The images on this page come from my days as the Scenic Charge Artist at Becker Studios. Many of them were made for different theatre shows as backdrops, or as murals for random projects that I did. Enjoy!
This is one of a series of 4 women that I painted for a theatre show back in 2007. They are based on the artwork of Tamara de Lempicka who was one of the original art deco artists. Each of them are about 30 feet tall and 35 feet wide. To give an idea of size, that is me in front of it on the staircase.
The second of the Tamara de Lempicka series. Again, me on the staircase in front of her.
The third in the series.
The fourth and final of the Tamara de Lempicka paintings. That's me grabbing her boob. ;)
This was part of a series of drops that was completed for the Bloomington Theatre. This was the front drape that hung before the show began and when it completed. Below is the image of what it looked like at the top of the show.
Another of the Christmas Carol drops. This was a translucency that we completed where the windows and the bare parts of the sky light up when lit from behind. See below for the image of what it looks like backlit.
This was a project that I did for an Illinois Lottery Commercial back in 2005. A huge circus tiger. It was about 10 feet by 12 feet. I saw it again randomly while working on a roller derby music video about 6 years later. It was fantastic to see it!
When I worked with Becker Studios, I was in charge of all of the paintings that came through the shop. There was a set of scenic backdrops that I spent the summer of 2008 painting by myself. The originals had been painted in 1926 by the original owners of Becker Studios, and they had come back for "touch-ups." I put that in quotes because most of them were literally falling from the sky in the theatres. Back in the 20s, we used to use hyde glue to stretch the canvasses, which is made from cow hydes and is therefore organic and will rot, especially after 80 years. This one is from the Chicago location and is about 18 feet tall and about 25 feet wide. It required several stencils to be made to get the patterns correct. I will be looking for more of these images to show here.
This is a painting of the doors in the Chrysler building in New York, done for a show around 2006. It required several different wood grains on the same piece as well as gold leafing. I learned a lot with this one.
During my undergraduate degree in lighting design at DePaul University, the scenic painting teaching invited me to join the scenic painting class (which was reserved for scenic designers). This was my final, a tranlucency of the tree of the dead from the movie Sleepy Hollow. This piece is 5 foot by 8 foot.
Another school project from that awesome scenic painting class. 5 foot by 8 foot canvas with ornamentation that I found in some classic hardware catalogs.