An Update for the Gods

I very recently posted on Carol’s Bloggie about how I set up most of my video installation in my backyard over Christmas. I forgot to X-post, so I’m just going to make a new post over here since it’s been a few days since that entry was posted. Then, I’ll probably link a new Kickstarter update to this entry – so don’t mind me. I might repeat myself.

Yeah, so setting up the UTN Camp was interesting. The movie has finally been titled, Up to Now, which I’m pretty happy with. Funny story about that though. My first choice of title just so happened to be Unbroken, but then this giant blockbuster movie called Unbroken is now coming out, so I decided not to use it.

Funny enough, another giant movie called Exodus is also about to break too! I think that’s pretty funny.

Anyway, I say that setting up the camp was interesting because I wanted to set it up early for a few main reasons, some of those having to do with stress and time, but it wound up that I really needed to do it for so many other bits of planning that I would have never thought of unless I actually put it all together. I first and foremost needed to see if everything was going to fit and work. So I’m so glad I did it – just for troubleshooting purposes alone.

I’m a little disappointed with that ephemera wall though. I wanted it to be a kind of massive panorama, but it just wasn’t feasible to work out that way. All the papers needed to be flat, not curved into the wall, so I had to get another piece of fabric the same color as the tent and drop it between the curvature of the wall, and it wound up to be only 44 inches wide.

I was still able to fit a good amount of stuff on there though. There’s lots of sketches from my time out in Joshua Tree, a number of my photos, reference materials from the paintings I worked on and a few diary entries from when I was studying kabbalah that get pretty in-depth. There’s a few other goodies, like preliminary sketches for some of the paintings and I think there’s a travel list from before I left on my trip.

But the ephemera wall isn’t necessarily supposed to be gawked at closely. It’s just there at the entrance like a mystery on the way in, and a little something that will make sense on the way out (or looking out when you’re inside) – a culmination or a blueprint for the entire show, i.e.: the movie, the paintings, my retreat, my studies, the whole shebang.

The juice is in the movie experience once you’re inside the tent – so watch your step.

And have a seat!

Don’t mind the bat.

You might notice that there are giant fire ants making their way across the table and onto the floor. Don’t mind them. Those are just there to specifically attack my character, not to hurt you in any way, so don’t be afraid of them.

There will be other little stupid surprises in the final installation, but this is basically what it’s all about. You’ve heard me talking about it for so long, you probably thought it was a lot more spectacular than this, didn’t you?

Believe it or not, the show is really just around the corner. I am installing the show in just a couple of months from now. I have 10 weeks before I start loading up a truck and driving it over to Venice, and that means I really have eight weeks to finish painting if I want those things to be at least surface dry!

This is why I am trying to work on this one first.

There’s a couple reasons to work on this one before the panel pieces. First of all, it’s slower to dry. (The panels dry faster not only because they are wood but because I am also painting on top of paper too. Paper practically dries instantly!) Also, this one just takes longer. It happens to have a lot of very small detail.