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...)

Ballroom Boxing progress and Imagination Stage Open House Carpentry

Ive spent this past week building scenery for the Imagination Stage Open House on September 10th. I am at the carpentry stage right now, which is always a bit of a slog for me...I've often said that "I hate carpentry, but its what holds up the paint"...

Rapunzel's Castle

 I have tried to build the entire open house out of recycled/repurposed materials. For example, the door in the center of Rapunzel's Castle was salvaged from the Wind in the Willows set strike. I've cut a door in the top left panel of the door for the Rapunzel puppet to be operated from.

Narnia Wardrobe

The Wind in the Willows door has yielded two re-purposings...the back of the door became the split doors of the wardrobe for the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. I will be building the rest of the show this week, so you should have a full accounting of the show by the next blog post (two shows down, three to go!)

The week, of course, was punctuated by the arrival of hurricane Irene on Saturday. Fortunately we got through it with minimal damage. In fact, the only thing that really seemed to be damaged was our BBQ grill, which fell off of our new backyard deck.

During the Hurricane I was able to make some more progress on Ballroom Boxing...

The background changed a good bit...I decided that I wanted to go with a softer, looser background in order to keep the focus on the ring at center. A couple of days after Irene, I started to block in the main characters again, and started making some decisions about lighting....

I've started adding some of the audience members (particularly the Robot) My intent has been to populate the audience with a rouges gallery of characters, but KT is particularly adamant that they all remain monkeys...I'd be interested in hearing what you think...on the one hand I can see the value of making it consistent parallel monkey universe (a "planet of the apes" if you will) but on the other hand, there is something so awesome about this fight night that I don't want anyone to feel left out...

Lastly, I am designing a small set piece for this Fall's Hope Operas Of course, its a pile of poop. Ah, showbiz!

Ballroom Boxing...with Monkeys!

"Wrath of Han" got rained out on Friday...but we were able to still show side one of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope Laser disc, and Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn on Blu Ray on the indoors TV...the evening's viewing wound up being a very good inspiration for the Yuri's Night 2012 writers...

This week I started a painting that is slightly larger, in scope and size, that I am used to painting. I have been working on it in a similar vein as Monkey Moonshot. That is, I started with a very rough sketch, and I am letting the composition and details resolve themselves on the canvas. This means that I will be going over the painting many more times than I would if I had everything planned out, but this method also prevents me from feeling that I am simply coloring in a good drawing.

Early process shot of "Ballroom boxing" (Tentative title) in the studio

Anyway, the inspiration for this is obviously Elvis' Birthday Fight Club. I am hoping to imagine the boxing match in a much nicer space than the intentionally seedy aesthetic that we incorporate in the live event. I have imagined it as a "fight night" at a theater like the State Theater in Detroit (now called the Fillmore). The center of the orchestra seating has been removed and the boxing ring has been installed. I am hoping to create a sense of space and placement within the theater by using the "knights in a niche" (that flank the proscenium of the theater) as a framing device. You can see the full Knight on the right of the painting, and just his foot, spear and pedestal on the foreground right. I need to work on the balcony some more (perhaps lowering it?) to create a sense of enclosure. I realize that this arrangement may not make sense to someone who hasn't been to the State (which is often also a dance club, where the "audience" can go on the stage) but it has a certain logic, and I am willing to trade that logic for the ambiance of the theater space... I intend to populate the audience and the action in the ring with lots of different characters, but primarily monkeys. As you can see, I have already started doing this with the ring girl and the boxing kangaroo.Of course, this may wind up being an overly ambitious painting (I tend to abandon paintings that take too long to produce) but I have a good feeling about it so far...Below is a closer look at the beginnings of the painting with the studio cropped out:

Ballroom Boxing early stages, 48"x 24" Acrylic on Canvas

 

Blog Facelift, GLEEAM recieved well in NYC, and Monkey sketching...

I've spruced up the place a bit since we last talked...I even got a new URL for the blog: www.artbyjaredblog.com (don't worry, the old www.betweenthetines.blogspot.com will still work, so you probably don't need to update your RSS feeds)...turns out that someone else had taken "www.betweenthetines.com" so, I decided that it was time to make the switch! I also changed the fonts and layout to give it a more "sketchbook" feel...

So, it looks like GLEEAM was well received during the NYC FRINGE FESTIVAL...They got a reviews from Backstage.com, Newyork.nearsay.com, and Redbull.com, and THE FREAKING NEW YORK TIMES!...they have one more performance as of this writing...so if you are in NYC tonight, check them out!
 

Incredulous Monkey Sketch

Pencil on Sketchbook paper

So, I have been working on some new monkey paintings, but I don't quite want to crush the creative process too early by posting the sketches here...so instead I will leave you with this incredulous monkey....

GLEEAM Backdrop finished, and polar bear cuteness

GLEEAM Backdrop
12'x10' Acrylic on Muslin

This week I put the nose to the grindstone and finished the GLEEAM backdrop...for those who need reminding, GLEEAM is Landless Theatre Company's offering for the NYC Fringe Festival in August...its a mash-up of the Musical TV show Glee, and the 90's horror movie Scream. Anyway, I was able to knock out the drop in pretty short order, mostly due to my sweet new shop easel...Below is the drop about halfway done...with artist Rob Lindsay for scale...
Also this week, in order to celebrate the imminent birth of "Taco" Dobbs, I contributed this small painting. I was told that they were going for a polar bear theme for the baby's room, so I decided to capitalize on that idea, while leaving a few "sub-text" clues for the kid, for when he gets older (you know, like: where did those polar bears get that drum? What's up with the bi-plane? is this a picture that takes place in the past or present? what happened to the drummer? etc...)

Polar Bears with Drum
10"x8" Acrylic on board

Jared profiled in Examiner and "Hey Look, I built a monster easel!"

The big news this week is that I was profiled by the Examiner. Its a very well written piece of journalism (deftly executed by Stephen Mack) because he was able to take a 45 minute rambling conversation and distill it down into "just who the hell does Jared think he is?"

I have added the full text of the article below, but if you would like to read it natively, here is your link.

Jared Davis: Artist profile

Stephen Mack, DC Local Artists Examiner

July 25, 2011 -

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For many artists in the area, hanging a painting next to works by local heavyweights like Scott G. Brooks, Matt Sesow and Dana Ellyn would be a humbling experience. But at the exhibition opening for the space-themed Countdown to Yuri’s Night at Artisphere in March, Monkey Moonshot, painted by the show’s curator Jared Davis, didn’t seem at all out of place. Davis’ work popped up again two months later at the G40 Art Summit, with four Inferno-themed paintings distinguished by the physical brushwork that has become his style. If the quality of his canvas painting is surprising, it’s because, with all the other hats Davis wears, it’s easy to miss the fact that painting is his first love.

“I actually cannot remember a time when I didn’t want to be an artist,” Davis says. “I was a little art nerd as a kid. I was way into abstract expressionism when I was 12 or 13.” It’s doubtful if that child would have anticipated the grinning monkeys and other comically grotesque characters, usually up to no good, that Davis paints today.

But where his passions all come together is in the annual events he coordinates. The Yuri’s Night exhibition was a precursor to a one-night celebration featuring a dance party, burlesque revue, and a film screening with commentary in the style of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Davis and his wife Kate throw a themed Halloween party at their house every year—they were married at the 2005 edition—and in January they launched the first annual Elvis’ Birthday Fight Club, which Davis emceed as the King himself, at Warehouse Theatre. In addition to creating the shows, building the sets, and performing, Davis is always searching for inventive ways for the audience to interact with the production. One Halloween party featured a death ray, which visitors could operate themselves using a jury-rigged laser tag system and make a quick getaway using the slides on either side.

During the day, Davis manages the scene shop at Arlington County’s Gunston Arts Center. The large workshop gives him the opportunity to do what he does best: “paint really big.” He has designed sets there for theater companies such as Landless Theatre, Dominion Stage, and The Arlington Players, as well as for his own events. “I actually feel kind of obligated to make things that utilize the space that I’m given,” he says. “I would feel really weird if I went back home and started painting miniatures on nutshells.”

When Davis came to Washington in 1999, he was immediately attracted to the vibrant theater scene, eventually designing sets for the bawdy Lobster Boy Revue. This led to an association with the local burlesque scene that continues to this day. Nearly all of his events feature a burlesque performance, or at least contain a burlesque theme. “There’s a certain irreverence that’s inherent in burlesque,” Davis says, “And that translates into the artwork; that translates into the type of events that we put on. We’re not going to take ourselves too seriously.”

Citing critic Dave Hickey, Davis says his first priority as an artist is to get his friends excited in what he’s doing, and he plans to keep the party going as long as they keep responding to it. Recalling when Lobster Boy performer Lucas Zarwell put away the lobster costume and retired to a more staid life, Davis says he has no intention of letting maturity get the better of him. “I can't quit,” he says. “There’s no quitting.”

Trying to add a fourth yearly event to fill the open slot in the summer, Davis grimaces when he thinks about the roadblocks in the way, from finding a venue to figuring out how to fit enough visitors in to cover expenses. Still, the logistical headaches are not enough to quell his enthusiasm as he imagines possibilities for new performances, new contrivances, new ways to get his friends excited. And if the general public enjoys interactive capsule rides and life-sized Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em dinosaurs too, “That’s gravy.”

Jared Davis’ scenic work can currently be seen in the Landless Theatre production Rock Bottom, showing at D.C. Arts Center through Aug. 6.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Jared Davis: Artist profile - Washington DC local artists | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/local-artists-in-washington-dc/jared-davis-artist-profile#ixzz1TRE7Q2CT


The other news is simply that I built a giant easel in the shop. Really, its just a 12 foot high and 20 foot wide....
Stud Wall...then that gets skinned with...
Homasote (a compressed newspaper sheet that is used for dampening sound in flooring) so that you have a solid surface to staple stuff to. It is a great improvement over the last easel we had in the shop, which was the Spooktacular IX King Kong photo op recycled...look forward to seeing stuff stapled to this bad-boy soon!

Hunting Tigers With a Color Pencil

Another week of big changes behind the scenes at Art by Jared...another week where I don't want to talk too much about those changes...But this time I actually have some art to show. Well, really, its just a copy of an old master painting. You see, I have gotten into one of those "reinvent the wheel" moods where I try to reinvent my entire working method as a painter. These moods come and go, and sometimes they produce some amazing breakthroughs for me. When this happens I find it instructive to make copies of artwork that I feel is dealing with similar issues that I want to tackle in my own work. So, this past week I have been working on a color pencil sketch of Peter Paul Rubens The Tiger Hunt.

After Rubens' the Tiger Hunt (c. 1616)
Color Pencil on ink washed paper, 12"x10"

I would like to be able to create just such an energetic and roiling composition while maintaining such precision pertaining to color, composition and theme. Rubens is truly one of the great painters because everything he does has a level of control that works on multiple levels. It was a bit frustrating using color pencil to create this drawing because as a painter I can see where paint would allow me to easily do some of the things that Rubens does instead of the relatively clunky limitations of color pencil. For example, I wasn't using any black, as is my normal method, but it is very difficult to get rich dark tones by combining indigo blue and burnt umber color pencils because either the waxiness of the pencil would clog up the paper, or the hardness of the pencil would dig into (and rip away) the first layer of paper...this would not be an issue in paint.
I feel that this drawing will be a good one to have kicking around the studio for the rest of the summer because it illustrates the need for good composition, and that there are a few tricks that the old masters knew that I could be using more effectively (once I get back to painting monkeys!)

Possessed animals, but little paint on canvas...

Warning: Pet photo for no reason!

Sookie and Empeno both demonically possessed...

Sometimes things just move in slow motion...that is, you are working and getting stuff done, but you have little that is physical to show for it. Well, these last few weeks have been a bit like that. For example, this week a writers meeting was called for a project that I was working on that I was reluctant to share on this blog because I didn't want to jinx it. Well, the result of that meeting has dictated the direction of several of the big projects that ArtbyJared has brewing throughout the year...in fact, it has given birth to the (potential) fourth event of the year...lots of work, and big decisions, but not much paint on canvas...anyway, I am hoping to remedy that in the next few weeks now that some of the big decisions have been made. (we even moved forward with Yuri's Night 2012 this week!)

This week was the Opening for Rock Bottom at Landless...unfortunately, the set photos I have are totally lame because I was not able to stick around while they rehearsed, so what you see is the set literally plopped down after being taken off the truck.


The cool part about this set was that I got to look up graffiti from Amsterdam, which is a lot more calligraphic (and in English) than you would think...go see the show, and see how many dutch sayings you can pick out! Proost!