Watched Wine Country on Netflix last night. These zany women pulled off quite the romp and still it had many heartwarming moments as well.
All eight of my crazy collages they had commissioned were framed and hanging as the ladies visited an art gallery in the wine country. They made it! (I was never sure they would not be on the cutting room floor, knowing how the business goes.) This was a really fun project and I would definitely be up to do more.
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| Out on Netflix tonite! |
I'm planning to sit down tonight with a glass of wine and watch this film, directed by Amy Poehler and starring a bunch of SNL gal pals.
When I was asked over a year ago to create a half dozen large-ish collage pieces for this film, I was feeling a bit challenged by it. But what a great challenge it turned out to be. I had a great time creating the pieces(and getting paid well didn't hurt either.) What fun! I would do this again in a heartbeat!
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| Spring flowers bloom |
What mood is that? Hobbes asks Calvin while discussing creativity and inspiration in a cartoon by the great Bill Watterson. Calvin's reply, Last-minute panic is probably recognizable by many of us who play in creative fields.
It's not that ideas and possibilities do not abound, but somehow getting to the nitty-gritty often awaits that last minute crush.
Recently, after completing eight collage pieces for a set for Amy Poehler's upcoming production for Netflix of Wine Country, I found myself unable to focus on just one creative area. I was all over the place. Perhaps this was in part a direct effect of the intense pressure to complete the eight pieces. Last-minute panic had been the rule.
So now do I have to wait until another last-minute time?
Gee! I hope not.
Plodding on will continue until some brilliance shines through. Maybe I'll even get another film gig. Wouldn't that be great?
In spite of having read Brag, The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn by Peggy Klaus, as a dyed-in-the-wool introvert I still struggle with the tooting. Still, I am excited and proud of a recent achievement.
I was contacted by a set decorator at Paramount Studios and asked if it would be possible to create several pieces for an upcoming film. After many back and forth conversations about just what they needed, the big question came--could I create eight 12 x 18 fun figure collage pieces in 10-14 days?
Taking on the challenge, I immediately said that I could...and went searching for the parts and pieces. Cutting and sometimes enlarging followed, along with creating backgrounds and layout.
With the piece shown here I first found the wine-colored blazer. Add a skirt made of inverted spike leaves, plant stalks for legs, duck feet and I was on a roll.
Other pieces used images of pencils, flowers, crow feet, super enlarged vinyl record grooves and more to create pieces that were more than a little bit "off." In the process, I giggled a lot and frequently laughed aloud as things came together. Not my usual mode of work, this was really a lot of fun as well as being a huge "outside the box" push.
While my fun and challenge are now a thing of the past, I find I am looking forward to the film, which is only now in production. It is Amy Poehler's directorial debut for Netflix, Wine Country, and has writers and a cast of pals from SNL, including Tina Fey.
I'll toot my horn now, because, after all, it is Hollywood...perhaps the eight pieces will be onscreen for five seconds or even not at all. Still, what a great coup for me. Toot! Toot!
