have to know that I have been busy lately. And yes, I did promise to write more. But I have not been on the "introspective" bent lately...its been more like "retrospective". You see, I am making another grab for the grad school apple this year, which means I need to get my portfolio together. But in these Post-post-post-modern times that we live in, that means a lot more than it used to. I have to get my work together on my computer, in order to make prints at Ritz, to put into a bound "portfolio" book. But I also need to take those same images, and send them off to be made into slides. I also need to contact my web guru to get my website updated. And finally, I need to post some of that (with witty commentary) on my blog. Which is were we are right now. (At this point I would like to point out that merely assembling the images on one computer is a challenge enough...let alone making the critical decisions about the quality of one over the other as a proper representation of a piece of art...or maximizing on the data in a poor photo....but I digress)

So, without delay, I am posting some things I never got around to doing as they happened:

Pirates of Penzance, Act I
TAP 2006

Pirates of Penzance, Act II
TAP 2006
I knew you wouldn't be happy with just the Treo Camera phone shots...

And in an effort to get ahead of the game, I have a small photo of the model for this year's Hexagon production, Strike while the irony is hot:

Yes, that's a false proscenium in front of the actual one...the model is 1/4"=1' so its easy to lose perspective on how large this thing will be, but its going to be a very large undertaking when it finally gets into the theater. To give you another sense of scale, the "circus carts" in the middle, are about 10 feet high...

Blogger 2 upgrade

Hey there, I just have time enough to point out that the changes in color and format are due to the upgrade to Blogger 2.0...whatever that means...I just hope I can figure out how to get ".blogspot" off of the URL. They say it can be done. Wouldn't you rather be going to "Betweenthetines@artbyjared.com" anyway?

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome 2007!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome 2007!

Looking back at 2006's posts, I noticed that the amount of commentary started to slip as the year waned...Well, I am going to carry over old habits for one more post, just for old times sake. I make a "New Years Resolution" to write more about the goings on in this painter/designer's world... I'll start right after I show you some pictures of the Lobsterboy New Year's Eve at the Warehouse!

The 2006 set in its final two hours!It was the only thing funny I could think of for the number "6"

The fire act "Miss Joulie" showing offLobs burnin' through his 2006 datebook of jokesKitty Victorian doing a traditional fan dance... (If you look really hard, you can see Tinsel's butt)

That's how you get gigs in this town...butter up the headliner!The hardest working monkey in showbiz...This show is so badass...its got MONKEY BALLS!HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2007 (the "7" and the "!" opened up at the end, but in the confusion, few pictures were taken...)

Lobs doing his duty as a patriot. Smoking indoors for the last time in DC...

Watch this space for designs and reportage for the Lobsterboy April Fools show at the Birchmere!
(Thanks again go out to our friends at furcafe.blogspot.com for the photos)