My spring has been packed with events and challenges. These have thrown off my usual blogging
schedule. My weekends are now devoted
to completing commissions. I finished
my most recent project, which is now happily hanging in its new home. The commissioners came to my studio,
but after reviewing what I had on the walls they decided they wanted a piece
that better reflected their own life experiences. They were drawn to pieces with pathways, fences, flowers and
trees. I created a sketch
compatible with the warm honey oak tones they were seeking. The colors are a bit of a departure
from my recent strong contrast pieces.
I’ve been focusing on dark coffee tone tree trunks matched with crisp,
bright green leaves. My goal has
been to capture the feel of spring walks in the forest after a rain where the
trunks are still damp and the greens present a striking contrast. This style was a new challenge for me. I do love the idea of paths that lead
off to new places, and the new design featured a path leading through a flower
plot along a fence.
It’s a secret
garden because from the other side of the fence you can’t see the beauty
within. The outsiders never have a
clue what’s going on along the other side. Overall, I’m delighted with how it turned out and the new
owners seem pleased. I’ll mark
that project as a spring success.
My weekdays have been consumed with costume creation for
Beauty and the Beast. Costuming is
new, but in addition everything I attempt now is a big change of scale for
me. My wall pieces are small and
intimate, but the costumes are grandiose and cartoon-like with solid,
in-your-face colors. I’m happy to
report that I have several costumes completed, including the first of the
‘Beast’ outfits. That piece
features a cloak with a removable capelet. It will be on the beast when he first enters the play. The intent is to make him look larger-than-life
and very much the king of the castle.
The capelet will then snap off and be replaced by a more demure hood for
the scene where he frightens the wolves away from Belle in the woods.
To make the cloak, I rebuilt the base
from a coat that was picked up by Melinda Seader last year on a trip out
east. I’ve been making the
character bigger than life using a lot of foam and wire to enhance the build of
the actor. The foam fill for the
capelet is taken from a yoga mat that I picked up from the Materials for the
Arts program. I’ve
also had a lot of fun (which means I’ve been intensely working on) Mrs.
Potts. I needed to make this a
relatively light costume. It’s
basic size makes it inherently cumbersome and I didn’t want it to be
exceedingly heavy. The skeleton of
the teapot is built from hula-hoops and parts of an old water-cooling system from
World Wide Auto.
I fleshed that
out with synthetic fleece from a comforter donated to Sounds of South that the
students took apart. I upholstered
the surface with a sheet from a thrift shop, then I popped on some flowers that
were cut out long ago by a parent of one of the students.
There have been so many helpful and capable people
contributing to the project that it’s hard to remember everyone, but every
little bit makes a big difference to feeling like the whole thing is coming
together. Along the same lines,
I’ve also been working on the Milkmaid, including creating her milk bucket
props. The number of hands that this
and every piece is amazing. The
buckets were donated by Oliver Winery to the Recycle Center, collected and cut
down to size. Some of the SOS
members spray-painted them brown with paint donated by Bloomington Paint and
Wallpaper. The slats on the
outside were donated by multiple sources, including some from Sherwin Williams
and some from Grandma’s collection, with the rest contributed by Bloomington
Paint and Wallpaper via Nancy Riggert.
Brian Lewis cut them all to size for us. Some SOS students glued them onto the painted pails and
stained the surfaces. There are a
few more steps ahead of us, but I’m hoping to have the final prop completed during
the next craft night. I’m hoping
to get bands in place around the slats and holes drilled into the wood to
install handles.
There is much news on the family front. So much, in fact, that I’m having
trouble remembering everything that happened in the past few weeks. The school year is drawing to a
close. Jacob’s last hiphop class
with Jay, who is graduating from IU and moving on to greener pastures, was
Friday. Jay left his JayWalkerz
group with a final dance number and a lot of fabulous memories. My family saw Into the Woods at IU and
Pilobolus the week before, so we have had plenty of theatrical fine arts
exposure.
Our summer routine means
trips to the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings.
There have only been slim pie-friendly offerings, mostly
very thin stalks of rhubarb. Our
freezer stores are almost gone, so Mother Nature better come through pretty
soon! Last, as a marker of how
long it has been since I wrote a blog post, I have gotten TWO pies! One was a fabulous apple-cranberry, and
the other a very nice blueberry pie with the last of the summer berries.
I even found a delightful
apricot-marzipan tart at the farmer’s market at the new pie vendor. You might think that would keep me from
wondering when the next pie would appear.
Hah! I know there are still
apples in the freezer and Mother’s day means rhubarb pie. I expect to hear the whoosh of the gas
lighting in the oven any time now...
Until next week,