Custom Street Number Sign with Solar Lighting
A gift to my parents, before they moved :(

Fence Painting
I did 2 big fence painting projects that summer, one at my cousin's house and the other for my mom's enormous garden. Using a nice little airless sprayer and the same solid color wood stain, I thought about what it would like to be a professional commercial painter. Could I start a painting business in the Cowichan Valley? 

Landscaping as Therapy
Digging out this derelict bit of garden, redoing the ground cover and replacing the stones along the path turned out to be a good distraction tool and physical activity for several weeks.

And then I got an exciting gig, re-painting life-size animatronic dinosaurs for a company called Dinosaurs Unlimited, which was owned by a company called EMG, Experimental Media Group. I was going to learn how to spray-paint with silicone AND I would be sent to Minnesota to repaint a collection of Dino's there. ​I started working with them in mid-March and after 2 weeks, the pandemic really truly began to take hold and... I decided to take my leave.  Just in time, I have to say: soon afterwards the company went bankrupt. The dinosaurs were sold off in a public auction which made provincial news, and now they pop up in funny places around Vancouver or on social media.

McLaren Housing Society of Vancouver hired me to turn their giant wooden arch into a multi-dimensional rainbow for their Pride Parade float. I was very happy to do it because the arch itself was recycled from a film set and the society is such a good cause, providing housing to people with HIV/AIDS in downtown Vancouver.

For this set we cut styrofoam blocks with a specially built hot-wire, then glued the angular pieces to 4'x8' plywood sheets. After some filling, sanding, and layers of paint the walls came together as a trio of funky projection screens for this production. The show was nominated for 5 Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, and won the award for Significant Artistic Achievement: Outstanding Interdisciplinary Collaboration.

GNW did the scenic elements for these commercials, including the big props like the wagon & the bull-riding handle. I had a hand in a number of parts in these commercials, but my biggest contribution was carving the big rocks in the desert for "The Triangle."

The design for the ride-em handle on the "Bounce & Spin Puppy" was changed after I left to work on something else. This kind of thing goes through its own accelerated design & creation process. I was proud of the aging I did on the yellow leather strap - but it was CG'd out in the end. C'est la vie!

This project was also sculptural, in that it had to look like walls made of snow. The effect was created with styrofoam blocks 1' thick, carved and pitted using scraping tools and a light spray of acetone for that pitted look. We had such a quick turnaround on this set, there was only one day in the shop I recall, so I had a team of carvers and painters to do it. Each wall piece got assigned, sculpted, and a fast white & pale blue wash. It was installed the next day, shot the day after, and then was whisked off to a warehouse somewhere.

Jesus Freak
Set Designer Brian Ball
​Pacific Theatre 2019

Children of God
Set Designer Marshall McMahen
Urban Ink Productions - 2019 Tour

The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe
Set Designer Lauchlin Johnston
Pacific Theatre 2018

East Van Panto 
Set Designer Yvan Morissette - Backdrop designer Laura Zerebeski
Theatre Replacement at The Cultch, 2018

Fake Rocks 
Over December 2018 - January 2019 I had the pleasure of casting multiple cement "rocks" for people to test their shoes on at Mountain Equipment Co-op, through my work at Great Northern Way Scene Shop. This was actually the second round of rocks that were built at GNW; this year's rocks were made to be smaller, easier to step on and off, accompaniment to the first round which were bigger & steeper. Props artist Tara Wallace created the sculpture and the mould, with support from Che Campbell who created the rotating table to cast the rocks in. 
Here are some "behind the scenes" shots of this process! Each rock has 4 adjustable feet set in with rebar posts and a piece of metal mesh to support the structure, as well as a styrofoam core to lessen the weight of the finished piece. They were all finished with a mixture of concrete sealant product, tint, and some of the cement for texture. 

2018 was a year full of painting and sculpture. I continued working at Scenic Oasis as the Head Painter until October, at which point I switched back to freelancing and started working at another scene shop in addition, called Great Northern Way. GNW serves mainly the Vancouver theatre community and various live events with scenic elements of many kinds.
At Scenic Oasis we do all kinds of set pieces and props for commercials mainly, although we also did some pieces for the TV show "Man in the High Castle" and some pieces for real-life actual places (gasp!). Read more and scroll down for the results and some process shots from my work on commercials in 2018.
Seen above; my "office".

Captain Morgan's: Captain House Party with Adam Devine
​Armature for Captain Morgan Topiary
​Production Designer Michelle Derrick-Foote

Credit Karma: Here's To Progress - Karaoke
Karaoke Stage & Archway
Art Director Pedro Romero

Credit Karma: Here's To Progress - Chess
Cement outdoor chess tables
​Art Director Pedro Romero

 JBL: LINK, Now Smarter Than Ever 
Wood panelling
Production Designer Bill LeBlanc

Firestone: Jones Family Portrait
Glamping signs
Production Designer Michelle Derrick-Foote

Mike's Hard Lemonade: Drink On The Bright Side 
Mountain top, Confetti floor, Door & walls
Production  Designer: Bill LeBlanc

We also did the sets for the following 2 commercials, but they are just a circle riser, walls, doors & floors, so there isn't much exciting to share! 

Chilly Cow Ice Cream: It Could Be You 
Cyclorama stage painting, Purple canvases, Giant Handle
​Production Designer Katherine Reynolds

Unknown Project! Masking Cement Column
Wood frame coated with polybase cement sculpted  & painted to match existing landscape

Further Mystery Projects...
Many times while working for Scenic Oasis I would paint pieces with no information on who or what it was for. These pieces were used by various designers who work with us there, for various projects.

Not everybody knows what old paper puppets smell like, but I am one of a number of artists who have delved into outdoor theatre, in the conceptual and aesthetic style originated in North America by this very company.  

Bread & Puppet Theatre stopped in Vancouver on their 14 week tour of 2018. They/we spent 3 days working in two gorgeous studios in the Simon Fraser University School for Contemporary Arts, largely facilitated by Ian McFarlane, a Vancouver-based artist and guest lecturer at SFU as well as B&P alumni. The workshop culminated in a performance of the "Grasshopper Rebellion Circus" which the company had been working on and performing for some time, but they added in 3 acts that were created through the Vancouver workshop.

It was really interesting to participate and witness the creative process derived from the process taking place at the B&P farm in Vermont. They asked the participants if there were any big social issues they wished to explore, and with the many suggestions they/we created 3 new "acts" for the "circus". These words were defined more clearly as the work unfolded, and the show did indeed turn out to be a wonderful circus-like mishmash of political commentary, poetical imagery in motion, hilarity, clownish antics, dance, spectacle, giant puppets, and human power suggesting general revolt. The audience was vocally involved at some points (cheering on, chanting, etc.) which I believe would be a good experience even for people who have no experience with protests at all. You can see the whole show in the video someone from SFU posted, below. 

This book of giant puppets and pageants is absolutely amazing. I scanned and uploaded it for those who are interested to download, because inside the front cover it says "The information in this book may be freely copied, used, and distributed." Thanks so much, Sara Peattie and the Puppeteer's Cooperative!