My 1st Set Design

Hello art lovers!

It was a beautiful morning in the hill country of Texas. That is until now as it is already reaching up into the 100s at 10 a.m. I thought I'd post/boast about my first set design for the play, Guys & Dolls Jr.!

It was done for a kids theatrical camp which is put on by my good friend Lee Coleé. Lee puts on a "boot camp" for 2 weeks, then the kids perform what they learned for the next 2 weekends. It always amazes me what she can bring out of those young blooming actors! This was the 4th time Lee had asked if I would design her set. Finally succumbed. It was a blast but it set me back in my graphic design business and I've been catching up ever since.

Here is the design. I drew this it pencil. After working with a miniature version of the stage which the previous set designer had built. I scanned it into photoshop and then painted my pencil drawing.

This is a picture of 3 of the 6 other walls, "legs" I designed on the side of the stage. They were painted as a continuation of the abstract buildings. Didn't get a good photos of those finished.

This is the, almost, finished back wall. Made a few changed during the process but it came out almost exactly the way I wanted it to. Still needs chimney smoke and a few more stars. The wall is around 25' wide x 17' high. Painted with latex on muslin. This image is kind of blurry compared to the above digital picture, but my friend Robert Anschutz, took this photo and did an excellent job even though the light was really dark in the unfinished set. The buildings changed color with the lighting during the show. The skyscrapers are more purple and the stars were glass drops I glued on.

It was really fun, but when the show was over the production crew did a thing called "striking' the set which means they tore it down to make ready for the next show. Very alarming for an artist. So I went over to the theater and cut off my favorite parts of the design. I'm going to stretch the pieces and make a triptych cityscape. I'll post it when I'm finished. Ah, the evolution of art...

It took me 2 hours to pull the 3 large pieces of muslin off, that were glued down really, really well onto that wood wall. I had to pulled with all my weight as the production crew watched and laughed! I couldn't move my upper body for the next three days. I sure learned a lot about theater though. So, now that I'm a sucker for the thespians I was roped into helping with the next show, "Stop The World I Want To Get Off". I'm in the process of painting dragons on 2 huge oriental fans and then I and a fellow artist friend will paint the floor of the stage like the Milky Way. I'll post those when done.

Opportunities to paint is an answer to my prayers... even though it's putting me in the poor house! Maybe some day I'll get paid to do set design. Over and out.

Change continued:

Hello art lovers,

Well, this blog thing is quite an albatross. It's been in the back of my mind like homework was in high school. Something I had to do but just couldn't bring myself to do so with out a ton anxiety. Dyslexia made it difficult. Reading is still difficult. Spelling too. So if you see grammar errors or I miss a typo, I'm sorry, its my eye-to-brain communication thing getting in the way. Please give my some grace in this area. This is the main reason I'm uncomfortable doing this blog. Guess I should have a disclaimer every time I post. : )

I've gone to many other artist's blogs and I have learned so much. What do I have that anyone would want to read anyway. We shall see...huh? So, just want to share my experiences in life and with art and try and bring something helpful to others. Plus, my good friend Jeannette encouraged me to do this. So if I'm boring blame her. lol. Jeannette Cuevas is an amazing artist with a talent that wins awards!

Heres the big news: my meeting with the Witte Museum in S.A. 2 weeks ago, was a huge success. I met with the president/CEO who is now very interested in helping me promote my father's artwork. Hopefully if her plans go well a retrospective show of Jack Fletcher's artwork will result. The show will also include the Men of Art Guild, (MOAG). Jack and Cecil Casbeir, another very well know artist in those days, started the MOAG in the 50s. This is important history of the emerging art scene in San Antonio, Texas way back in the 50s, 60s, 70s. Thanks to the MOAG it was a time when art entered the lime light of growing San Antonio and the MOAG made collecting art affordable to young couples. MOAG also supported upcoming artist where they had a chance at showing their work when they couldn't afford to go to New York or another prominent place in the nation where art had center stage. Man those MOAG opening sure looked fun in the black and white images my dad carefully collected. Alas I was only a baby.

Check out Jack's work. His talent was brilliant and his art was a precursor of cynical, postmodernism. I do web site design and I'm currently updating this site to add more of his work.

My hope is that this next retrospective show (had the first one in 2000) will bring more awareness of his work and a buyer will surface. Then maybe somehow my artwork can ride into the art world on his coat tails. This is my vision. However visions don't become reality if you don't take action. If I dont begin painting on a regular basis pretty darn soon it will just be hallucinations.

If anyone has any advice on how to resurrect an artist...bring their art back to life and market them from the grave let me know.