Author Illustrator Designer
Playing catch-up a little here…
I did the recipe art for January’s Highlight’s High Five magazine.
I feel certain that you will never think of Mac and Cheese Muffins the same way, ever again.
AND, then… for February, here’s Banana Dippers!
I say dip it. Dip it good.
I just got back from a few days in New York, both setting up the FRED booth at The NY International Gift Fair and visiting my agent and publisher. Those meetings went well… more on that stuff *soon* !
Upon arriving in The Big City, we checked into the W Hotel, waaaayyy way up on the 30th floor.
The first thing I saw when I looked out the window was this:
What!?! Billy Elliot is playing right there in the back yard?? This is the one play I really wanted to see. We tried to get tickets the last time we were in town. This time, GOT ‘EM! It’s one of my favorite movies, so I was really curious about how they would make it a musical, of all things. So after walking around in the -20 weather to my meetings, Eric and I went to a Belgian restaurant (carbonnade flamande!) and then to the show:
It was fabulous! They did a great job of integrating ballet/dance/singing and miners striking and swearing. One would think that couldn’t be done, but they did it. Now that I am involved in community theater here at home, I couldn’t help but look at all the technical stuff involved. How did they keep the smoke machine smoke so even along the ground? How did they fling that kid on a wire from one end of the stage to the other without him dying? And just how deep do those hydraulic stage mechanisms go into the earth? And wow, dancing pants. I didn’t expect that! See it if you get the chance!
Never been to a big trade show before? You don’t know what you’re missing! Here’s me at the Fred booth (set up the day before, you can’t imagine how hellish the show looks the day before the show!):
All nice and clean, see? All the products looking their spiffy best!
We have a big TV now that scrolls through images. Cool. Here’s me with a WineStein:
My pal Barb was set up in a different section of the show devoted to licensing artists. This is a booth that’s hard to ignore! Check out the new fabrics and lamps!
Look who was overseeing The Javits Center!
Wait a minute. What did that taxi say? Let’s try that again.
Ah, irony. You’ve got to love irony!
It really was frigidly cold while we were there, so we didn’t stay outside too much. Here’s Eric freezing in Times Square!
Here’s George M. Cohan freezing in Times Square, too. He’s always cool. Yeah.
You know what we DIDN’T see in New York?
No KISS-guys with baseball bats. No mercenary mimes. No Riffs, no subway-stalking rollerskating guys. No Warriors at all!
And only one Lizzie. Hehehe.
Hello, Mr. Blog…it’s been a long time!
There is all kinds of fun, crazy, mostly-good-stuff going on here, leaving me little time to post. Be that as it may, let me show you some pictures that my lovely sister-in -law sent alllllll the way from Brussels, Belgium. She found a few good shops with a bunch of my product designs in them!
Key Shirts and EarRing!
PastaSaurus!
MonKeys! FreaKeys! Do Europeans have a lot of keys?
Ah, how I wish I could stroll through some of these shops right now. Because after that, I would go park myself in one of those cafés in the Grande Place and have a real hot chocolate. Then I would continue on and get a fresh-off-the-iron street waffle. Yeah. Thanks Valerie for scoping out the items!
I haven’t had the chance to participate in IF for a loooong time, but I happen to have a recent piece suitable for the topic!
And besides, what could be more more in keeping with the season than this? 😉
Eric and I decided to try something new a few months back. We agreed to work on set design for Swamp Meadow Community Theater’s upcoming play based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Our kids were going to be in the play, so we’d be pretty involved anyway. We both figured it would be a fun, non-work diversion. We both like making and designing stuff, after all. And it’s nice to get away from the computer sometimes!
So, the first thing we did was collaborate on the production logo, which has been used for the playbill, t-shirts, ads, and what-have-you.
We tried to get as many of the wacky elements in there as was graphically feasible- the Grail, the Holy Hand Grenade, killer rabbit, coconuts, French taunters, a shubbery, and the Black Knight!
Set-wise, we started by making some of the bigger props. Here’s the Cave of Caer Bannog (where lives the Killer Rabbit), and the Trojan Bunny. Eric built it out of a humidifier box, and I painted it in faux bois. The cave is made out of a foam insulation panel.
Here’s me painting the Black Beast of Arrrggghhh, which is sort of a giant puppet operated by one person dressed in black.
We have never made a cloud for God before. But we have now!
We decided to make a curtain backdrop, painted to look like a forest. I had the idea to give it an Eyvind Earle look (inasmuch as can be done while painting on a giant piece of floppy fabric). Eric worked out the details in miniature, then we transferred it to the fabric. It was the biggest thing I have ever sewed in my life!
We had some volunteers on a cold day in November to help paint the backdrop.
We worked on the 2 castles simultaneously. One was a castle exterior, and one was an arrangement of panels that would look like 2 castle interiors, depending on how you arranged them. The castle exterior:
And the castle interior, being worked on the exterior of our house! We did end up doing detail work inside on them.
Eric’s doing some detail work.
The castle panels had to be assembled on-site at the school where the plays play out:
Bob and Eric assemble castle walls while a kid “supervises”!
Here’s how things look in the real production!
God rides his cloud and tells Arthur about his new quest!
Swamp Castle exterior, complete with confused guards.
Herbert waits to be rescued from the castle.
The Knights Who Say Ni are in the forest…you can see the backdrop well here.
The castle interior, set up for the tragic wedding scene.
The castle interior, this time rearranged to look like the Castle Anthrax.
There’s the killer rabbit in his cave!
Another prop- the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. The pin is removable so it can be hurled at the killer bunny. I hope it survives the last 3 shows!
The Legendary Black Beast of Aaaarrrggghhh! In action!
It’s been a lot of work, but also great fun to watch this all come together. This being our first attempt at stage design, we’ve learned a lot.
That’s good, because we’ll be helping out with the next show, too- Alice in Wonderland!
If you’re in Rhode Island, there’s still time to see Swamp Meadow’s Quest For The Holy Grail.
Click right over here for tickets!
Shows are Dec. 11 and 12, at 7pm, and Dec. 13 at 3pm.
My little glass creamer called “Half Pint” has made an appearance in the November 2009 issue of Everyday With Rachael Ray magazine! They do a great job over there of finding cool current items. I appreciate their enthusiasm for my designs!
They listed the link for The Museum of Modern Art store in NYC as a fine place to find it, and I agree. They still have it listed as one of their “best sellers.” Yay!
I have decided to put work up on The ISpot! I’m joining Monica, Laura, and Lesley there. Barb and Janet will soon be joining us there, too!
We are also located under the Licensing Nook heading in the rep section.
My cover art for the November issue of Highlights High Five is on newsstands now!
It was so weird to see it on the rack at Borders the other day…surreal, in a good way!
I am happy to have all of my favorite things converge at once in this piece…bunnies, reading, big overstuffed chairs, patterns, and Highlights!
Well, look. It’s already November.
I’ve been very busy here with all kinds of fun goings-on. Well, fun + work+ The Usual Stuff That Must Be Done, you know what I mean! In the meantime, a few new Highlights High Five magazine features came out. Cowboy Cornbread for October:
And Saucy Turkey Sandwiches for November!
Ah, turkey. Tis the season!
OK, I had never been to a Bar Mitzvah before last weekend. I didn’t know what to expect, really.
My good friend Barb’s son Ben was the guy of the day- and what a great job he did! The actual ceremony was beautiful. Luckily for us, it was explained along the way, full of music, and very joyful. Then, after that….
BAR MITZVAH BLOWOUT!
The party portion took place in a grand ballroom that was decked out like Fenway Park:
The kids had their own head table and buffet of kid-approved foods:
No detail was left to chance! As far as I could see, everything was perfectly themed.
The kids (mainly 13-year old boys, of course, but with a smattering of girls, too) were able to take instant pictures in a photo booth, get into Red Sox gear and have their photos put into banners, and visit their own ice cream bar. There was a kid-friendly concession stand:
And guys on hand to airbrush custom t-shirts (the kids could choose the design):
There was a beautiful cake that had a lot of tall candles on it- each candle represented an important person in Ben’s life.
The Nook was well-represented that night. Here’s Monica, MB, and Janet, wearing their Bar Mitzvah best!
There’s Ben in the middle of the dancers (yes, dancers!):
‘Twas a night that brought out the best in everyone. It was impossible not to have a great time. Thanks to Barb and Phil and Ben for letting us share this amazing experience!
