I'm excited to have been contacted by a TV show producer who's interested in me as a host for a collaborative design show.  While nothing is ever a sure thing, I'm always stoked to have the opportunity to pitch the idea.

The OSAA Dance and Drill Championships have come to a finish for 2015.  In a previous blog post I shared the Architects of Light from Parkrose High School.  Now I'd like to share with you Blue Ocean as performed by the Clackamas Cavalettes. 

A quick bit of background information.  I've been friends with the show designer Kurt Jull since the early 90's.   We've worked on some fun projects together.  Some have been very experimental allowing us both to explore new boundaries.  I'll include a little retro Jull/Christensen project at the end of this post.

This year, Kurt brought his vision for Blue Ocean to the table and I was happy to help execute his ideas.  To bring it to life, we needed two shoreline floor/mat paintings for the dancers to dance on and a plan to create budget friendly, portable giant coral and other props.

The two floors were designed to be part of a secret effect that would be revealed at the state championship competition.  It was quite a risk to wait until the final moment to implement the effect but it payed off and was quite the crowd pleaser.

Here's the entire routine care of Cavalette parent Jodi.  Thank you.

Here is a close up of the effect.  For you non-dance team folks know that the floors are hand painted on a heavy weight vinyl, much like an awning or banner fabric.  Each floor once you add in the weight of dried paint is in the ball park of three to four hundred pounds each as dead weight.  The effect created is only achieved by capturing air underneath the tarp as it is pulled back.  It's quite spectacular.

After painting the floor I decided to take a stroll along the beach.  I know...nice socks.  Black hides all the paint splatters they endure.

Close to twenty years ago, Kurt thought I might enjoy a simple challenge.  He wanted me to recreate the scene from Michelangelo's sistine chapel "Creation".   Did I say simple challenge?  Not only was I to recreate one of the worlds finest example of religious art I had to do so while painting it in a Longview Washington Bingo Hall during closed hours. It wasn't quite the Sistine chapel environment with the whirling cash machine tucked in the corner and the lingering smell of corn dogs and cigarette butts.  Had there been social media back then, we would have had a fun time posting videos.

I had visions of Michelangelo face palming himself and screaming NO, blasphemy!  Sorry Mick, relax your 16th century self....this is for the kids!

This is a high school team with members that are freshman up to senior in year.  The dancers are expected to maintain good grades, be good citizens are practice together from late summer until now.   This sport requires huge dedication on behalf of the students and their coaches, whom I adore.

The video is the first of two performances.  Here are some close up photos by Patrick Smith Photography (used with permission), copyright 2015.

This week has been a lot of fun.  It's been filled with late night projects, installations and fun stuff on social media.

Congratulations to Angela Matthey, she's the winner of one of my 8 x 8 reclaimed wood mounted art pieces.  She's a big football fan and chose my vintage football piece.  I've been hosting random happenings to celebrate my new site's launch.

Right now on the site we're having a flash sale on those 8 x 8's.  They are not available through my site regularly and usually exclusive to some of my brick and mortar boutique customers.  

It's been a crazy week for my dance team clients.  Not only did they perform in a regional qualifier for their state competition, they've been running at full steam finalizing their routines, sets and props.  I've been on hand to help with the madness.

Meanwhile, the Clackamas Cavalettes are prepping to reveal their final version of their routine which includes a little magic behind the scenes with their floor I painted.  As this is my private beach, I couldn't help but usher everyone off of it...ha!

Over the next week I'll post some additional dance group videos, a little walk down memory lane if you will....