Stage Design: "La Boheme" edition project for Franco Colavecchia

One of the reasons I've been excited for Franco's show here in San Diego is that it coincides nicely with the development of my Artist Services' project at The Frame Maker, specifically the fine art reproduction capabilities of the project provided through our partner Moebius Color.

As a student of stage design, I love Franco's stage design rendering work for its accuracy to the stage experience. I don't mean realism, but a painterly immediacy that transports you directly into the theatre audience; they are after all, stage design renderings, even though I admire them primarily as paintings, and their true function is to talk about a production of the design on a real stage with real people in real time.

That said, I find the timeless quality inherent in great paintings in Franco's best stage rendering work, yet, for a variety of reasons, much of it is unavailable to be seen or shown in the original ever again. This is where the Artist Services' project comes in.

Working together with Raber Umphenour of MOSDO, the Museum of Stage Design Online, San Diego Artist Services is proud introduce the first of a series of small fine art editions reprinting selected images from over 30 years of Franco's stage design rendering for theatre and opera.

In 1982, while living in New York City, Franco's designed the sets for Philadelphia Opera's "La Boheme" featuring Luciano Pavarotti. This production went on to tour Italy, and the subsequent PBS production won a series of Emmy awards.

This set of six different scenes and design concepts from La Boheme have been scanned from the original slides shot to document the work at the time and are printed in the original monochrome palette at full size, approximately 20" x 14" on heavy archival paper with UV resistant inks.

Here's a screen version of the second rendering of the six:



The first complete sets of six will be reviewed by Franco this week during his annual teaching visit to San Diego and presented as signed artist's proofs in his show "Franco Colavecchia: SoHo Memory Paintings", opening reception this Thursday June 4 in The Frame Maker showroom.

This is the first west coast show of Franco's work and the first appearance of any kind of reproduction of Franco's work anywhere, so if you live in southern California and are interested in theater stage design, come check this show out and meet Franco at a rare San Diego event on Thursday night!

Distinguished Artist & Designer Franco Colavecchia in San Diego!!

If you've been following this blog, you may remember how excited I've been for Franco's annual arrival in San Diego this year, partly because Franco is a dear friend and mentor to me as an artist, partly because we are presenting a show of his original paintings at The Frame Maker this summer, with an opening reception for Franco next Thursday June 4, 2009.

Called "SoHo Memories" after the series of paintings Franco began as he battled to retain his eyesight 1997-98. These paintings focus on the New York of Franco's career in the 1980's designing stage sets for New York City Opera and Luciano Pavaratti, among others.

Franco was also honored this year by the United States Institute of Theater Technology for his carrer achievement as a stage designer, so I'm reprinting this text from the USITT website here:

Franco Colavecchia has designed internationally for opera and theatre, working with Luciano Pavarotti, Gian Carlo Menotti, Frank Corsaro, and Ian Strasfogel among others such as Tommy Tune.

Mr. Colavecchia has designed productions for locations as varied as the New York City Opera, Chicago Lyric, Houston Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Washington Opera, New Opera Theater at B.A.M., Pittsburgh Opera, San Antonio Festival, The Music Opera Association/Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Den Norske Opera in Oslo, The Wexford Opera Festival in Eire, and Glimmerglass Opera.

He designed the Italian tour and the Broadway version of La Boheme for Mr. Pavarotti. His work has been seen in numerous locations around the world and he has worked for The Oxford Playhouse, the Roundhouse, the Edinburgh Festival, and the York Festival in the United Kingdom.

He was the assistant to Julian Beck of the Living Theatre on the London Production of The Brig. His designs have also been seen on PBS television for La Boheme for Pavorotti in Philadelphia, Faust for the Opera Company in Philadelphia, Carmen for New York City Opera (Live from Lincoln Center) and Treemonisha for Houston Opera.

He has also worked on several documentary films and has exhibited his paintings and drawings extensively through out the country. His designs have been included in the Prague Quadrennial three times, and some of his work is in the permanent collection at the Tobin Collection in San Antonio.

He has taught and mentored numerous students at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he continues to paint and to design. He also has taught at DePaul University, Colgate University, SUNY Purchase, Carnegie Mellon, and Harvard University. He continues to be a guest lecturer in rendering all across the country.

Look for more on Franco and this show here and on The Frame Maker Events blog.

Rachael McDaniels at SDSU School of Art tonight

I've been busier than expected this week with many different projects coming to fruition some new and unexpected and most welcome, too!

I'm creating this post for artist Rachael McDaniels, who I had the pleasure of meeting at ArtWalk, and whose initial presentation and smart follow through as an artist representing herself.

When I finally saw images of her work in my email, I made a note to share them, and news of Rachael's graduation installation, with you.

THIS SHOW OPENS TONIGHT, details below.

(sorry for the late notice, when someone decides to fund my personal assistant, please email me here!)

Timescapes
an Art Installation by Rachael McDaniel

Timescapes is an exploration of human and environmental transience. Extreme Landscapes, Scientific Imagery and other Curious Illustrations of Time created with Painting, Photography, Lithographic Prints, Found Objects, and Book Art will be on display.

Come to the Artist's Opening
Thursday May 21st 7pm-9pm

Or to the Commencement Show
Saturday May 23rd 4pm-6pm

School of Art at SDSU
Rm. 418

See http://art.sdsu.edu/school_information/
For Maps and Parking

Artist Services project on display now at The Frame Maker

Reception this Friday May 15! at The Frame Maker, 3102 Reynard Way, 92103 (in Mission Hills north of Little Italy) for "Artists' Proof", a show of all six artists currently on staff at The Frame Maker exploring the digital reproduction capabilities of the my new San Diego Artist Services project(I wrote about this before both here and on the The Frame Maker Events and Design blogs as well.

Here's a picture of my contribution to the show, a series of 4 original collage/mixed media pieces digitally printed with outdoor,UV resistant inks right on to a new "advanced environmental composite" called ECOR™, stable, 100% post consumer waste panels that can be made to any size or depth.

Nice Note from Sandi Cottrell of ArtWalk on the Business of Art Scholarship Project

In getting organized for the week after a long weekend, this was so nice to find in my email from the end of the week I had to post it here right away. Thanks, Sandi!

"John Hiemstra was the co-creator of the "Business of Art Scholarship"...something ArtWalk had hoped to do for 5 years, but John's enthusiasm for the project made it a reality.

Working with sponsor The Frame Maker, John took our SDSU scholarship winner under his wing and not only helped her create a booth display for the event, he packed the equivalent of ten years of real-life experience into two months of incredible mentoring.

Jessica Siemens, the scholarship winner, was privy to advice, information and perspective that professional artists acquire in a lifetime.

The entire experience was inspiring, and we look forward to providing the scholarship on an annual basis. It would not be possible without John's passionate involvement."

Franco Colavecchia coming to San Diego

Memory-soho 15
Originally uploaded by Franco Colavecchia

Had to write quickly this morning about how happy I am to be welcoming Franco back to town (he teaches a two week class in scenic rendering at UCSD each spring), this time with something more!

This year, Franco has shipped ahead a crate of paintings which we just received yesterday at The Frame Maker. I unpacked them briefly to make sure they had made the trip okay (they did) and today I get to go down and sort through them in peace (the shop's closed!)

I don't know if any from this series are enclosed, but this is one of my faves from his Flickr stream, go check it out.

Announcing New Media marketing classes for artists in May!

I posted info on the first classes I'm offering for professional artists this pring and the reborn San Diego Finishing School.

I'm excited to share with fellow working artists what I've learned and tested in using the various "New Media" marketing and self-publishing tools available online to sustain my business.

Serious about developing your small business (even if you're not an artist) using all the free powerful tools online, but not sure how to make sense of it all? This class is for you! Check out the details at San Diego Finishing School, two sessions scheduled in May, Tuesday May 12 6-9pm and Saturday May 23 9-12am.

Questions about what I'm teaching? Let me know with a comment, email or phone call 619. 654. 6208.

Old School Chargers and Padres Logos at Lucky D's

I started to write about this project last fall shortly after it was completed, with trompe l'oeil brick and wallpaper paint treatments on new drywall to complement exposed, sandblasted brick of original building.

Because Lucky D's closed for business just a few months later, I didn't go on, but today I had an inquiry about doing weathered signage on original brick, so I'm posting up a few pictures of the rest of this commercial/hospitality painting project.

Once Dave had decided to go with the local sports theme, we thought up doing the original San Diego team logos on the brick wall behind the pool table. In addition to being the original logos from the 60's (part of Dave's theme at the time), I painted them in an aged or weathered fashion to look as if Dave had uncovered them from 30 years ago in the remodel.


Chargers and Padres logos on brick wall at Lucky D's downtown

The trompe l'oeil/faux aspects of this paint treatment worked out pretty well in context of the overall "age" of the bar. I will put up some more contextual photos later, but here's a couple of detail shots for now.


painted San Diego Chargers logo


painted San Diego Padres logo

New Classes, Testimonial at San Diego Finishing School

Recovering from ArtWalk, getting ready to launch the next show at The Frame Maker, and launching new classes and artist services programs at the revived San Diego Finishing School this coming week-- exciting times!

I will publish class schedule on both sites and must say I'm really looking forward to sharing new marketing information and strategies with artists looking to improve their business models, practices and sales.

Even though I haven't been "officially" teaching, I've been able to try ideas and new media strategies out with my wife Heather's custom jewelry business here in San Diego, the Business of Art mentoring project with Jessica Siemens that I set up with ArtWalk, and with the artists I've been privileged to work with at The Frame Maker over the last few months.

In fact one of the reasons I'm stoked today about what's coming up next is the great testimonial I got today from San Diego glass artist Lea de Wit about our work together that I published on the SDFS site-- check out one artists' version of why it works to work with me on your business and marketing skills.