Note: All of the above images are low resolution. If you want an image then go to my on-store and buy it there. I have live Word fence to track every visitor, so blocking is easy and yes, I use it often everyday.

Overview: In working/collaborating with dancers it was through the eyes of a choreographer and dancer who I lived with for 6 years. We staged many shows,  worked with many dancers, musicians and the occasional lighting designer.  A passionate partnership where I got to live and breathe dance/movement for 6 years everyday. This stated in San Francisco, CA in the late 70’s. The Jo Ellen series reflects some of the looks we staged live.

The only cost-effective media I had to work with was slide projectors. Being a professional illustrator and designer I was very much a hands-on media artist. Etching on blank 2″x2″ blank graphic arts film, hot needles to poke holes into plastic blank slides and yes, even soldiering irons. Went through a phase of assembling lighting gels to fit the 2″x 2″ super slide format. I preferred to get more light/pattern coverage thus a larger format was necessary. All the while never bothering to research what other media artists had tried. It was only after getting reviews from the first shows that I became of choreographer Alwin Nikolais work in New York.

I had just completed an academic degree, B.F.A. in both drawing and photography in ’76 from California College of the Arts in Oakland, CA. Switching medias from super realism illustration to slides gave the chance to combine both of my passions to draw on blank film and create custom graphics. Having already studied photography, film and animation at CCA , working in a series came easy.  Photography to document the dancers with patterns was all I had as video was out of the question.

Years later, some 1,500 slides have been digitally scanned and retouched to clean up the images. Many of the same images converted into motion graphic sequences along with more complex CGI graphics and state-of-the-art show control software for precision synchronization of multiple projectors.

7/’16

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