Studio Business Goes On

 

I had planned to go the Studio yesterday, get a little work done, ask a few questions.  But my father had some appointments, and my mother said she wasn't up to driving, so I decided to put off my trip until today and drive them.  No problem, as I have no immediate deadlines, and one day is as good as another.  However, I did send an email to Nichole yesterday afternoon, asking about classes.

Light rain today, but I've driven through much worse very often for work, so it wasn't going to keep me home.  Got up there, and saw no cars by the outside entrance of the office, and the windows looked dark, more noticeable on a foggy day like this where the lights would have been on if anyone was in there.  Used my keys to let myself in the front door, worked my way through the dark first floor hallway to the elevator, went downstairs, and found the office looked dark from that side, too.  No problem, over to my basement Studio to get some work done on the latest project.

I'm still working on visual ideas for the Robert Johnson project that Tom told me about a few weeks ago.  Until I get some more instructions from Tom, I'm not going to work on final drawings, or even saw the wood blocks to size, but this is the time to pick my song possibilities, and start doing some rough sketches of ideas.  He had mentioned his plan to keep "Hellhound on my Trail" for himself. It's a good song, perhaps my favorite Robert Johnson song (only one I have here on disc, courtesy of my recording of my last radio show in Carbondale), and one with a lot of visual components.  I could probably do a whole series just based on this one song.  But taking that one out, I still found four songs that had lyrics I could easily adapt, so maybe it's for the best.  Otherwise, I'd have five songs to choose from.  I'm not going to list the four songs yet, but if I choose one or two to take to print, I'll talk about them then.  I had worked out rough sketches for two of them already, but saved two to work on at the Studio.

For music to listen to,  I didn't choose Robert Johnson, or even blues, but a live radio performance on the former WNEW-FM by the NJ band The Smithereens.  This was the first in what was planned as a series, recorded at Electric Ladyland studios (made famous by Jimi Hendrix) in front of an audience.  However, I think there was only one more such event before the radio station changed hands, and that was the end of live rock performances.  This was recorded in 1989, and since the band's records were all straight forward performances of their songs, this sounds very much like their records, and is essentially a greatest hits collection of the first few albums (this was written about back in September 2019 if you are interested). The reason I chose that, was that last night I caught a showing of a classic Twilight Zone episode, "Number Twelve Looks Just Like You," set in a conformist near future where everyone drinks "instant smile" to cheer up, and undergoes a "transformation" at age 19 to look like an attractive prototype, that comes with a bit of brainwashing to make happy people.  Our protagonist does not want any of this, preferring to look like herself, and think what she wants, and this is baffling to all those around her who have been through this process.  (a common theme in science fiction) The mother was played by Suzy Parker, who was one of the top models of the 1960's (The Beatles did a jam about her as part of their Get Back sessions), which made me think of Jeannie Shrimpton, another top model of the era, who was name checked by the Smithereens in their song "Behind a Wall of Sleep", which is one of their greatest hits, and on that live set.  (based on this episode, Parker would not have made it as a super model today- face and hair are nice, but the body would not work today) 

The sketches I had done were very rough, just something to get ideas I have had down on paper.  That's all I wanted for the last two, and that's what I have, but I am helped by something I had there in the Studio, and hadn't consciously thought about, a thick catalog of reference photography.  I don't know where I got it, but it is a few hundred pages of work by commercial photographers, some seem to be actual ads, some are probably portfolio shots.  Some of the figures are recognizable as celebrities (a reminder of what is required in being a celebrity), but most are just anonymous models.  Both genders, all ages.  Most are dressed, though some are nude.  This softcover book is about 400 pages of color photography, ranging from glamorous, to ordinary, to disgusting, all organized by the photographer. A bit too much fashion for my typical work, but the focus on figures could be very helpful to this project.  First in laying out the ideas as roughs, and maybe down the road for the final versions, though I would rather draw from a live model if I can find any suitable ones.  

I didn't want to bring that whole book home, so after completing my four rough song adaptations (out of my head), I did some sketches of images I found in that book, there in my sketchbook.  Maybe I'll use them later to refine the sketches I have.  Good thing the deadline on this is next year.

And when I got home I had email from Nichole, essentially telling me that it was up to me to decide what my minimum is for the class size, so I have a week to decide what I want to do.  I already have enough in the drawing class, so it's about deciding if there is enough people to make the color class worth doing.  More people registering for the latter class would take the decision out of my hands.  We shall see.