Well, it's been a little while since my last post.  I was busy directing two one-act shows for my theatre company Theatre Caravel and I'm happy to say they went  off without a hitch!  I was only my second time directing, but I'd love to do it again.  But that being said, it was a lot of work so I didn't have much time to work on masks.  Now I'm back at it with a few projects on the go!

Today I lugged home 40 lbs of plaster and clay on my back from Gwartzman's.
If you don't this art supply store you've got to check it out.  Great deals on things - like a bag of plaster the size of a small child.  But it's much needed for the mask of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors I'm building right now.

It's definitely the most complex mask I've made so far. And requires two separate castings - one for an eye piece and one for the plant's mouth.  It's a bit intense and I'm covered in plaster dust - but that's how I roll. 

And there I am - dust mask on, feeling like a surgeon.  Look Ma I'm a doctor!  This is one of a couple things I've got on the go - the other being some masks for a workshop of A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Shakespeare Bash'd Collective.  More on that project to come later.


I've also been reading this great book - Masks: Faces of Culture which I got shipped to me in the mail.  Thank goodness for ABE books.  And it's got some incredible pictures of masks from all over.  If you're at all interested in masks, even as a passing fancy (which I gather you might since you're on this website) check it out at your local library.

That's all for now.  More updates on Audrey II as this weekend unfolds!

This past Saturday was the big day!  The day we'd all been working towards.  The day when our masks came to life!  In our last session my little mask makers donned their creations and discovered the wonderful characters they themselves created out of little more than paper, paint and glue. 

We started out with some basic exercises to get our imaginations running and our bodies warmed up.  After a few games of tag and freeze we were ready to put on the masks and look in the mirror.  Suddenly, these colourful masks were alive!  The kids learned how the mask informed their movements and  I must admit, they were all naturals.  We met a fox, a wolf, a munchkin and a mysterious stranger. 

All in all we had a great time.  It's always a lot of fun for me to see a great idea turn into a great mask, and then have that mask come to life in front of my eyes.  These young artists came up with the idea for their masks, constructed them, painted them, and then performed in them.  This is a huge undertaking and these kids took it in stride.  I was proud to see their hard work pay off and think that they took the pride of a job well done away from the workshop.  They learned that play can be hard work, but hard work can be fun!  I can't wait to do it all again!

This week our masks took their final preparations before becoming performance ready.  We learned about the importance of simple colours and my young mask makers taught me a thing or two about the primary colours.  I may have some competition from these brilliant young artists because they were mixing paint in record time, and bringing their designs to life with great skill.  I was really impressed with their colour choices and I was so proud to see them really understand that simple is better. 

Today our masks really started to take shape.  My intrepid little artists were making some very big leaps as they finished their mask designs and got down to applying a layer of paper mache.  Some interesting characters are already starting to develop and I can't wait to see them up and moving! 

There was a great mess made, which of course means there was very serious work going on.  Over conversations about Narnia, we slathered on the flour and water, covered faces, and generally had a great time.  To quote one of my young mask makers,  "Hey!  This is actually fun!"  I told him I knew the feeling.

So, now that our masks are
drying we must wait until next week, when we'll start to learn the basics of character building through physicality - oh and of course we'll paint our masks as well!  As soon as we get all the dried paper mache glue off of our hands we'll be ready to go.

Well, my Kids Intro to Mask Workshop is under way!  I've got some great, enthusiastic youngsters who have really taken to the fundamentals of mask making right out of the gate.  In our first session we learned all about shapes of the face, and how different expressions can mean different things.  Then we got down to business and started making faces with paper and masking tape. Simple - but effective. 
In the next session we'll start to Paper Mache!  That's when the fun really starts.  And don't worry, I'll have pictures of the giant mess we're going to make posted soon.

Well, another New Year is upon us and I'm very excited about 2011.  I've got lots of projects on the go and more workshops scheduled for the future!  Sometimes it's hard for me and my over zealous creative brain to focus on a single project.  So I think this year my resolution is to focus on singular projects at a time.  I have so many ideas, I think they're going to have to start taking numbers. 

Now, I love making masks, but sometimes it's good to stretch the old sculpting muscle a bit.  Here's a shot of just ONE of the many things I'm going to be focusing on this year.  This is a small bust of a character that just came about one afternoon playing with my new modeling material.  He was too great to discard - so with any luck I'll finish him, and cast him in some sort of plastic.

                                                      The only thing left to do is come up with a name...

If you haven't seen the poster I made for my kids mask making workshop, check it out!  I've got the first of many kids mask making workshops coming up in the new year.  So, if you need a last minute gift for a creative kid between the ages of 7-10 this will rock their socks!  Kids will learn how to make masks as well as the fundamentals of mask performance!  These masks are going to come to life.  There's only a couple spots left so click on the workshops page if you want to know more.

Today I worked with Karen Rodd, mask maker extraordinaire, prop builder and genuine theatre wizard in the Canadian Stage Props shop.  It's always so much fun going in and working with her.  I learn so much every time!  Today we were working on some giant animals to be used in the Canadian Opera Company's upcoming production of The Magic Flute.  It was awesome.  I mostly spent some time on a big Griffin, but I can't say too much more.  Very top secret stuff.  You'll just have to come see the show.  There may or may not be a giant Giraffe....but that is definitely not all.....Seriously, these animals will knock your socks off. 

Alrighty, well, I hope to make these blog posts more regular, as an attempt to stay current, but also to encourage me to keep up to date on lots of projects.  Right now I'm working a new mask based on Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors for a local burlesque dancer named Lil' Relly.  I don't want to give away too much, because the finished product is going to be wild.  But I can show you a very early version of one part of this 5 part mask. 

So you can see it still has a long way to go.  Sitting next to it is the small mock up I sculpted as a model to work from.  The larger piece is the base of the mask, which will have other parts attached to it later.  I'm sculpting in Monster Clay, which is an awesome material.  Really great to work from.

I think I've finally got everything ready to launch the website.  Phew!  Right now it's a little sparse, but it does the job.  Soon I'll have all sorts of pictures of things I'm working on, and things that I've finished.  Here's a little favourite of mine, just to get the ball rolling.  It's a miniature Capitano mask sculpted in clay, complete with mustache and eyebrows.