Another Week Of Drawing

This week I actually managed to do figure drawings sessions Monday through Saturday, 17 hours of drawing total (not including breaks for the models). It has started to become a routine, which feels great.

Now I just have to find a job to support the endeavor, as well as all of those pesky life expenses like food and shelter. Materials expenses aside, it costs about $65.00/ week to attend all six sessions.

On Thursday evening I was at Washington Drawing Center, which hosts their Thursday and Saturday sessions in a studio over in Brookland. I was hoping to get over there early and head over by the basilica on the CUA campus so that I could watch the partial solar eclipse. I ended up running late and thus didn't get all the way over to my hoped for vantage point. Given the cloud cover I am not sure it would have mattered.

This was the drawing I produced that evening.

                                                    Seated Nude, Leaning Forward
                                                    Pencil On Paper

My most successful face so far and I actually know how I accomplished it which makes me pretty happy. I had forgotten my blending stomp, so had to make it work with just my trusty 2B pencil. There is some weirdness in the shading of the torso because of it. Also the foot is a disaster. But given my progress on the face, I am ok with it.

I had a job interview on Friday morning. It's the first one I have gotten in about six months of job searching so I was pretty nervous. I also had not actually interviewed for a job in about 15 years and am thus a little rusty. I am not sure how it went, but I do wish I had practices a bit more beforehand.

I was in a bit of a funk afterwords, and considered not going to the afternoon figure drawing session at Washington Studio School. I ended up being very glad I had.

                                                   Seated Nude With Drapery And Fruit Basket
                                                   Pencil On Paper

One of the other artists came in with an idea for a pose, inspired by a painting by George Braque, so we arranged our model in a chair with the drapery and fruit basket. I was glad to see someone coming in with an idea for a specific pose, because I feel often that in these group settings the pose ends up being a little generic. It also encourages me to be more vocal about my thoughts regarding poses, lighting and background.

Late Friday evening I picked up a brush for the first time in quite a while and took a crack at a value study in oils:

                                          Value Study, Three Pyramids
                                          Oil on canvas

I did the initial layout in charcoal, then blocked everything in with paint. There are a couple of drawing issues and some things to address in terms of the value differences. I am probably going to paint this same subject again. Still it was nice to have a brush back in my hand again. I have missed the smell of linseed oil.

I woke up a little late Saturday morning, and with track work on the Red Line, I ended up getting to Brookland about fifteen minutes after the start of the session. The biggest downside to this was I missed my chance to get one of the few available easels, and thus had to work in my 9 x 12 sketchbook. I spent most of the morning working on this:

                                                    Standing Nude
                                                    Pencil On Paper

With a standing pose it is hard for a model to be absolutely consistent over the course of a three hour session, so the face here is a little bit of an amalgamation of the slight differences over time.

I also spent some time working on a portrait of the model, which was less successful although very informative.

Other activities in the week have been centered around trying to find a job, purging my closets of empty appliance/ electronics boxes, and doing a site survey for an as- built drawing I am producing for Anacostia Playhouse.

Back to the easel.

Peace in yer crease.

The Week In Drawing

I way overslept my alarm yesterday and thus  did not get up in time to go to the Saturday morning figure drawing session at Washington Drawing Center.  But I managed to get out to draw five days this week, which was fabulous.

Monday night I was at Washington Studio School, although unfortunately the model was a no show. Still, it was a nice group of people and has the benefit of being within walking distance of my apartment. We waited for about half an hour and then left. I went to the Starbucks on Dupont Circle and did a little sketching there. There is a second level there that is great for observing people if you can get into the right corner.

Tuesday night was Hillyer Arts Center which is in an alley behind the Phillips Collection. It was three hours working from short poses to longer ones, the last being about thirty minutes.  I have seen the model before at WDC, although I am embarrassed to admit I cannot remember his name. He does some amazingly dynamic poses in the one minute gesture drawings which really get your arm moving. One of the longer poses is (somewhat) captured here:

                                          Reclining Nude
                                          Pencil On Paper

The right arm is too short, and the left forearm is ridiculously too long in this sketch, but given that it had been some time since I last drew the human form, it was a good warm up.

I was unsure of where I was going, and thus got there about half an hour early, which gave me time to take in the show hanging there.  I was especially struck by the work of Lee Gainer, and had I a spare $10,000 and room to hang it, I would definitely buy a piece of her work. You should go check it out.

Wednesday evening I was at WDC. Our model was a young woman named Annie, who has posed there several times when I have been there. She is perhaps my favorite model both for the highly dynamic poses she does in the short and medium length sittings, and for her remarkable consistency in the longer poses.

                                          Reclining Nude In Tension
                                          Pencil On Paper

I think this was a 5 minute pose. I wish it could have been longer so that I could refine the sketch more, but given that she was leaning back onto her elbows I can't imagine she would have been able to hold it much longer.

                                                    Seated Nude From Behind
                                                   Pencil On Paper

                                                    Seated Nude From Side
                                                    Pencil On Paper

The last three poses of the evening were the same for twenty minutes each, and we had the option of playing musical chairs to draw from different viewpoints. On both of these I had the advantage of not having to really draw the face, which I am still struggling with.

Thursday evening was back to WSS for a three hour, single pose session. In the sessions where we are beginning with shorter poses and moving into longer (20 minutes or so) ones, I work in an 11 x 14 sketchbook. For the single poses I work on a piece of 18 x 24 drawing paper and stand at an easel.

                                                    Seated Nude
                                                    Pencil On Paper

This drawing is perhaps the most successful thing I have done to date although this is actually not a good photograph of it. The legs are just slightly out of proportion and you can probably tell I REALLY didn't want to draw the chair, but it's the closest I have come to drawing someone's face that actually looked something like the model in question.  It was good to feel like progress is being made.

Friday afternoon was again at WSS. I had misread how the session was structured and thus only had my sketchbook. I did several versions of the single pose and liked none of them. It was frustrating to feel like I was taking a step backwards.

One thing I did discover on Friday was that I would much rather draw standing at an easel rather than with the sketchbook in my lap. I may end up buying a portable easel at some point.

I continue with the value studies, trying to do one a day (I did miss a two days last week). I really felt they made a difference in my Thursday night drawing. For the moment I am concentrating on the shapes with hard edges. After another week I will move on to the cylinder, cone and sphere.

Speaking of which, I should get myself back to the easel and draw some pyramids.

Peace in yer crease.

Some Random Musings

Below is this morning's value study piece. It's on 11" x 14" paper, which is a lot of space to fill in with a pencil*. I am bothered by the streakiness of the shading. I could use a blending stomp, but my hope is to get a lot better control and variation using just a pencil.

                                             Untitled Still Life
                                             Pencil on paper.

I have spent the better part of the afternoon at Starbucks, dealing with some Nutcracker related emails, as well as rewriting a cover letter and adjusting a resume to submit for another job application. I am trying to remain positive about the job front, but could really use some good news sometime soon. I stopped looking for theatre design gigs some time ago** so the calendar ahead is beginning to resemble the color of Ahab's nemesis.

I am thinking I need a new name for this blog. Suggestions?

Well, I should go eat something and then get back to the easel.

Peace in yer crease.

*Actually three pencils, a 2B, a 4B and a 6B.

**Interestingly, I have one fewer show lined up for the coming season than I did at this same time last season, when I was still actively pursuing work. There is something telling about that, I just can't make sense of it at the moment. And I don't think I even really care to.

Value Studies

The title of this post might lead one to think I was writing for some conservative publication. I assure you that is not the case, although if I did it would probably be hilarious. Right up until the point I got fired.

No, some things I have been reading lately, along with some ideas from the instructor of the figure drawing class I took over the summer have lead me into a little exercise where I draw objects with an emphasis on exploring the comparative value* of each object in relationship to one another. So I got ahold of three sets of foam shapes consisting of a sphere, a cone, a cylinder, a cube, a box and a pyramid. One set is white, one set medium grey, and one black. The foam is a matte finish, which means no reflections or specular highlights to wrestle with.

Next was building a box out of foam core, and buying black, grey and white paper to use as backgrounds for the still lifes**. It looks a little something like this:

The box not only helps me to control the background value, it also lets me manage the light source to a significant degree. No multiple sources to produce confusing shadows so I can observe and work on rendering accurately the way light falls on these objects and the way bounce from one object influences the shape and depth of shade on another.

So for the next couple of weeks (at least) I will be spending a part of my day drawing basic geometric shapes in various shades. And doing it again. And again. And again.

It's actually not as tedious as it sounds. Similar to woodworking or welding, there is always the effort required to make the materials behave the way you want them to. I put on some classical music and get lost in the drawing for a couple of hours. I learn a little more each time I do it even when I am drawing the exact same composition as the one I did the day (or morning) before. And I plan to start replicating these exercises in paint.

Last week I finished up my last theatrical design for the foreseeable future. So starting this week I plan to get back to figure drawing in a hardcore way. I have found resources to spend 3 hours a day, six days a week in figure study, most in my neighborhood, and I plan to take full advantage of that as long as I am able. What will interfere with that will be finding a job that conflicts with the schedule, or not finding a job and running out of money to continue. All told it is about $65.00 a week to participate in these various sessions. Maybe I should get a Paypal "Donate" button on my blog?

While I am on the subject, I am still looking for a job so if you know of anything please don't hesitate to let me know.

Other than that I am just reading a lot and working on my Italian. I am about a third of the way through a biography of Raphael, also reading in fits and starts William Kentridge's Six Drawing Lessons which is a fascinating discussion on art, artists and the role of both in society.

Time to go off and get ingredients for dinner.

Peace in yer crease.

*Value is a scale of light to dark in various steps, usually 5 or 9 (although Ansel Adams used an 11 step scale in developing his photographs). I am trying for a 9 step scale in my preliminary exercises with a plan to do a series in a 5 step scale.

**What the hell is the plural of "Still Life"?

Human Anatomy And The Friendly Neighborhood Skull Model

I am currently in tech for Stuart Little at Adventure Theatre, so have not had much time to have a pencil or brush in my hand this week. But I did spend a little time this morning with my sketchbook in the company of my friendly neighborhood human skull model.

Friendly Neighborhood Skull Model

Graphite on paper.

I have done a couple of sketches of my friend here, and I have discovered that whenever I devote significant time to contemplate it* I spend the rest of the day examining people's faces and trying to see the underlying structure. Of course you can't say to your friends "I am not looking at your face, I am seeing your skull."

I am currently reading Michelangelo: A Life In Six Masterpieces by Miles J. Unger. Early in the book he writes about the dissections of human cadavers that both Michelangelo and Leonardo performed. That exposure to human anatomy profoundly informed their drawings of the human form, allowing them both to produce figures of startling expressiveness. My experiences in studying the human figure over the past nine months or so have given me a whole new appreciation for the need to have that grounding, although I think I will use secondary sources and avoid the charnel houses.

The other thing I am focused on is lots of drawings of spheres, cones, cylinders, cubes, boxes and pyramids, all on different valued backgrounds in varying lighting conditions. And while it may sound tedious (and it sometimes is), it is challenging and will ultimately be useful. At least that is what I keep telling myself.

Than there is the painting I cannot seem to finish, but that is a tale for another time.

Peace in yer crease.

* I have so far managed to avoid doing this dressed all in black. And I have not named my skull Yorick. Yet.

Unintended Hiatus

I have not been on the blog in a bit. Things have been busy with finishing drawings, elevations and models for a couple of shows. Also with a bit of Production Management for Georgetown's Health Services department and their new student orientation program.

I also have not been blogging lately because I have been much less than productive in the studio over the past month. Partly for the reasons mentioned above, partly because my classes at Corcoran ended, partly because for the past two weeks I was cat sitting and thus not able to paint (oil paint + cat fur = ugly mess on the canvas (and the cat)). But mostly because I have been caught in a cycle of depression and anxiety.

I am still looking for a job, which is becoming more and more stressful as we roll into fall and the last of my theatrical projects, and thus the last of my projected income, are within shouting distance. I was also unduly impacted by the news of Robin Williams' suicide. I spent far more time reading about it online than was good for my own mental health.

But the past month has not been all gloom and doom. The project at Georgetown meant working again with some great, fun people whom I adore. I actually managed to get to the Building Museum and go through the giant maze before it closed. And although the artistic output has been slowed, it hasn't stopped altogether. I have managed to get a little graphite on paper here and there and the results have seemed to show some improvement.

Reclining Nude

Pencil on paper.

This was a twenty minute drawing done a couple of weeks ago. I was at an odd angle to the model which had the advantage of being slightly behind her face, and thus didn't have to stress about drawing it (something I am still struggling with). The downside was the left arm was strangely foreshortened and doesn't look quite natural on the page.

The cat has gone home to my dad, so I am free to paint again, so hopefully I will have more to show soon. Although I am going into tech this weekend, so the posting may be a bit light over the next week or so.

Peace in yer crease.

Mr Williams

Man goes to the doctor, says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world, where what lies ahead seems vague and uncertain.

Doctor says "Treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him, that should pick your spirits up."

The man bursts into tears and cries "But doctor, I am Pagliacci."

I am deeply saddened by the news of Robin William's suicide. He was a unique genius and I mourn the loss of all that could have been had he remained with us. My sympathies go out to his friends and family. Losing someone suddenly is hard, but I think never more so than in these circumstances. So many questions which will never receive an answer.

I did not know much about his struggles with depression, although I remember him speaking candidly about his addictions to drugs and alcohol. In retrospect I suppose I am not that surprised. My experience has been that many with substance abuse issues also struggle with mental health issues.

I don't know what drove his decision to end his own life, but I think labeling it as "losing his battle with depression" over- simplifies a very complex set of questions. It also suggests that he had no right to do so. A 2005 Pew Research poll showed that 84% of Americans were in favor of "Right To Die" laws. If he had an inoperable brain tumor and took his own life, would we be saying he had no right to make that choice for himself?  Would we be demanding he spend his remaining days in terrible suffering?

Depression is insidious, and I am by no means suggesting that we do nothing to help save people who have come to a place where they see suicide as their only option. I just think people's right to make that decision should not be so easily dismissed when it comes to someone struggling with mental illness. The pain and anguish are just as real as someone suffering from cancer, and failure to acknowledge that just serves to further the stigma of mental health issues and make it more difficult for people to seek help.

I hope that Robin has finally found the peace he was seeking.

Peace in yer crease.

Direct Painting

I produced the work below in a single session, in my Tuesday evening painting class.

                                                                                          Study. Still Life With Oranges & Limes
                                                                                          Oil on canvas board.
                                                                                          20" w x 16" h

We had spent the first couple of class sessions working through the basic steps of indirect painting. Producing a line drawing that we then introduced value into. Transferring that drawing to canvas (in that incarnation by rubbing charcoal on the back of our drawing, setting it against the canvas and going over the lines with a pencil which left a trace of the drawing in charcoal on the surface of the canvas) and then doing a grayscale painting of the forms. The latest step was then painting color over the greyscale.

The painting above was our first foray into direct painting in class, although I had been experimenting with it on my own off and on for a couple of months. We began by drawing in the outlines with a very thin Burnt Umber, using the brush similar to a piece of charcoal. Then we filled in the broad strokes of the background followed by the table top, the bowl and finally the fruit. Then came lots and lots of refining, dealing with the shading of the various objects.

The first thing I struggled with was using a paintbrush to draw. The bowl especially is a hot mess. The decades of drawing with a pencil make doing it with a brush seem strange. I have to have faith that practice will make that feel more natural.

Compositionally, I wish I had made the bowl and fruit bigger, and moved them all slightly to the left. It bothers me less in the photograph* than it does in the actual painting, but the objects that should be capturing our interest are a little overwhelmed by their background.

The lighting in the room was via fluorescent lamps, so there were no strong highlights or contrast, and I found myself exaggerating the shadows beneath the bowl and the single lime far more than they appeared in reality. I feel like doing so was the only thing to do to make it at all interesting.

I am not sure I am sold on direct painting as an avenue I am interested in pursuing. I have an idea about the sort of paintings I want to produce, which will lend itself far more to indirect painting. But an explanation of the art I think I want to produce is probably best left to a later blog post.

Peace in yer crease.

* So far I have shot all of the photos for this blog with my iPhone. I will at some point have to learn how to take better pictures of my work. But I have been interested in the way these photos have softened some of the things I have felt was less than successful in my work, yet exaggerated other things that I now see could use significant improvement.

Volume

As you can probably tell from the drawing below, I am still struggling with faces, feet and hands.

                                                                                                     Seated Nude

                                                                                                     Charcoal On Paper

This was a 20 minute drawing done in Wednesday night's figure drawing class. The class is four hours long. We begin with one minute drawings, really just long enough to get a gesture of the pose. Having to rough in a gesture that quickly is great because it gets your brain out of the way. You don't think about it because there is no time to think, no time to second guess. There is barely enough time draw.

After the one minute gestures we move on to two minutes, then five, ten, and twenty minutes. As you increase the amount of time the amount of detail increases, as does (hopefully) the accuracy of your rendering. The other thing that increases your accuracy? Volume. Doing a shit ton of drawings.

In my Tuesday evening painting class, the instructor asked me if I was having any particular issues while working on my piece. I mentioned that sometimes I had problems with paint consistency, having either too much or too little solvent on my brush, making the paint either too thick to spread evenly, or too thin to cover adequately. He said there was no magical formula, that you just had to learn to feel it by doing it. Volume. Doing a shit ton of paintings.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. 

So the goal for myself is three drawings and one painting, outside of class, per week. I will try to show some of that here.

Peace in yer crease.

Job Search: Part Two

I continue to look for a somewhere between part time and full time job. Last week I sent in a resume and cover letter for the first non theatre job I have applied for in about 20 years, a position at The Phillips Collection. As I move more to studio art, is there a better place to work than an art gallery?

What I struggled with the most was figuring out how to frame my skill set and experience into terms that would make sense to someone who knew nothing about theatre. What does being a theatrical scenery, lighting and projections designer mean in real world terms? How about production management?

I put these questions out to the Facebook hive- mind, and got a number of useful thoughts. My friend V, who has recently made the same transition out of theatre, was very helpful. She looked over my resume and made suggestions, and sent me several versions of hers*.

As the job search goes on I am also working on ideas for the set for Oedipus I am designing for Catholic University and a bit of production management for a project at Georgetown University. And of course drawing and painting.

Peace in yer crease.

* I have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement I have received from so many of my friends. It has been truly humbling.

At The Moment What I Love About Oils Is What I Hate About Oils

I took this rather blurry photo with my iPhone last night in class:

                                                                                  Untitled
                                                                                  Oil on canvas board.
                                                                                  20" x 16"

The current layer of color was brushed on top of a greyscale painting done last week (which I forgot to take a photo of before starting to paint yesterday). I continued to poke at the painting for about 40 minutes after this picture was taken. It's one of the great thing about oils. Because of the extremely slow drying time* you can continue to manipulate the image for hours. Really until you are too tired to hold a brush anymore if you so choose.

And one of the worst things about oils (at least to me at the moment) is that you can continue to manipulate the image for hours if you so choose. Knowing when to stop can be difficult and it is possible to make the painting worse if you are not careful. In theatre you know when you have to stop working on the art; when the press sees it. I am finding it harder to make that determination with painting**.

* I read recently that conservators do not consider an oil painting completely dry until between 60 and 80 years after it has been completed. Which means I will more than likely be dead before any canvas I have done is completely dry.

** I am not the only one. One of the works on display in the Degas/ Cassatt exhibit at the National Gallery Of Art is a painting by Degas that he would not allow to be sold because he wanted to rework it. He did so for years and it was still in his studio at the time of his death. 

Job Search: Part One

I am looking for a day job. In thinking about how to go about this search I thought it would be helpful to try and prioritize what I would like the ideal job to have. I have categorized this list into three categories.

Must Haves. Things that a job has to have going for it because it's part and parcel of why I am looking for a one to begin with.

Would Love To Have. Things that would make a job attractive, such that I would be willing to make slightly less in order to get them.

Unicorns That Fart Glitter. Things I would love an employer/ situation to offer but I am certainly not expecting to find.

Must Have:
Based in DC and Metro accessible. I have really cheap rent and don't want to move, and I don't have a driver's license.
Financial Solvency. This may seem like an odd thing to point out, but I don't want to go to work somewhere that is going to shut the doors in three months and force me to start this painful process all over again.
A regular, predictable schedule that has some flexibility. Some evenings and weekends are fine as long as I can do things like take full semester classes.
Above minimum wage.

Would Love To Have:
Somewhere between Part Time and Full Time. 32 - 35 hours a week would be ideal. Is there such a thing as 3/4 time?
Health Insurance. I would like to stop paying out of pocket.
Something in some way related to the arts, but not something I am thinking/ stressing about after the end of the work day.
Not having to be on my feet the whole work day. I don't necessarily want to sit behind a desk all day, but some time sitting down would be nice.
Paid Vacation/ Holidays.
Double the current minimum wage.

Unicorns That Fart Glitter:
Dental and optical insurance.
50k+ per year.
Never having to deal with the general public. Ever.
An actual unicorn that farts glitter.

If anyone knows of anything, please feel free to pass it along.

Peace in yer crease.

Faces, Feet & Hands. ARGH!

I went yesterday morning to the Saturday life drawing session with Washington Drawing Center. Both the Saturday morning and Thursday evening sessions are three hours with a single pose, for the insanely low price of $10/ session. The downside is the pose and lighting are generally worked out by committee. Still it is a great resource and I am glad to have the opportunity to work with a model at all.

For the first time since I started attending, I did a single 18" x 24" drawing while standing at an easel. I haven't really drawn anything on that scale in about 15 years. It's a lot of surface to cover with a pencil.

                                                   Seated Nude. 

                                                   Graphite on paper.

It turns out three hours was not really enough to get to a more finished drawing. In my ideal world I would have spent another two hours with the model. The model's left side, arm and breast are a little mushy and I would have liked to clean that up, as well as fill in details about the background.

But mostly the reason I would have liked more time is I am still struggling with are the face, feet and hands. That's probably clear in the above drawing given that I did not draw the hands at all and only one of the feet. And the one I did draw is still not proportioned correctly, even given the foreshortening.

However, even despite it's flaws, I am happier with the rendering of the face than I have been with any of my previous attempts. The nose is still off, and the jaw line is too angular, but it's the first time I have been able to get eyes and lips to look like they belong in a human face.  The thing is I am not really sure how I was able to do that. I spent the last 40 minutes of the session working and reworking just the face. The eyes and lips seemed finally to just come about by accident. That is a little disconcerting.

So my next thing to really work on is drawing the head and face. First to make them look like a person. Then will come creating an actual likeness of the model.

After that it's on to hands and feet.

Peace in yer crease.

What's Next?

I obviously have not blogged in quite some time. I am getting back to it partly because of some thoughts the writer and artist Austin Kleon shares in his book "Show Your Work" about when and how you should begin promoting your art. One of his ideas is that you should find a forum with which to share with the world, if not the actual work you are doing, at least some information about it. A teaser of sorts. He suggests the use of a blog, and since I already have one I thought I would experiment with the notion while I begin to make the transition out of theatre.

I suppose I should backtrack a bit.

Over the past six months or so I have begun pursuing studio art, drawing and painting as a means of expressing an artistic idea rather than the more utilitarian purpose I have used them for in the past. i.e. the illustration of a dramatic idea. In January I started attending life drawing sessions offered by the Washington Drawing Center. In March I began to experiment with oil painting. I spent six days in Florence, Italy at the beginning of April, much of which was spent taking in the breathtaking painting and sculpture to be found there.

In Italy, everything sort of clicked and I realized it was time to really take the plunge and step away from being a freelance theatrical artist. I immediately felt better. I returned to the US and began to hatch a plan.

So why the change? That requires a little bit more backtracking.

2013 was a pretty crappy year which saw either the loss or near loss of several loved ones. Among the many things I took away from all that trauma was a desire to have something that I did not feel so impermanent. I don't have kids, in fact have never wanted to be a parent, so when I depart this world I would like to leave something behind that lasted beyond a six week run and the vague impressions left in the memory of the audiences who saw whatever I had done. Maybe that's ego. I don't know.

Another part of it honestly stems from my frustration about getting less and less work as time goes on. Unlike theatrical design, I can choose when I pick up a paint brush. I don't have to wait for someone to hire me in order to have a means of expression. This is a double edged sword as it is also then my responsibility to do it, independent of deadlines.

But I think the largest reason is simply wanting to exercise more control over the artistic expression. I don't have to filter my ideas through anyone else, I can just do what seems best to me. This is probably also a double edged sword.

So what am I working on now?

I am tying up two theatrical projects that will be presented this Fall. I am taking summer classes in painting and figure drawing through the continuing education department at the Corcoran. I continue to go to life drawing sessions throughout the week. I am reading a lot. I am plotting a trip to Amsterdam this Fall.

And I am looking for a little more than part time job so I can get a predictable income and schedule, put some money away for graduate school (more on that later) and pay for more classes and hopefully a studio space that is not my apartment.

There will hopefully be more posted here, and I might even share some photos of drawing and painting I am doing. Although I am still a little self conscious about doing that just yet.

Peace in yer crease.

Marquee Players In DC Theatres

A great deal has been made recently* (including by me) about the use of out of town artistic talent at theatres here in the DC area. At this year's Helen Hayes Awards, for the first time, I knew or knew of about half of the nominees, which given that I have been working in this town for over ten years, seemed a little strange. The number of out of town nominees who were not in the "Non- Resident" category was staggering.

I understand that at the end of the day, theatres have to put asses in seats. No one wants to play to an empty house, and I want my checks to clear. Theatres in town, especially the larger ones, bank on having names on the marquee that will accomplish that goal. Certainly you will get a lot of people coming to see Stacey Keach as Lear, especially with Robert Falls as director. Even non- theatre people have heard those names, and are impressed enough to risk their hard earned money against the chance of seeing something phenomenal.

But given the number of incredibly gifted designers based in this area, it is shocking how many artists from out of town are brought in to design at theaters here each season. Designers are not marquee players. No one, other than my dad, is coming to see a show because I designed it. And here's a little secret, no one, outside of other designers, are coming to see a show because it was designed by Ming Cho Lee, or Walt Spangler, or Howell Binkley. This is not to say the work of these artists is not of great quality, but there are designers living and working in this town to rival the work of these (and many others) coming in from outside the DC area. And if we are not selling tickets based on our name, what sense does it make to bring in someone from out of town that you have to pay travel expenses, housing, and per diem for, just because they are well known within a very small sphere?

As a final note, I would like to say that while it is true that actors and directors ARE marquee players, it is important to remember that it is theatres who made them so. Artists like Stacey Keach and Robert Falls and the rest of the long list of talent who grace our stages have intelligence and talent and dedication, but they also had theatre who invested in them, promoted them and MADE them stars. The same is true on a smaller scale here in DC. Rick Foucheux, Holly Twyford, Sarah Marshall and others are household names in Washington because not only are they gifted and smart and hard working, but because local theatres have invested time and attention to promoting them as such. Need stars on your marquee? Then make your local talent household names.

*And by recently I mean since I started working in DC.

My expanded thoughts on the recent HHA Summit

Last week, at someone's personal request, I attended the Helen Hayes Award summit hosted by TheatreWashington. It was a fascinating gathering with a lot of interesting ideas exchanged. It was also fascinating because of who attended, and who didn't. I don't know the actual reason for the meeting, only the rumors I have heard, which I won't repeat here, but there did seem a segment of the DC theatre community that was conspicuously not represented.

First let me say that I thought TW made a smart move in bringing in a professional facilitator to lead the discussion. Some form of open mike forum could easily have become unruly at best, an absolute bloodbath at worst. And I thought the format helped set the correct tone. Beginning the discussion with thoughts about what the HHA does successfully allowed us to think about changes we wanted to see as additions to, not subtractions from, the awards as they stand now. Mostly.

There were a lot of interesting thoughts expressed throughout the evening, but there were two in particular that I wanted to respond to.

The first is the non-resident categories. This was said a number of times throughout the evening, but I wanted to give my 2 cents*: Dump them. I understand that at one time they were necessary to help get national exposure for the HHA, but that time is past. Actors, directors and designers are listing their nominations in programs across the country. The awards are reported in all of the major trade rags. If TW and the HHA are truly about the Washington, DC theatre community, then who really cares who did the best job in the touring company of "Spamalot" at the National. It seems that half the time the winner is not even present to accept their award because they are playing another city, which would seem to reinforce the point. Get rid of the non-resident categories, which would make room for expansion of other categories (suggestions for which I will not be making at this time).

Another suggestion made, that ended up getting a great deal of applause, was that eligibility for the HHA be restricted to shows that employed more than 50% DC based talent. I responded to this idea in a most inarticulate fashion, mostly because I have an almost phobic aversion to speaking in public**. What I wish I had said was this: I understand the impetus for this idea. When Stephen Epp was giving his acceptance speech for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Resident Production at this year's awards ceremony, and was going on and on about all of the cities they had played the show before DC, and all the places they had been afterwards, you could feel the whole room go cold. I half expected him to get booed off stage. I was angered by it. But I think trying to limit eligibility for the HHA on those grounds presents two distinct problems.

One, I don't know how you police that. What criteria are you using? Is the scene shop staff included in those numbers? How about the marketing department? And who has the time to look into all of that?

But more importantly I think the message it sends is that the only way DC based artists can be recognized for excellence is if we stack the deck in our favor. The first year I was nominated, among the other nominees was Walt Spangler. I can't speak for anyone else, but I was thrilled to be listed in that company, and I would put my work up against any out of town artist who is named in the same category as I am.

Still, I stand by what I did say at the HHA Summit, and that was the problem is not with the HHAs, but with the theatres doing the hiring. There is an insanely deep and gifted talent pool to draw from in this community, so why are so many artists being brought in from out of town***? And while I don't think the HHAs should be policing that, I would love to see TW lead that discussion. Some sort of summit to bring together artists and the ADs and Casting Directors from area theaters to discuss the issue. Because I do have some understanding of the reasons theaters think they have to do this, and I think it would be helpful for the rest of the community to hear those explanations, and for the theatres to hear artists' responses to those issues.

I applaud TW for taking this step to include so much of the DC theatre community, and I hope it will lead to more productive dialogue, and a greater awareness of how really outstanding theatre in Washington, DC really is.

*Like anyone really cares about my 2 cents. But this is my blog so if you are reading it, maybe you do.

**There is a reason I work on the side of the footlights that I do.

***There will be another post dedicated to this very question.

Life Goals And Other Random Musings

My apartment is a cave. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing tends to shift from moment to moment. It's mostly ok except when I am working on a number of projects at once, especially scene design*, and the work spreads out everywhere.

What would help to even that out would be to have studio space that was somewhere else. I have been looking into that possibility, but I am somewhat nervous about having enough work to pay for that. I could certainly make enough money if I worked more over hire, but that would eat up the time I could be working in the studio.

The other aspect of the cave that is somewhat troublesome is how unwelcoming it might seem to someone else. I like to cook for people, but I am too self- conscious about the toilet you have to jiggle in just the right way to make it work, etc, to invite someone to dinner. I could move, but I love the neighborhood I live in and could never afford to live here if I were not paying the below market rent my father is charging me. I don't drive, so living out in the boonies to get the sort of rent I could currently afford is not really an option.

The conclusion would seem to be that I need to make more money. Over the past few years, the amount of design work I have had has been on a steady decline. Interestingly, I am in general making more per show as time goes by, so other than this calendar year my income from designing has held fairly steady**.

I have no hard explanations for why the decline in design gigs has happened, but I have some theories.

First, I joined the Union. While this was a logical step for me to take, it made me more expensive for some employers. I know of one theatre in particular that fell under the Bay Area contract and the minimum put me out of their price range. It was not that I did not know this was going to happen when I joined but it did have an effect.

Another contributing factor has been people with whom I had long standing relationships moved from their positions. This has been especially true for theatres out of town.

The economy went down the toilet. Theatres cut back on their programming, or worse yet closed their doors. They also got more conservative in their choices, not just in terms of material but also in terms of who they hired. They became less willing to work with new people.

There is more high quality competition in town than there really was even three years ago.

A couple of years ago I drew a line for myself that I would not work for less than a certain dollar amount. There have been one or two exceptions because it was a project I really wanted to work on, but in general that minimum has meant there are some theatres are not going to hire me.

So what do I do about this trend of decline? I am not entirely sure. I have never been very good at promoting myself. I think maybe I am getting better at it, and hopefully having an agent now will help to get me out of this slump.

On a more cheerful note, I am starting to get really excited about the 2012/ 13 season. I suppose the newest update is I am designing scenery and lighting for American Utopias at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in March. It will be challenging because the schedule for load- in and tech is very tight, but from the conversations we have had so far I think the show will be awesome.

There are thoughts about family life, dating, starting a Not For Profit and beginning to think about the time when I might retire, but they will have to wait for another post.

Peace in yer crease.

* There is a huge amount of space required in Scene Design, especially when you start working on the scale model. Even though I draft on the computer, I still begin the design process with pencil and paper and lots of visual research to look at all at once.

** Though the dollar amount of my income has been fairly consistent over the past several years, it has in no way kept pace with inflation. So I am actually making less than I was three years ago.

David Bowie Thoughts

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes...

Sorry, very bad joke. Between Twitter, FB and a few other odds and ends, my literary creativity seems to be sapped at the moment. Or maybe I just need a nap.

The recent changes I was referring to:

Design work has begun to trickle in. Given how slow 2012 has been up to this point, this is wonderful news. I am designing lighting for a production of The Rocky Horror Show in October. I lit a production of that show in October of 1992, so this feels like an anniversary show. I am not sure I am ready to be having 20th anniversary events in my career, but whatever. It's a fun show and I am psyched about the other members of the design team and the director.

I am also re- designing scenery for Black Nativity which goes up at the end of November.

There are other possibilities on the horizon, but I am not ready to talk about them just yet.

The other career oriented change is I now have an agent. Something I am still getting used to saying.

More soon.

Peace.

Where The Hell Have Ya'll Been?

Annnnd..... we're back.

Have not posted here on the ol blog in quite some time. There have been a number of reasons for that. Here are some of them, in no particular order:

I joined Facebook and for some time that was adequate for expressing my feelings in short bursts.

I felt like I was perhaps being too open on this thing (although an argument could be made I have been doing the same on FB), especially considering the less than anonymous nature of this thing.

Most people I knew in the blogosphere had slowed down or stopped their blogging altogether, and I felt like people had stopped reading.

So why am I starting back up now?

I am not really sure. There has been a lot swirling around in my mind and FB is not always the best place to write about it. I guess I am hoping my lengthy hiatus here will provide me with a renewed sense of anonymity.

So what's been going on? A lot and not a damned thing, all at once.

I am still based in DC, still doing the freelance design thing, although I am doing as much scenery and projections work as lighting these days. I added the Scene Design category to my USA card. There has been a sharp drop off in design work over the past year or so, but it seems that is beginning to turn around. I have been filling in the gaps with over- hire work as an electrician or carpenter at various theaters around town.

I am still single. 

I know, we are all shocked.

More soon.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas!  Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa!

My wish for you all is that you are able to hold the peace and joy of the holiday season in your hearts all year long.