Fun Stuff and Colleagues

I had a lively meeting today with a fellow set designer, talking about our various projects: I showed sketches for Irma Vep (upcoming at WaterTower Theater); Joseph showed sketches for Man of La Mancha; I had tiny architectural models to play with; he had photos of an enormous model for the dream sequence of a student film.  Fun.

In the course of our discussion, we found some interesting online material to share here...  work by artist Emily Allchurch that references the imaginary prisons of Piranesi. Fascinating work that I hadn't run across before.  HERE

Pianesi at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - See More!

Related links: Joseph's theater design website and my own Man of la Mancha and its earlier flirtation with Piranesi.  You can see my version HERE. (Click at the left on the show's name.)


Oh! and in another online discovery, I found that D Magazine readers voted WaterTower's The Diary of Anne Frank (which set I designed) as their Readers' Pick for best theatrical production.  Pretty great news!

It's really really helpful to talk with a fellow designer.  They learn from your triumphs and mistakes and vice versa - and you can cheer and/or commiserate each other as needed.  Sometimes only another designer understands.  Having a few friendly colleagues is good both for the work and for morale,  a real comfort and help... sometimes as an extra painter or adviser, sometimes as a sanity break!

Go make friends with a colleague.

Inspiration

Designers are inspired by the work of others.  

We're not talking plagiarism here, but that "Ahh! Cool - sorta like that!" moment when you get a clue of what direction to start your own traveling...  A Go-By example gets adapted to different needs and warped by different circumstances; the final design will resemble the original inspiration in some ways, differ in others.  Design is an adaptive art.  

Inspiration discussed a few days ago with a colleague?  Piranesi.  Famous for beautiful etchings of Roman ruins and of imaginary prisons...

image from anArchitecture

I suspect Piranesi's visions influence many designers of "dark" material like Sweeney Todd or locations like the Phantom's lair - possibly Tim Burton's Batman? certainly my own Man of La Mancha's prison:

photo by Mark Oristano, courtesy of WaterTower Theatre

There was a show of his work at SMU's Meadows Museum a year or two ago, the etchings themselves  both amazingly detailed  and obscure, murky, almost black in their deep, shadowy, frightening, endless...