My work over Jan - August at Great Northern Way this year brought me a variety of very interesting, unusual, and challenging projects, almost all of which had sculpture involved. From pipe-fitting PVC pipes to chainsawing styrofoam blocks, I had my hands on all sorts of It was really fun and I learned some new skills along the way!
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Chicken Girl Scenic Paint by Amira Emma Routledge! Written by Derek Chan Presented by rice & beans theatre & Vancouver Civic Theatres at the Annex Theatre, May 2019 Set Design by Shizuka Kai Construction & installation by MJY Fabrication In October 2018 I started working at Great Northern Way Scene Shop, housed in Vancouver's new shared studio building, the Arts Factory. GNW serves the theatre and live event companies of Vancouver, creating set pieces, display setups & props, and installation art pieces.
Through October, November, & December I contributed to several productions; The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe at Pacific Theatre, The East Van Panto for Theatre Replacement, and Children of God for Urban Ink. Over December & into January 2019 I was making rocks for MEC, see my earlier blog post... then in late January & February I got to paint the floor, the set, and the wall murals for "Jesus Freak" at Pacific Theatre as well as a few set pieces for touring children's theatre shows. Please click "Read More" to see below! ![]() 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.
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. Seen above; my "office". Close your eyes and imagine, if you can, the smells of old papier mache, coconut rice with the slightest hint of curry, feel the heat of a rehearsal studio filled with about 70 people and their various smells too, and you will have a sense of the Bread & Puppet Theatre experience.
Love Over Bias is the name for this commercial released by Proctor & Gamble before the Olympics in Peong Chang. I recently discovered it and saw that I painted the scenic elements we provided at Scenic Oasis, back in April 2017. Wow! I had no idea that the kid's bedroom ceiling was in the same project as the dark wooden sign with Korean characters and the giant blue square arch at the ski hill! Cool! And I'm very happy to think that people enjoyed this work. Scroll down to see some shots of the stuff we did in the shop and on location. Proctor & Gamble owns many well-known brands and their Chief Brand Officer had this to say about the campaign according to this article: "At P&G, we aspire to create a better world for everyone - a world free from bias, with equal representation, equal voices and equal opportunity. When the world is more equal, society is better and it leads to economic growth. Unfortunately, equality is limited by biases, and we recognize we can use our voice to be a force for good and shine a light on the bias that limits human potential. We hope to promote open discussion, influence attitudes, and ideally change behaviour.” I'm glad to see such a positive and socially-beneficial purpose behind a project I worked on. Production Design by Michelle Foote-Derrick Director Alma Har'el Production Company Epoch FIlms Scenic Oasis Film provided the set piece for this commercial, namely the exploded wall interior and exterior. I had the privilege of sculpting/painting these pieces as Head Painter with the SOF team. We built the parts in our shop and then installed them into this house in East Van (after removing the existing window). See process shots below the Youtube link to find out more. Seeing it now I wish I had painted more of the ceiling interior... Ah well. Oftentimes I never know what's going to be in the shot or not. Process Shots
This post is far more personal than most of what I've shared here: today I'm writing to talk about my experiences with the self-development company LB Seminars, also known as Liberty & Balance, based in Richmond, BC with offices in Calgary, Alberta. Their workshops are directly related to or descended from PSI Seminars in the US.
Sometime in 2017 we made several table tops for this commercial for Outback Steakhouse. I recognize them in the video because we refinished them three times to get the right color/texture that the client wanted. I can see why! The rough, charred texture of the table works really well with the steak. It's cool to see how that one detail had such a big impact on the aesthetic of the commercial. |
AuthorAmira Emma Routledge, Archives
February 2019
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