House Lights Up!

It begins...

The first meeting of Stage West's theater design apprenticeship isn't until Thursday, but I spent this morning setting up a Discord server to act as our classroom / treehouse.  Our first meeting will - thanks covid! - be virtual, so we'll get to use this treehouse immediately.  My fingers are crossed that this will be an easier, friendlier virtual venue than, say, Zoom.  (Don't we all hate Zoom meetings by now?) 

The photo above is from a Dallas Museum of Art show that I said I'd report back on... Too late now!  But I will just say that museums are one of the few outings right now that are, generally, less crowded and feel safer - go mid-week or early in the day if you can.  (Don't we all need to get out the house?)

BTW the architectural art exhibit "For a Dreamer of Houses" was fascinating.  You can get a good idea of it HERE virtually.  The neon house Rubber Pencil Devil by Alex da Corte was cool, but my favorite environment was Francisco Moreno's Chapel.  A wonderful, intricate, evocative neo-Romanesque barrel-vaulted chapel - of plywood - completely covered with graphics... as if a 12th century monastery chapel got anachronistic tattoos.  Some of them inked by Titian...

DMA show "For Dreamers of Houses" - photos by Clare Floyd DeVries 

Anyway, get out however you safely can and see stuff and learn stuff!

Squidoo Up-Date

Good news on the squid-front: my page Easy Green Yard won a coveted Purple Star!

(That's kinda like getting the ol' kindergarten gold-star-on-your-chart... except, obviously, purple. A very welcome compliment.)

And talking of squidly subjects, I just found this good Squid page on sketchbooks and blogging: Sketchblogs.

Those of you who know me know that I hardly go anywhere without a sketchbook.  (I only buy purses it can fit into - take that! Fashion.)  Anyway, having a handy place to record not just sketches, but notes, research, measurements, or good quotes found while browsing in bookstores... What fun is it to be creative without a friendly sketchbook?

My sketch from the Stickley exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art  POST

Give a sketchbook a try.

As you can see above, the standard of drawing doesn't have to be very high for a sketch to remind you of what you saw (or thought of) and to record the important things.  Pretty sketches are just a nice by-product.

Before It's Gone...

Waaay back before Christmas I visited the Dallas Museum of Art's exhibit of the fashion designs of Jean Paul Gaultier.  Now I see that this show ends on the 12th.  Hurry!  Catch it!

Fashion isn't my usual thing, but this show is breathtaking.  Very dramatic, very theatrical, Gaultier has designed for Madonna and other stage personalities as well as for one of my favorite films, The Fifth Element.  Wild, wild stuff.

Most talked about is probably the exquisite dress with what appears to be a full leopard pelt... until you get closer and see that this "fur" is entirely hand beaded.  Amazing.  All the hand detail throughout the collection is stunning.  I begin to understand why haute couture is pricey.  Gaultier's boudoir fashions are, um, interesting.  (If you take a small child with you, be prepared to explain lots.)  There are several stage costumes and one from that fav film.  But my personal favorite costume (these feel like costumes) is in the first room, the lounging mermaid outfit with the breast-plate-like bodice made of mother of pearl.  Lovely.  Just lovely.

Photo of  a similar Gaultier mermaid - borrowed from Opalescent