feather2pixels

The SF Chronicle reviews Down A Little Dirt Road here.  I will be back soon.

Here are some snaps from the set design of Down A Little Dirt Road to whet your whistle.  Have I mentioned that this is your one chance, perhaps ever, to see 136 corrugated boxes assembled together  in one room?  Have I mentioned the 600 square foot screen print?  Have I mentioned that this play opens June 9 and runs Thursdays through Sundays until July 3?  Tickets are available at brown paper tickets.

My friends like to pretend that I pass my summer days lazily collecting sand dollars and breaking the law, but I will have anyone who will listen know that I recently executed the largest continuous screenprint of my life.  This print makes up a floor and wall for the world of Down A Little Dirt Road, produced in my capacity as the play’s Set Designer.

How big is it?  The main floor sheet measures about 350 ft²–with a few extensions including a large piece that crawls up the upstage wall, the total is around 550 ft².

To produce this one serigraph to rule them all , we first purchased one large sheet of economy vinyl flooring from our local mega-home improvement garrison and then got to work on its backside.  After a coat of Cracked Pepper Black was loosely applied with paint rollers, we got down on hands and knees to apply the screen prints in pairs, one painful  square foot at a time.  One person held the screen steady while the other manned the squeegee.  After seven hours of this, the pattern was complete and the surface was protected with a polyurethane sealant known to the state of California to cause birth defects while wet.

Not too many days of artmaking have shortened my life expectancy like this one probably did.  But the floor looks great:

Backside of the flooring	After a quick coat of black	After screen printing
Applying the selant	The pattern

Installed in the venue, I was happy with way the prints transformed the space:

before

after

Unfortunately there was a heartbreaking amount of tearing when the flooring was unrolled in the venue.  The vinyl just kind of stuck to itself:

A small tear.

Find out how this problem was solved:  Down A Little Dirt Road opens June 9 and runs Thursdays through Sundays until July 3.  Tickets available at brown paper tickets. Thanks to Jonathan S., Erin B., Molly A., Louel S., and especially Maddie  for all the help making this happen.

I recently got the opportunity to collaborate with theater people. I know what you are thinking: attention starved morons willing to do anything to fit in. But it turns out that some people have really changed since I cemented my insecurity-driven stereotypes of them in ninth grade. And even though I secretly detest working with people smarter and more talented than me, the experience was quite cool.
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