Painting a Picture

This is my final project for Ideas in Performance.  YouTube makes everything a little blurry and icky so imagine it all nice and pretty!

I created a slideshow of my Senior Project for Student Research and Creativity Day tomorrow so I figured I would post it on here as well.  I don’t have background music so feel free to turn on your own and rock out

Sooo like everyone else, my blog has kind of been put to the wayside.  All this momentum built up before New York and then NYC was such a whirlwind that everything after just sort of gets put to the wayside.  Plus for the past few weeks I had been working on my Senior Project, painting for She Stoops to Conquer.  It went pretty well I think, I was painting everyday after I got out of class until at least the end of the workday and when I could I was working later in the wings on my portrait.  The portrait was definitely a challenge but I got to learn a lot and Dave helped me with technique since this is only the second face I have ever had to paint… definitely need to get an art class in my near future to understand line and all that good stuff, BUT this is more a final reflection I should be putting in that blog.

There are only two weeks left of school…then exams…then a fantastic Dead Week in Disney with some of my best friends, then oh hey I am an alum…ahhh.  I spend so much time thinking about this that I don’t know how I get anything else done.  I am applying for an internship with Wolf Trap but other than that I don’t have any other local leads.  Then there is NYC to think about, and I do think about it a lot.  This is a really personal struggle for me and I don’t want to get into all the specifics on a public blog.  I’m praying about it a lot, for God to show me the path I should take, and thats really all I can do right now.  Just sit and wait for some clarity.  And it will come…hopefully sooner than later

School is going to be over soon, forever. And I have NO idea what I’m doing.

So I haven’t been writing that much lately…I have just been really busy working on my Senior Project (Painting for She Stoops to Conquer) and I get home late and just do whatever homework is due the next day and then pass out, as I will be doing soon.

So last night I had this nightmare which was directly sprung from where my mind has been since NYC.  I thought I had everything planned out, then I go on the trip and all these new ideas pop in my mind.  I just don’t know what is best for me at this point, or if maybe I would let what would be best pass me by because I’m too scared to do it…maybe I will elaborate on that at some point but for now I will entertain you all with a “Lindsay Dream”

*So I am on my front porch with my parents and my brother and whoever else all looking at this puppy who is like CG or something electronic and about an inch tall and blue.  And its super cute and everyone is talking about it and someone says well its going to be difficult until it gets bigger because its so small, people need to watch where they step.  And then my brother Daniel just steps on it.  On purpose.  And I am distraught, I am bawling crying so hard and then i run out*

*And then the dream changes to me getting on the subway where I proceed to duck from a super intense shootout .  And I get on the subway and think the gunmen are on it but its really all these doctors from the hospital above the subway.  And I start talking to this Doctor and then he is like oh no this train doesn’t stop in Manhattan we are going to Queens!  So we somehow are then on our way back to Manhattan but instead of waiting until the stop we all jump out into the water.  And then we have to swim to this giant flotation thing, like a dog or something, and climb up the rubber siding so that we can climb onto the island…*

Now if that doesn’t say something about fear and uncertainty I don’t know what does.

For our Saturday matinee on the 8th we saw Sunday in the Park with George. I had been really interested in seeing this show because the Seurat painting that they recreate, which is traditionally done by painting (obviously), was done with projections. The set was gorgeous to watch. The designer employed animation so that when George was painting you could actually see his brush strokes or see inside his imagination as he talked to these characters in his world. I’m not sure I was ever really immersed in the story however. I mean I liked the show, it just wasn’t one of my favorites.

Saturday night we saw Paradise Park and honestly, this was my least favorite show of the trip,…or ever. I just have no idea what I was supposed to think or even try to think. We talked about it a little in class tonight and I was amazed people actually thought it had questions to ask us. I mean if it did, they flew right over my head just like the fruitcake was slung across the stage. There was just so much going on and nothing really connected for me. But, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and there were a few in the class who actually really enjoyed this show but may have hated something else in the week that I loved.

Sunday before we left we saw Is He Dead? which was on of my top 3 favorite shows of the week by far. It was a play adapted from Mark Twain and it was simply excellent. It is not often enough that you find a truly good comedy. The play just had such classic situational comedy and the actors were superb. The show we saw was the very last one which was sad But it made the actors all the more energetic! A few of us stayed outside the stage door and it was so bizarre because the actors were actually packing up their things from the dressing room and bringing them to their cars! They were all really nice and we got all their autographs and a picture with Norbert Leo Butz who was the lead and amaaaaazing. A truly wonderful show to end the trip on.

Also- Thanks Mom and Dad for an amazing trip!!!!!!!

Tonight we went to go see November. It was a political satire play. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it during the first few minutes because it seemed really left driven and like it was just going to make fun of President Bush without actually saying his name, but then it sort of turned into a broad range of topics. It made fun of really everything in politics and hit a lot of the hot issues going on right now. Overall it was really funny and I really enjoyed it. Afterwards we waited out in the rain for the actors. We got David Baker’s who was in the Spiderman movies and Laurie Metcalf’s who played Jackie in Roseanne and guest starred recurring on Desperate Housewives and was in Runaway Bride and lots of other things! Then Nathan Lane came out said he was in a hurry and just ran away in his car. Very disappointing after we had waited for a half hour in the rain and there weren’t that many of us out there, oh well Laurie and Dylan were super nice though.

So this morning I traveled again to Grand Central Station. This time to catch the 7:43 train to Cornwall, NY. It was about an hour and a half train ride and then Scenic Art Studios sent someone out to pick me up and from there it was about 15 minutes to the Studio.

I met with Joe Forbes and Laurie Cohen, both scenic artists at SAS. This was by far my most favorite interview. We just sat around this table and talked but it was so comfortable and they were the nicest people ever. Joe runs a class, its a 3 year program and everyone who has stayed the 3 years has been able to pass the Union exam and begin work as a Union artist. The classes run every Saturday for 5 hours and while you are in school you are also working during the week in non-union venues. This sounds so awesome, they teach you everything you need to know and he said he can teach anyone basically, haha.

A non-union painter at the lowest pay will earn around $15/hour and a union painter will earn, when starting out, $47/hour. So that is quite a difference right there. He suggested living in NY in close proximity to the 5 boroughs. That is where the most work is and you have to have the ability to take mass transit.

He said that you have to apply for the program but in 5 years they haven’t turned anyone down. He told me this story about when he was first starting out and interviewed at a different studio and then years later ended up working for the same guy and looked up his file and it said “knows nothing, needs everything,” haha so I think he understands all different levels of beginners. And now he owns his own very successful studio.

Everyone I have met have stressed how much fun it is to work on movies, and you can get into that from the Union too. Being in the Union is your contact to the best artists and designers in the world. They say you are treated as an artist and a professional as opposed to non-union where sometimes you won’t even be paid and have to break your neck to make $30,000/year. There is an availibility list when you are in the Union and out of work that the big studios look at for hire, and he said that sometimes the list is at 100% employment! That means every Union artist is currently employed…insane.

The downside to all of this is that it is around $18,000/semester. So $36,000/year and $108,000/all 3 years, not including rent and etc. But they said that they are making sure you have non-union work so you can pay but that just seems to out of my reach its scary.  Okay I lied.  I just looked up the information on their website and its only $1800/semester! So $3600/year and $10,800/for three years.  Wow, that is much much more doable, that isn’t even Mary Wash for one year… 

This trip has given me a lot to think about.

Yesterday after my interview I did a bunch of things. First I went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and lit a candle for my aunt and my cousin. Then I wandered over to Rockefeller Center and sat and relaxed reading a book for a while. Then I met up with Latera and we went shopping a bit, hit up the Disney store. Saw a gigantic cut-out McDreamy at Versace Then we got some dinner at a Japanese place, I got some yummy sushi, yay!

Last night we saw South Pacific at the Lincoln Center. I really enjoyed it. It started out a bit slow but as soon as all the sailors rushed out on stage singing I was wide awake! I had never seen a Rodgers and Hammerstein show before (insert gasp here) so I was happy to see it and happy I liked it! It was just sweet and made me happy to watch, one of those feel good shows. St. Patricks Cathedral

Rockefeller Center

Dr. McDreamy

This morning I went to Long Island City to meet with Bill Riley.  When I got there at 9:30am he said we could either sit down and he would tell me what to do or we could travel around while he went on meetings and so obviously I said I would do the latter.  So we traveled around Manhattan for around 3 hours! 

At first his project manager came along and that guy, Elliot, was really intense.  He kept asking me all these questions one right after the other and I felt like I was being judged or interviewed or something.  When I said I was thinking of looking around D.C. for work he was like “Why aren’t you moving straight here?!” and he was angry about it!  I think its just his personality that is really strong and probably something you have to be used to but I was so nervous every time he would talk.

Bill Riley was amazing.  He was just so nice and awesome to hang out with all day.  First we went to an armory where they have a job coming up and I got to see them work with the contractor-type person to see exactly what he wanted.  Showman does so many things, theatre, tv, film, interiors, art shows, window displays, basically everything you see that could possibly use paint or even what you wouldn’t think, they do.  So that was really cool.

Then we went to a new condominium building where his workers were installing a mural in a kids play room.  The mural was a park scene with bushes and trees and a fountain and a fence and it was absolutely awesome.  That is something I am really interested in, it seems so fun to paint for interiors.  

Bill had a lot to say and he was one of the first people to basically say “Do it THIS way” without just telling me how he did it.  He says I should do summer stock asap and check into this place he gave me the name of that is in Norfolk.  They really pushed continuing education in art and form.  I need to get practical experience  before I can ever hope to be in the Union.  And if I ever want to work in New York City I pretty much have to join the Union.  

He got my e-mail and is having this woman e-mail me with a bunch of non-union places I could work.  He also wants me to keep in touch and if I have a piece I paint and want criticism he would be glad to look at it.  They want me to let them know what I decide and end up doing.  They also said I was the first one who had ever contacted them asking for this kind of information.  They have had people contact them about jobs and things but never just straight research. 

Great day!