Sawdust Bear Makes Things

A rough, scaled down, draft of an octopus marionette I wanted to build. Not actually a successful rough draft, but it’s kinda cute. I just bought a book on marionette making, so experiment #2 will happen once I read it!

Yes, I know my backdrop is looking awfully linty.

Here’s a .gif version of this little dude!

Tiny little Suckerfeet specimens. I started calling these five limbed octopus guys Suckerfeet because…they have suckers on their feet. I’m brilliant, I tell you.

They’re up for sale in my store.

A painting of a grinning koala, cover art for a friend’s recent dj set. He’s really good – I’ll link to it when it’s up.

I’m sort of teaching myself how to paint? I mean, I guess I know how to paint, but there’s a common problem I see a lot with other theatre tech people, where we spend so many years learning and practicing “technique,” but most of what we learn is how to imitate something else. Duplicate this prop, build this set according to what the drafting says, paint these flats exactly like what it looks like on the paint elevations…

And then, whatever “technique” we learn is all totally wrong from what they’d teach you in art school(from what I can tell from my art school friends when they watch me work). It’s about painting faster, meeting deadlines, not falling in love with anything because you’ll probably be repainting after director’s notes are given.

I just didn’t do an awful lot of art, really. I just painted things.

I don’t particularly miss theatre. I feel a little bad saying so, because it was my life and passion for so many years.

So – now I’m not a scenic painter. I make weird things, I’ve got a day job, and I’m learning how to paint all over again.

I should probably start by apologizing if I was a giant asshole somewhere between 2pm-5pm of Designercon. I was quite literally in a bit of a haze, but I had a pretty amazingly fantastic time and still have the biggest smile on my face(no really, it’s starting to alarm my day job coworkers).

I’m still too exhausted to really say much about it, but to everyone I met and have met before or have talked to in the past, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. Thank you for believing in me, liking my art – and for the most part, not saying anything if you didn’t.

I actually have a bit of time to not do anything(seriously, my next real deadline is in March! holy crap!), so there probably won’t be an awful lot of work coming out of me as I experiment with a ton of things I’ve been wanting to do for a while!

Marlowe the Monster will be back in a week. Pinky promise.

I try not to pick my favourites with the cons I go to…but I really, really, really love DesignerCon!

I’ll be there this Saturday, Nov 5th at the Pasadena Convention Center. I’m table 415, which is pretty close to the entrance!

A halloweeney coloured monster I sculpted last night.

Sculpting makes me feel crazy and stressed sometimes, but in times where I’m feeling helpless and confused about things like – “why can’t bad things just happen to shitty people and not the really wonderful ones?” – it’s a pretty good anchor. One of my friends, an incredibly bright, brazenly competent, remarkably hilarious shining star of a girl, is in the ICU in a coma, with no real news about her condition(stable, but the doctors just won’t know the extent of her head injuries for a few days). I spent my day with a few other friends pretty much sitting around, glancing at our phones for updates and being useless at each other.

But I came home, and avoided trick o’ treaters and made something, and I feel – well, not better – but more zen, maybe. Less lost. Anyway.

Thanks, little monsters, for actually being balls of clay that I have mostly absolute control over. It helps.