A Midsummer Night's Dream

Blue Heron Dance will be performing May 8-10. Just finished up the set painting with the help of my friend Jan. When I showed our creative director my mock-ups, she said "I wasn't expecting it to be so dark. You know it's a comedy. We wouldn't want it to be at all spooky." Of course, she was right. I had chosen a palette of three colors, the coolest in the back layers and a warmer green in the foreground, to give a sense of depth. But indeed, after 2 days of painting flats at the cavernous O Space, it was looking pretty spooky and I was feeling pretty nervous. I kept telling myself it would cheer up with the addition of those warm colors. But it can feel very sink or swim working on such a large scale (7 thirteen foot tall flats) with so little time. And then voila, it suddenly all came together. Then the dance dads put them up and Jan and I touched up the seams. And now it's showtime.

It's back to the old...kitchen table

Living back in the city and loving it, the footprint of my home is more of a thumbprint. My first artmaking in this new space is for the set of Blue Heron Dance's spring production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. I had a couple of sets I was using as inspiration, which I now can't find the pics of.  So I just started working from scratch, using paint colors from past sets (the blue of Romeo and Juliet, the Purple of Firebird, the green from Giselle, the turquoise of my dining room walls which I am just in love with) to create a night woods landscape. In a week or so I will start painting these onto flats that are 4 feet wide by 13 feet tall, to be assembled by a bunch of dance dads the week before the production.

I haven't posted any blogs in a year.  Not since I was poised to move into my new art studio.  Oh who needs a big fancy island art studio with a water view, right?  Sure it can be a great place to meet your friends while wearing black turtle necks and sipping expresso. 

I started this blog to chronicle my return to artmaking after a long break filled with teaching and parenting.  A big part of that return was finding time and space devoted to art.  Four years later and now in my re-return, I am discovering that all I really need for an art space is a kitchen table and shelves for supplies. That is, until it's time for dinner.

West Seattle Elementary School Mural

Here is what it looked like before.  A great start from a summerschool/afterschool project:

It needed a little updating, especially with the addition of mosaic fish art climbing up the staircase.  Here is what it looked like during:

One year later, still no after picture.  With such a big canvas, I wanted to leave places for the next class of artists to leave their mark.  To be continued...

Firebird Set -- Blue Heron Dance -- May 2014