It Takes a While

 I was reminded by Reddit of this quote by Ira Glass:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

I've found that writers are often very articulate (go figure!) on the struggles of creating art of any kind... just substitute the word "design" or "painting" or whatever you art is.

Theatrical Drops

There's a perception that big painted theatrical backdrops are old fashioned.  Passe'.  

Sadly, this is largely true.  Nowadays we're more likely to create a backdrop, if we even want one, using projections.  (And consequently the art of scenic painting drops is dying away.)  It's even more common to do away with scenic drops entirely, instead using the upstage cyc (or scrim or wall) simply for fields of ever-changing color.  

But a painted drop can be pretty spectacular.  Look at this one, for a production of The Magic Flute:

Public Domain Image

But even in modern productions, usually for a "period" piece, sometimes a painted drop is still useful.  Here are a few I've designed in my career...

This was designed for the Trinity Shakespeare production of The Winter's Tale.  Huge!  To lay it out the scenic painter took over the whole floor of the opera rehearsal hall.

Below is another narrow drop - one of three painted legs - for Stage West's production of Into the Breeches!

For both these shows we wanted a touch of tradition and "period" which hand-painted drops nicely provided.

So much for history - what am I up to today?  Another post coming soon...