Sunday, February 7, 2010

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

ETC, ETC, ETC

I spent a day at the ETC headquarters in Middleton, WI. They have an awesome facility and work environment.


The assembly floor / warehouse is one very large open space. All ETC products are made in this space. All elements of ETC gear are manufactured in this facility except for the lenses and the metal castings for  the fixtures.


This picture shows the lens housing for Source Fours going through the paint booth.


This is the lobby. The employees eat lunch here. Each storefront houses offices.


This is inside the theater where they do training. There is an amazing rig hanging from the ceiling.


This picture of the main entrance does not do thy facility justice - it is huge.


Click below to see a short YouTube video on ETC.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Life Behind Art - Sorry no pictures

I usually only blog about art and technology. Often times you look at an artist and think their life revolves around the creation of their art - you forget they have lives as well. Part of my challenge of working in the Church technology world, is finding the balance of work, community, and family. Often times in the Church world these lines get blurred to the determent of many people. I said all that so I could give you a glimpse into what was my life Friday morning.

Since Simone started working part time (so we could put Jazz in the school that we felt would best benefit him) and Paris started another school across town, life has been CRAZY! Just when we feel we have a handle on it something comes along and disrupts it... 

This is one of those weeks, a day off for MLK threw the whole process into turmoil. Today was the pinnacle of the chaos. On Fridays, we leave the house at 7:20 to get Jazz and Simone to work and school by 7:30. Except we had not been to the grocery store so our children had nothing for lunch. Well that’s not the whole truth... we had dinner at Whole Foods the night before and failed to purchase anything for lunch. 

So, after dropping them off, Paris and I ran to Jewel to purchase 2 lunchables, 2 Red Bulls (for mommy because that is the kind of week it has been) and “something to chase them with” which ended up being Snapple raspberry ice tea. 

Paris was complaining about having to go the the bathroom but had admitted she only was saying that so she could get candy from the principal of Jazz’ school. So we dropped the supplies off and went on our merry way. 

Once we got across town Paris started FREAKING OUT that her stomach was hurting. I HATE having to take her into mens public restrooms, but she cannot pee in a random ally like Jazz can! Nothing with parking (something that plagues city life) was open so I had to drive a bit with her crying in the back seat. We found a Starbucks (clean restrooms) and that was done. Got some coffee and headed on our merry way. 

We arrived at her school 5 min early. Parent Volunteers help children out of the cars on the street along the school. We pulled up and were just hanging out there Paris had taken her seat belt off and had put her back pack on, all ready to get out of the car. 30 seconds before she was to get out of the car she said “Daddy don’t be mad at me” I said “Why?” she said “Don’t be mad at me. I think I pooped my pants”. I said “Turn around.” I then pulled up her coat and pulled her tights and panties away from her body which exposed... let’s just say it was FULL! 

I think I held it together, only future counseling sessions will expose some deep emotional scar that I inflicted today! I quickly pulled away from the curb, so not to have to explain to the volunteer why Paris could not get out of the car. Found a place to pull over so I could get her backpack off and get her seat belt back on. It was a painful experience to watch the expression on her face as she sat in her booster seat with a full panty for the 20 minute drive home. She was disgusted to say the least. I felt really bad but there was nothing to do. 

We made our way back home once back in the loft I had the unpleasant task of undressing her and showering her off... and I mean unpleasant. After finding her a new school uniform and a new pair of tights we were back on our merry way to school. That all happened while a little bit of chaos was going on at work I was on the phone having to arrange for people to come in at an unexpected time. I was totally spent after all of that the rest of the day I just felt like a zombi.

And what was the reason the school secretary wrote for her late? Personal.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Scribbles

I am always scribbling concepts for set designs on pads around me. Here are a couple of conceptual drawing and the sets they led to.