Brick, Mortar, and Blood

One Billion British Pounds Sterling.

That's what the new BBC Broadcasting building cost in 2011.

...and 2 years later?

.... over 500 jobs gone.

.... and 6 years later?

....  1000 more layoffs.

.... but..... we have a pretty new building. Why does Shelley spring to mind , I wonder?

I took a tour yesterday. A building addition is being planned and the cost will be $1,000,000.  When I asked if there would also be new security- of the human analog variety- to check ID and verify each person and parcel- the answer was "No." Adding another employee cost too much.

$1,000,000 for brick and mortar- no problem.
$50,000 for one job- nope.

Now I don't know how many of you have been in buildings without checkpoints- where only digital surveillance is used. I often wonder if anyone is watching the video feed.  I wonder how easy it is to cut the feed- or steal the feed. I wonder who is watching. I wonder where the blind spots are. I've seen demonstrations of facial recognition (think talking to Siri with a head cold) and demonstrations of mind-reading (scary as all hell). I think of all that and I'm swinging more and more to the view that , yep, AI will replace humans. We already value AI and tech more than "us".

We value what we build more than the people who build.

That isn't anything new. The Great Wall, the Pyramids, Borobudur, Angkor Watt...  there is a legacy which reaches beyond the builders in these... and yet... and yet... when I see handprints of Anasazi mud brick ... when I see the paint pots left on the floors of Pompeii ... when I see the snapline in an Egyptian Architect's tomb... when I can run my hand over ancient hewn wood and sense the strokes of the adze... those lives may have been nasty brutish and short but there is something of the builders left behind ... some breath... some sweat... some self.... It's why there is a weaver's path in a Navajo rug to let the life of the weaver escape on the path of the thread.

Isn't that really the source of our fascination? We don't fear the Great Ozymandias but we sense the hands which carved the stone and the minds which shaped the metal.

 

So why do we value the work

more than the worker?

The obvious answer is that the work doesn't talk back except with the voices in our own wee little minds.... which brings me back to AI. What happens when the building does talk back and we disagree?

Elixir

Since I've written about "work" I though I might as well show you some.

Allen Moyer asked me to work as his assistant for a production of Elixir of Love which will be produced at the Saint Louis Opera this summer (2014).

Allen's scale model using the rendering from the San Francisco production.

It's a project I've worked on with him before for the Colorado Opera and the San Francisco Opera. For those two productions I was the Scenic Artist/Scenic Supplier as well (that means I not only painted the scale rendering but painted the full scale pieces in my studio)

Here's a record of painting the scale rendering for this production:

It's all based on Grant Wood paintings. The first job was to create a composition which fit onto the stage using Grant Wood as inspiration and scans from the previous show curtains. This was done in photoshop:

A little perspective fiddling had to be done to get everything to sit on the ground together.

This was going to be 3 walls. The total width 70'. We settled on 3/4" scale because of the size of illustration board available and the level of detail needed in the rendering. I was a bit concerned with that since I wouldn't be painting it myself and all the "shorthand" I'd used in the previous renderings needed to be written out longhand this time.

I printed out the photoshop piece at 3/4" scale onto vellum and then transferred the "cartoon" to board. I do this the old fashioned way with a paper I've rubbed with graphite. Store bought transfer papers leave a greasy mark where you've applied pressure which acts as a "resist" to the paint. 

After transferring the design to hot press watercolor board it was time to start. I prefer hot press because cold press is a  textured surface.  It's much easier to get a good calligraphic line on a smooth surface (and Scenic materials are normally smooth as well). This is 3 boards taped together.  

This is Cresent brand board. I like Strathmore *a lot* better it's got a tougher skin and absorbs better. The Cresent pulled up under some of the masking fluid (not good).  

Since it's watercolor it will always be highlights first- shadows after.

I did this in 6 hour days. That's primarily because the light was right for 6 hours. Too early or too late and the colors start to change. 

Day 2

Day 3. There's endless detail in Grant Wood you just have to pull back and stop at some point.

Day 4 and I start to fill in the fields. 

I've used masking fluid (rubber cement) to cover the people in the fields.

Finally on day 5 it's beginning to look like something.

Now on Day 6 it's time for some "sweetening"

I cover the entire painting in masking film and start peeling back specific areas. Actually this is from my stash of Zipatone Parapaque photographic blocking film- it's much better than low tack masking film but no longer available.

These areas are spattered with color to add depth,

  and texture.

Then it's time to pull all the masking film off and do a few touch ups…

and then off to FedX

I hope to post pictures of the full scale production later this summer.

Here's a little taste from the San Francisco production.

This is a big challenge to light since it has so many delicate colors and it's difficult not to have something go to mud during a cue. If you want to see how Paul Palazzo solved that problem- buy the dvd.

The Time of your Life

Linda and I went to school together, so of course I read her blog and she's got a post up there now which is taking off like a rocket.

The Doughnut Post

That's certainly been my philosophy for life-  no money- no workie - but my deeply held beliefs keep wobbling around  like  slow moving  squishy water balloons in the Marianus Trench.

How do you get paid?

I'm reminded of a talk by Bev Emmons when she was asked that ubiquitous question which all working women are asked, "How do you balance being a mother and a professional?" Her response was classic.  She said being a mother and a Lighting Designer teaches 2 things: 1. You always ask for a fair wage because the kids need to eat. 2. You can always recognize when your director is acting like a 2 year old. 

No, really, how do you get paid? Honestly I'd love to just do fun things the rest of my life, listen to marvelous lectures by super smart people, ski fresh powder, walk dogs through wildflowers . feast with friends and (a la Voltaire) watch my garden grow. All of that *would not make me happy* because it doesn't include *work* it doesn't include purpose.  If you don't need to work for money you need to work for sanity. Try idleness for awhile. See where it leads you. We are creatures of curiosity. We are creatures who find and solve problems. It's what we do. The trick is where you spend your most precious asset. Where do you spend your time? Ultimately that is where you've spent your life it is your work, it is your legacy.

The one thing which I do not do, nor should anyone else, is wait for opportunity to come knocking.  

That doesn't mean an orgy of extroversion or shameless self promotion. That was the mantra when I was in school- push forward! self promote! That always seemed so uncomfortable because I had been taught to let the work speak for itself.  Now with social media and crowd funding the work can speak for itself.  Just do the work, client or no, paid or no. It's the first rule of kayaking, keep paddling.   If the work doesn't have anything interesting to say… well then silence is pretty powerful feedback (hey- you- you got it wrong! Try again, try something else.) If people keep offering you **** jobs… well that's feedback too (sour attitude attracts sour clients, like finds like).

I haven't found a better expression of this than Amanda Palmer's TED talk

How do you get paid? If no one is willing to kickstart your movie or you're too intimidated to ask for pay, you might be in the wrong business, you might need to get a job frying doughnuts. That's not a step backward, that's a step towards finding your true self you'll either find the courage to push out of the fryer or you'll find the zen of frying (the 3rd option of dying old, greasy and bitter is just too banal to contemplate). 

Do the work that's true, and respect the work of others (even if they're frying doughnuts). All work is sacred and deserves respect.  

Dirty Jobs

Sometimes you just have to pop the balloon.