Painting for theater begins well before any paint goes down or up. It starts with the designer. My job is to analyze the image and to analyze the intension of the designer. What is the gestalt of the set in relationship to the play. How does the scenic work play a part. This is both sculpture and painting, surface, texture, form.
Step by step the image is achieved on a grand scale. The order of the actions are most important. This is what I stand at my desk thinking about, making practice paintings. I thought it would be interesting to see some of those paintings in the context of the finished work.
It is the nature of theater, that despite my attachment to each of these paintings, they exist only for a brief moment and then they are gone....
The sets you see in this gallery are the result of a rich collaboration with many artists, beginning with the play-write. I put the final surface on things, tightening up the edges and completing the picture. I spend a lot of time making new things look old. The physical world of the play is brought into into real time, a credible vessel for the fragile narrative.
