Tiki Tiger Studios: Big long Egyptian trip report!

A quick update on the Egyptian deal: they have finally allocated and approved of the money for printing. We are now just trying to figure out the best date to have it all done and up for sale. I think we are probably aiming for June, when the refurbished theater will have a soft opening (but not quite a full one yet as there will still work that will need to be done).

Other than that... I have not been able to do ANY art which is slowly driving me insane. My work has been graveyard shifting me to death right now, which makes me feel even on my days off that I just want to lay in bed and die for half the day. Somehow I don't think making under $10,000 a year is worth this (which I found out from taxes this year was what I made... a depressing thought).

Well, hopefully I will get energy enough together soon to work on something new.

Slap me in the face and wake me up. I somehow missed your first response and just found this one. All good news about the painting.

Those night jobs are very rough. We need to talk. I hope to see you at Tiki Kon. Wendy

Update: The Egyptian painting has been scanned. I am waiting for the printed proof to approve and then the actual printing can begin.

Below is the scan (there is a slight copyright watermark on it that will not be on the actual prints: I am terrified to put up art on the web after what is happening to Brad Parker, so have become a little paranoid. I tried to make it unobtrusive for your viewing pleasure.)

I'll update again once I get the proof. :)

Outstanding.

You are an incredible talent. I loved watching you work on this painting and to see it finished is such a treat. Have you started another project? I would like to see all that you do shared here. Congratulations on finishing this fine work of art. Wendy

Your scan turned out great! I checked out the website for the theater and it is a really beautiful place. So glad it is still being used...so many of those gems are long gone.

• Dale

Apologies for the late reply everyone. I REALLY appreciate all the comments and love to read them.

hiltiki: thank you for the comment. :)

Wendy: I just approved of the proof print, the first one was too dark so we went through a few smaller proofs until we reached what I felt was a good representation of the tones. As for other projects, well I put together a submission package for a mural project at a local college. IF I win the bid for the project, this single mural will help me earn more money than I made all of last year with my janitorial job. I can't show anything just yet, but the content is one of my favorite subjects: ancient cultures. Specifically ancient Greek mythology (can you think of anything more academic?). The final prints for the Egyptian painting should be done in a few weeks, then I need to sign them all and bring them with the original painting to Coos Bay for the re-opening of the Egyptian in June.

littlegiles: Yes, The Egyptian is a crown jewel left from a bygone era. I am so very happy to be a part of helping bring it back to its former glory. If you ever get a chance you should come and see it. It will re-open in June, but they will continue to do improvements and upgrades over time to keep making it better and better and looking as close as possible to it's original 1925 opening. In my opinion it definitely outshines the Gramen's Egyptian in Hollywood because it is much more intact. I think only the Boise Idaho Egyptian theatre compares to it. With so little art deco left, especially Egyptian revival deco it brings my heart joy to know this very special place is being preserved for future generations.

If I get the mural job I will post pictures elsewhere (probably on my neglected facebook fan page) and provide links to them on here.

Best of luck, they would be lucky to have you do this for them. Wendy

BAM!
stunning...

BAM! Thanks LLT! :)

Always a pleasure to see you post Wendy. :)

Welp, I have the prints back and am busy assembling them into protector bags with foam core backers. The next step is to make a certificate of authenticity to put in each bag.

My dad helping me cut the foam core boards to the right size.

Easy does it! Giclee prints are incredibly fragile, and can be easily scratched. After the first few I decided to put on gloves to put the prints in the bags... better safe than sorry.

Putting a stack of assembled prints away till I get the certificates done. Yes, I still have an exacto knife in my mouth. :wink:

Stack 'O' prints waiting....

After I get the certificates done, I have to contact the theatre and arrange a pickup rendezvous. This has certainly been an interesting experience, and I am excited to make my own prints to sell of other paintings now. Which brings me to something a lot on my mind lately: my job and how much it is cutting into my art time. I seriously think I am going to give an ultimatum; let me clean only ONE place instead of two or I am going to have to leave. I know it will cut my already meager paycheck in half, but its seriously making me a little crazy to not have the energy or time to create. The plan for this job to begin with was to have a part time job to leave time for art, but the graveyard hours that have been extending more and more lately are really sapping me of all energy to do ANYTHING. This is no way to live.

So my friends, until we cross those desert sands again...adieu.

Things are a poppi'n in Tiki Tiger Studios. I have been invited to be a part of a gallery show, but the piece has to be done and arrive to the gallery by May 8th. I am excited because this is the first show I have been invited to that isn't some old ladies auxiliary, a show where my work will fit right in instead of being the single odd one out. The theme of the show is "Godzilla", so I thought with how much that big lizard keeps coming back from the grave, why not make it a zombie Godzilla? Then I thought what fun it would be to tie in the tiki zombie drink and the idea of "ZombZilla" was born. Plus you know how much I like to paint the Wahines. :wink:

I am finally figuring out how to do my paintings faster and more accurate. I tried this technique with the Egyptian painting and it worked out very well, so I thought I would try it again; making a quick down and dirty collage of how I envisioned the general layout. A tip of the hat to Brad "Tiki Shark" Parker for providing a photo of one of his Godzilla figures in just the right pose for me after I frantically searched all over the internet in vain.

I ended up going with a different running Wahine pose, but overall I followed the collage fairly closely.

I generally don't do much sketching beforehand. I tend to do composition "sketches" in my head for weeks before I start, tossing out one idea after another until I arrive at something I like. Then the sketching is done directly on the canvas. Sometimes as in the case of the running pose I have to try and erase and start over, and it may take several times to get there.

What I do composition wise on the canvas is a sort of vague gridding off with a ruler exactly where to place something, and to make sure there is a clear path for the eye to follow. For instance at the very beginning I tried to make sure all object shapes pointed towards the focal point: Godzilla. The serving trays that the waitresses drop, the A frame building, the umbrellas more or less all point towards the big guy.

Another technique I tried for the first time on the Egyptian painting, I used again: outlining in umber so I can actually see what I penciled in clearly. I know, it's a no-brainer concept, but I never thought to do it before the last painting.

Yes, I am up to my amusing story telling tricks again... note the poor guy in the grass skirt bending down to pick up his glasses...is it right that I create characters to be destroyed in this manner? :wink: He is of course gonna get squished to paste by Zombzilla. I didn't finish the running Wahine's foot because I had to pause and think... what on earth kind of footwear do they make themed employees like this wear? Or do they go barefoot? Sandals? Hmmm...

At this point I decided to try something new. I wanted to work out a bit of where the light and shadow would be before I laid down the color so I did a wash of umber, a bit like watercolor painting over the lines to give some idea.

And I decided to call it a night there since I have a large majority of the groundwork laid.

And, I'll leave you this time with a shot of the studio with Godzilla references scattered about...

Until next time... Go, go, Godzilla!

Fun painting! A zombie Godzille...I would have never thought of that. :)

As for her shoes? I think I would go barefoot unless you don't want her to have a fighting chance and then you could put her in heels. HAHA

• Dale

I can hear the Godzilla noise now...
:)

I sure can understand your frustration. I waited until I was 59 to start ceramics. I wish you all the best in what you do. No matter what make sure you earn enough to cover health insurance. It's a dangerous game to play with your life without it.

You are a real artist and your work is inspired and well done. I really enjoy how you think it through and then put it to canvas or paper.

Wonderful, Wendy

I am not a painter so I really enjoy the step-by-steps and the techniques. Does the number bib on the runner wahine in the collage say "ass"? :lol: As far as the shoes, it reminds me of the old joke where the hikers were being chased by a bear and one stopped to change from his hiking books to his running shoes. He knew he didn't have to outrun the bear, just outrun his fellow hiker.

Littlegiles: HA! Never would of thought of heels... that would be cruel. :wink: I am leaning towards flip flops but that might be just as cruel.

Hang10tiki: I know I heard the Godzilla roar as I was painting it.

Wendy: Well, I don't earn enough for health insurance even at my janitorial job LOL. You'd be amazed how low of pay most janitors get. Thanks for the compliments!

MM: HA HA HA!!!! I think it's the number 226, but I reversed the image. Hilarious bear joke...maybe I should put her in running shoes. :wink: I think its pretty clear she may be one of the only survivors at this point. :wink:

Probably paint more on it tomorrow (my next day off), I am having more fun than should be legal with this one.

Tentatively I will be going down to Coos Bay starting the 16th through the weekend (IF my work ever confirms getting that Friday off as they promised) to bring the original painting and the prints for the big re-opening hullabaloo. They need them a few weeks beforehand so they can get all the plans finalized. I'll of course take pictures of the trip. :)

Are we going to see you at the hotel when Tiki Kon is going on or a day before it starts? I don't know how far away you are from the hotel. I would like to see you again, Wendy

Wendy: I'd like to go to Tiki Kon, but I will have to see how finances pan out. I am pretty sure I can probably make it for one day like I did last year, I'd like to see you and Dan was well. It's a bit of a drive but not too bad, I live up by Mt Hood.

Got more progress done on Zombzilla. First thing was filling in some of the skin tones, and I was determined to get a little more variety into those this time.

Then adding some high lights to the flesh tone to help show musculature, and adding beginning shadows.

The start of the background came next. I still need to work out the exact lighting, I want it to be sunset so there is back lighting, and just enough darkness for the neon sign. For now it is filled with a bright vibrant orange which I will tame down a bit later.

The thatch was done in a wet on wet technique, where I mixed paint colors right on the canvas in strokes to simulate the texture of thatching. I did this with the umbrellas as well. Then I added one of the other major light sources; the glass float light, and some beginning light bounce from it. I will be adding more texture layers for the thatching over this and adding more shadows.

Began working on the neon, but I think I need to research more how the glass tubes are held onto the backing signs. I fully realize if neon were smashed like this, the instant it cracked it would lose the gas that makes it glow, but I wanted it to be that dramatic moment of impact so I am going to make it half glow and half fizzling out.
So I decided to start on the skimpy wahine sarongs. These will have patterns on them like the reference photo. but for now I need to work out the dark and light in the wrinkles.

While I had the red and pink paint out, I worked on some of the gory exposed muscles on the ripped flesh of Zombzilla.

And, that's about where I stopped for the night. With the Blue Oyster Cult song running through my head...

Oh no... they say he's got to go! Go, go Gozilla! (Until next time). :wink:

I'm really liking that progress you have made on the painting. Fun stuff!

What part is goign to be the neon? I can see you have a destroyed sign and was just curious about it because I don't think you have ever shown us a close-up of that part of the painting. Love the idea of having some of it lit and some of it not...that moment of impact!

• Dale

Love checking this thread every time. Your pieces are so interesting and good.

Terrific, Wendy

As always Mahalo for stopping by hiltiki and Wendy, always love reading the comments. You are always welcome in the Tiki Tiger hut. :wink:

Sorry about that Dale (yes, I just now noticed you have a name on your posts besides littlegiles... I am super observant). I guess it would have helped understand about the sign better if I put up a picture of it. The following picture is before I started to add the neon color (the words "Voodoo", some "pinstriping" around the edge of the sign, and the breaking zombie drink outline are supposed to be done in neon). The words "Vic's" and "zombie" are those deep 3D metal signs with single lightbulbs inside like "The Alabi" tiki lounge has here in Portland (or like you used to frequently see on carnival rides in the past).

It's all part of my ironic little joke of a zombie Godzilla attacking a tiki lounge known for it's zombie drinks. Originally I had other words on the sign right where the crack in the middle is, but when it came time to paint it the pencils were so faint I could not read it, nor could I remember what it was. I decided to go with the sort of broken "engrish" as part of the joke. To technically be a real sign it should probably read something like: "Voodoo Vic's Zombie LOUNGE", but I suppose it really doesn't matter it could just be an already destroyed part of the sign on the lower half where it was attached to the building before zombzilla knocked it off with a great sweep of his rotting tail.

Barring anything unforeseen, things should really get popping this weekend on the painting stay tuned!

Hang onto your seats and get ready to run, Zomzilla has returned!

I spent pretty much all evening till the wee hours of the morning working and got a pretty fair amount done.

The first thing to work out was the main lighting, so I put in the background sunset. After that I started putting in the light reflection on the big guy.

Then I filled in his bones and put light and shadows on them. Since this is the ending of the sunset, right when the twilight begins to set in, there is a bit of blue purple in the sky. I put a tinge of blue on the outer edges of Zombzilla's upper body as a cast reflection from the twilight, and also to help him stand out more.

After that I started to add more light and shadow to his scale texture, and cast shadows from the "fins" on his back.

It was time to work on that sign...

I wanted realistic little details, so I researched signs and got an approximation of how this sign might have been built, and where the wires would go etc. I love little details like that, things people probably won't notice but adds depth and realism to the world I am working on. Notice the "S" on the sign breaking off? If you look close you can see a discolored S shaped area of paint on the sign where it once hung, and rusted broken screws that held it on.

Next was the front of the tiki joint, and the ground area. I wanted a ginormous ominous shadow coming from Zombzilla overshadowing the ladies. I still need to work out some of the rock flagstones as they get a little lost.

Originally I intended to put both of Zombzilla's feet behind the hedge in the back, but I like the idea better of one going forwards and squashing part of the hedge and dining area, so I will be putting in a creepy half skeletal foot in there.

After adding some sunset high lights to the skin on the girls I quit for the nig... er... umm morning.

It's getting there I am in a mad rush to get it done for the show, but I think I'll make it.

Until the next time Zomzilla stomps your way...

Funny, I woke up same time you went to sleep, and I really enjoy all the progress pictures. I like the torn apart Godzilla.

Really taking shape! Love what you have done with the sign.

i still vote heels on the waitress. HAHA

• Dale

Great stuff coming from Tigertail Studios!

You do have so much creative energy. You go tiger!!! Wendy

Hey all thanks for dropping by Tiki Tiger Studios! :)

Hiltiki: Sounds like your an early riser. :wink: Thanks for the comments on torn apart Zombzilla... just wait he is going to get even more gross looking. :wink:

Littlegiles: I am probably going to stick with barefoot; I figure she has experience with what is going on and wisely removed her employee shoes for running...she may be the only survivor. Before removing them, I am sure they were probably high heels though. :wink:

Cy: Why thank you kindly sir! There is always great stuff coming from Cy studios as well, I may not comment often, but I avidly follow your carving post. :)

Wendy: The tiger always has creative energy...sometimes too much! It's finding the bodily energy to match that is the problem. One thing that has been helping lately, and I know sounds utterly odd, is coconut oil. A teaspoon each morning is almost as good as a cuppa joe. :wink:

I got more done last night but was too exhausted to come in and post at around 6 am. So here we go...

As you may remember this is about where we left off with the main central figure last time...

My enthusiasm was beginning to flag on the project, when that happens I decide on just one part that I really have enthusiasm to work on and concentrate on that. This time it was the central figure (at this point I am not sure if she is African American, or Pacific Islander...black or Tahitian/Samoan could be either I suppose). I have never really done any detailed paintings of darker skin tones, and am finding them quite a challenge particularly in this painting because I chose to have all of the women overshadowed by Zombzilla's cast shadow from the sunset. This means that the immediate background behind the central figure is very close in tone to the figure itself and she was getting a little lost. I had to do some light reflective "fudging" to get some high lights in there to make her pop back out again. It was also time to tackle all those savory looking refreshments on her tray, as well as the tray itself.

First thing to do was lay down some basic colors. The "head" mug is loosely based on one of the mugs in Book of Tiki, but I forget the exact page.

Then I worked on the eyes and refining some details a bit before I really plunged in. Notice the nose at this stage, it's pretty indefinite so I wanted to correct that.

Fixed the nose, added more shadow to her hand. After some research I decided that Sarong was not looking quite right, and changed the tied "tail" part of it to have some movement.

Some reflection in the eyes and lips... ahhh now THAT is a face of TERROR!

Those drinks gave me no end of problems, especially the glass one on the left. The reflections still are not quite right I may work on that a bit more. I think there is too much bright reflection on one side... or something... hmmm

I decided not to do the orchid in her hair till I researched them a bit more, so that is about where I stopped for now.

Thank you for flying Zombzilla airlines, we hope your trip was an enjoyable one and you will choose to fly with us again. :wink:

Wow! I'm so glad I checked out this thread! Your painting is looking great.

Really shaping up! Keep at those details...it's looking great.

• Dale

Hey thanks for dropping by and checking out the thread LoriLovesTiki! :)

Welcome back again, Littlegiles. :)

A little break before I head back to the studio. A few months ago I had a very nice lady, Carol Gravem ask if she could make some mugs for a friend's party based on my tiki tiger mug design on the first page of this thread. As part of the bargain she said she would make me one for my studio. I was thrilled and said "yes!" She has been working on them for a few months now and I couldn't reveal it because her friend sometimes pops around TC and she did not want to spoil the surprise. She has said I can now reveal it, and I am happy to present pictures of her marvelous Tiki Tiger mug. Note that I did not have a drawing of the backside, and she improvised in a very cool way using a leaf on the back to put her friend Jay's name. My special one will have a few extra touches, and my name on it. Super excited at the idea of holding this mug in my hands when it comes. :)

Okay back to the studio while you ooh and ahh over the cuteness of the mug! :wink:

Thanks tigertail777 so much for posting pictures of my mugs. Today is the party and I hope to sell all that are available!

Very cute mug.

Tigertail777 your painting has such great movement. I feel the rush and see the fear. This is such fun to watch, Wendy

I see Zombzilla over the horizon.... he is crushing everything in his path! RUN!

And... Thank YOU Minitikimeow... I just love the way the mug turned out.

Thanks as always for stopping by the Tiger hut, Wendy!

Yes, I did finish the painting in time to send off to the gallery show, and was fairly pleased with the end result. Now we wait and see if it sells. I've only sold one painting before in my life and never in a gallery. To be honest I never have considered myself a painter, I didn't think I had the chops and really thought no one would want my subject matter on their walls. I only had the barest inkling of the low brow art movement, and still am incredulous that people can make a living selling such fantastical and weird art. After talking things over with a few fellow artists (Brad Parker, and Dawn Frasier) they sort of talked me off the ledge of underpricing myself which I always have done in the past. I am highly doubtful it will sell at the price I asked ($700), but I am told that is a reasonable price for a 20X24 painting of that complexity... or as Dawn put it: "That is about $1.50 a square foot". Yeah, I guess when you put it like that... but I am still nervous about it selling. I will be packing in my regular Joe job next week, due to their ludicrous wanting MORE work out of me for less pay, so for a while I will have more time to devote to art. Be nice if I could actually make a living off it. :wink:

Okay, public announcements are over... on with the show...

Not sure where I left off, so I will start with my little pop culture "joke" for this piece: a 1970's style garbage can from The Enchanted Tiki Room in Disneyland. I always love incorporating some kind of little visual joke that adds to the enjoyment and theme of the piece.

Then I really concentrated on the background carnage going on from the big old Zombzilla skeletal foot stomp. Glass flying everywhere from broken tables, stomped down shrubbery, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

Next was the tiki statue that Zombzilla pulled up out of the ground. I wanted this to give the impression in a funny way that Zombzilla had a huge drink in his hand, thus the final title for this piece "Zombzilla Wants a Zombie!", I am not sure if it reads that way, but that's okay either way its funny. I thought it would be really striking to have the tiki high lighted in pink reflected light from the pink neon on the breaking sign.

The Japanese girl who is running barefoot (and therefore probably the only likely survivor in this chaos) kept bothering me. Something did not seem right. Finally I pulled out one of my Japanese pose books (there are lots of these in Japan due to the manga and anime industries. These are fantastic books for figuring out poses, and a lot of them have actual photos of difficult poses for all the details) and found the initial pose I was trying to get across. Details are very tiny and hard to see in this particular book, but I did see enough to realize that foot was twisted at an odd angle, and her hand was also not quite right. So I painted outlines of how things SHOULD be and went from there fixing the pose.

The main foreground Wahini with the dark skin did not seem to have a real dimensional roundness to her figure. It took me a while to parse out why. She is in shadow with a partial sunset, partial twilight sky. Her skin should have some very slight reflections of that blue both from the shadow and the twilight. That was what was missing. Once I realized it, I applied a slight blue hue in the shadows to the other girls as well. A little hard to see it here because the camera was not cooperating with the flash mode.

Once I understood the kind of impact that big of a stomp would make, I had to go back and sort of fix some of the details. I went back into the little tiny tiki bar in darkness under the hut and made the itty bitty fish tank crack and spill water, and jiggled the bottles on the bar. Had I thought of this in the first place I would have made that little scene a bit more active. Those bar bottles are each less than half the size of a penny, I almost needed a smaller brush, something I thought I would never say since I work with really tiny liner brushes already.

I was not happy with the reflection and shadow on the bamboo poles of the roof, and really wanted to make them pop, so I went back and played with the wiggling around glass fishing float, and how that light would bounce off and react to the bamboo, as well as the "VV" (Voodoo Vick's) neon letters on the front of the Ku statue about to topple off the roof (note the broken wires).

From there I just did little finishing touches here and there and put down my unique little signature (there is also a hidden signature, which over the years I started doing from boredom and now friend and family expect it in there to try and find it). And finally sealing it with acrylic sealer as you can see in the next photo, which really made the colors pop.

And a final photo of it upright outside in the sunshine.

I did make scans in pieces on my 11X17 scanner at high res, for possible future prints but have not pieced all the scans into one cohesive whole yet as I am a little afraid the size is going to crash my computer.

I am really falling in love the with painting medium and finding each new outing more fun than the last. I have an idea that popped into my head for the next one I would like to do, not sure how well it will go over but I think it will be a lot of fun. Here's a hint: it's a mixing of some imagery from the Disney film "Fantasia" with tiki's. I'll let your mind reel over that for a while. :wink:

Until next time, beware of Zombzilla Tiki faithful!

[ Edited by: tigertail777 2014-05-08 03:45 ]

WOW! Your painting really turned out great! what a fun theme and final look. It is something I would hang on my wall.

Job well done! Can't wait to see what you work on next. That Fantasia/Tiki theme has me intrigued.

• Dale

You ARE a great painter. There's emotion, action, excellent detail, everything. It's wonderful. You should think about making prints for sale like the Egyptian theater painting. I'm so impressed by your talent. Wendy

Thanks Wendy I appreciate the cheer leading. :)

First off, I got my tiki tiger mug from Carl Gravem, and he's a beauty! I am a little afraid to use him for actual drinking so he may just be a brush holder in the studio except for very special occasions. The camera was being a little persnickety so I will have to take pictures of the inside and backside later, but it all turned out beautifully! Carol even included a bamboo straw. :)

Next... remember I said the new painting would be something from Fantasia? Remember the Nutcracker Suite sequence where it showed ice fairies? Combine that with the goddess of snow and ice in Hawaiian lore, Poliahu and you have the new painting. My idea is make this a pair of paintings that go together; the next one will be the Night on Bald Mountain sequence combined with Pele.

I started the painting last night and got pretty far. This should be a fun one for all of the light reflections and refractions off the ice.

Here is the beginning penciling. As I said before I almost never do sketches beforehand and work it all out in my head.

In the nutcracker sequence there is this really beautiful bit where an ice fairy lands on an autumn leaf and proceeds to cover it with frost by dancing over it. I wanted to do something like that, but with a orchid that was floating in water when the water iced over. This is the start of the orchid.

This is starting to paint the ice fairy who in this story is goddess Poliahu. In one of the main stories about her she had a beautiful cloak of white (snow) which she gave to a man she betrothed to. I was going to include the cloak, but I can't have both the cloak and the wings, there is no way a cloak could tie around them. For now I am probably going to go with the ice wings like the Fantasia movie. I may change my mind and make it a cloak we'll see.

I really wanted to limit the color palette on this one to mainly blues, pink, and yellow to give a soft ethereal feel. This one will be in the sunshine, but probably not a bright day more soft and muted. Pele will be with moonlight in the dark of night. (unless I switch these... it may be easier to make the goddess stand out against the icicle waterfall background). The frost on the lake ice I am trying to do in tapa patterns going outwards from the orchid.

Outline the tiki...

Filling in the tiki...

And, icing over the tiki and putting in some details is about where I stopped for the night. I will be putting a lot more blue hues and ice on the tiki I don't want the brown to really stand out from the color scheme.

Surrounded by my ever present printed out pages of research.

Until next time on our Polynesia Fantasia journey, have a tiki-riffic day!

[ Edited by: tigertail777 2014-05-23 22:35 ]

Nothing makes a more tiki-terrific day than watching you work. Beautiful, Wendy

Great narrative and sharing the process on the Zombiezilla,Tigertail!
And what a cool thing to see that adorable tiger mug come to life and you get one! Sweet deal! Keep the Torch burning bright,man!
Good stuff!

Yikes! Zombiezilla is scary 8O

Why does he have to be so mean and make everyone spill their drinks? Maybe he just wants to join them for one...Guess he gets the whole bar now :D

The tiger mug came out great too, looks very much like the drawing, great work you two.

Lots o great art.....

Jon

Tiger mugs are awesome!! Love the white tiger, great job Carol!!!

Just a quick note: I will be heading down the coast this weekend for the grand re-opening of the Egyptian Theatre, and they want me to talk about my painting. When I come back I will have a buncha pics to share of the culmination of the whole Egyptian affair. :)

I am not ignoring you kind folks who have stopped by with comments, things have just been popping lately and I've not had time to post. I promise I will address each of you when I get back. Mahalo for stopping by the tiger hut.

Till I get back you can chew over an article I was interviewed for about the Egyptian painting on a site that does stories on Northwest artists.

http://nwartisanalhub.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/sandy-artist-jesse-guiher-donates-art-to-help-in-the-preservation-of-the-egyptian-theatre/

I just finished reading the article. What a perfect interview to match the magnificent piece of artwork. I od have to say that I got a kick out of the scary eyes peering over the top of your painting. That was a fun addition to your photo.

Congratulations on the project. You are a fine artist, Wendy

PS have a blast this weekend, looking forward to the photos

Very nice article.

Have a great time at the Re-Opening.

• Dale

I am back, and what a lot of fun I had! I'll give you a little tour in just a moment... first...

I want to thank all the kind folks who stopped by the Tiki Tiger thread

LLT: Thanks Ken! Trying to keep it burning as bright as I can without burning down the town. :wink:

BaddTiki: Thanks for stopping by, Zombzilla does indeed just want a nice stiff zombie, but the servers in this place don't seem to want to go near the big guy. Yeah I really dig how the tiki tiger mug turned out too! :)

Hang10tiki: Thanks for the compliment, stop by the tiki tiger hut again soon. :)

MauTiki: I gotta say I was surprised how well those mugs turned out. She really did a super fantastic job! :)

LoriLovesTiki: I'm glad you checked out the thread too! Hope you keep coming back as I churn out new stuff. :)

Littlegiles: Hey Dale thanks for stopping by again! Gratifying to know someone would hang Zombzilla on their wall, I have had a lot of people in the past tell me "love your art style, but I would would never be able to hang something like THAT on my wall". :wink: Yeah it was a nice article, and thanks for the well wishes on going to the grand opening.

Wendy (and Dan): Wendy I think you are my personal cheer leader.:) No one else really noticed the significance of the shirt I wore (its a decayed mummy) which I did indeed wear on purpose. :wink:

So... inspired by the many photo trips Wendy & Dan always publish on their thread, here is a nice long tour of my trip to the Egyptian.

Crossing the bridge past the sand dunes area to enter into North Bend. It is a family tradition to try and take a photo of this bridge when we cross it.

I've always loved this old fashioned sign hanging over the street as you enter North Bend.

Finally in Coos Bay proper.

After getting things settled at the hotel, we were off to the Egyptian.

We got to join a party for all the fundraising volunteers that was taking place on the stage; a tradition that started with the opening of the theatre in 1925 when the owner and all of the theatre personal and cast had a grand opening party on the stage. You can kind of see one of the painted backdrops in the background. I'll talk about that more in a bit.

Me and my mom in front of the backdrop.

Just like in 1925 for the grand opening, musicians played on the stage.

I had some cheesy "restrained" photos of me taken by various parts of the theatre. At this point it was sort of a little bit of a shock to be walking around in my painting if you know what I mean. I had not seen the interior of the Egyptian since I was about 8 years old or so, and was not sure whether my memory was betraying me or not. For the painting I only had about 6 really clear photos to work from, so being inside what I had painted was a little surreal.

Okay, so I did do one goofy one in front of the Wurlitzer with a "Walk Like an Egyptian" pose.

The president of the association for the preservation of the Egyptian gave a speech thanking all the volunteers, and introducing the new lady that will run the business end of showings at the Egyptian. Not only will there be classic movie showings frequently, but also music concerts and other events. They plan on breathing some new life into the Egyptian with some really creative offerings such as showing "National Treasure" and then having a treasure hunt through the theatre for the kids.

Now.... behold the splendor of the Egyptian...

Before we move from the auditorium (yes there is more to see... a lot more! We have not even gone into the lobby for popcorn yet!) remember some of those details I sweated over trying to discern from the photos I had? I am happy to report I was right; those were indeed snake head canopic jars in the detail of the organ screen.

On another note, my detective skills turned out to be all too true about the arch. I know for a certainty that it was indeed painted over at some point because I spotted something with my camera from the balcony (we will get there in a moment... be patient.) that proved my theory only too well. Someone graffiti-ed their name above the pillar. All this time what I thought was a hieroglyphic was a sloppily painted name, more than likely the person who painted over the arch. From what I know of the history of theatre (which isn't much) there was a family that took it over after the original owner sold it, and did not seem to have as much appreciation for the history of the place (we will come to the main conjecture for that when we get to the balcony). From the way the name is crudely painted I would say it was a young kid, maybe a teenager who helped to paint the arch (doubtful it was a really young kid as that is a very high place to be painting) who seems to have with some pride signed his name to his job of painting over the arch. You will also see in comparing the top weird "stone" on top of the pillar to the arch there is without a doubt NO room for that to fit under the arch so it is confirmed to be a later add on along with the arch painting. In fact from the angle of the graffiti I would say that the person actually was perched on TOP of the pillar which makes me shudder to think about, since god knows what is actually inside holding that pillar up; the outside is just plaster like every decorative element in theatre. The graffiti of the name can only be seen with a camera. It is far too dim in there to really see it with the naked eye clearly, and those of the association I showed my photo to seemed shocked it was there. If you look closely behind the "square" thing on top here you will see the name "John" peeking over.

I did unfortunately see signs of things that will need restoring the future; a lot of the decorative plaster has cracks, especially on the arch behind the pillars. You can't see them very well unless you really look close leaning into the space between. My guess is when they moved the pillars from the original position out from under the arch it stressed the arch. It is still perfectly safe, they did all kinds of stress tests all over the theatre, but the superficial plaster will need to be fixed someday.

Okay, so let's head up to the balcony now. We will skip the main lobby and save it till later, first before we go up the stairs, you will greet an imposing figure seated at the foot of the stairs. He is one of two guards flanking the stairways on either side of the lobby. Please disregard the truly garish paint job (I do NOT remember him looking like this as a kid. The headdress was a more realistic blue and black just like the lapis lazuli and onyx they found on the ones in Egypt. And the statue was not painted in horrible gold, he was more of a black marble color.). This guardian is missing the "conical" part of his headdress, the other one flanking the other stairs still has his.

On the way up are framed pictures of many of the movie stars that would have had movies play here in times past.

Once we get to the top landing there is a area that probably served as a smoking and rest area during intermissions. It still has some of its original custom furniture, although a lot of it is missing as I understand this entire area was fully furnished for many people to sit down. We are fortunate to have the pieces left intact that are there.

I had to get a picture of myself in one of those chairs. :wink:

The sight that greets you as you finally climb the last stairs to the balcony.

I took several trips to take pics of the balcony. This is when the theatre was starting to fill up with people for the night showing of the first movie there in three years. Several of my pictures have a bunch of dotty stuff going on like this... probably some serious dust, although it is funny it never triggered my allergies. Usually I am very sensitive to dust particles.

With it being open house, they had showings of the projector room in the balcony. Most of the original projection equipment was stripped out by the previous owners, but there are a few relics left. What's used for movies these days up there is a state of the art digital projection system. Funny thing is, because things were stripped like they were previously there are no speakers in the projection booth to see if the sound is synched so they have to test beforehand and go outside the booth to hear it.

new:

old

A few of the original film platters are left. I knew what these were I used to clean in a local theater and immediately recognized them.

Remember the story I was going to tell you about the previous owners not really having as much respect for historical aspects of the place? Well the irony here is the theatre was saved through its partial destruction. In order to compete the owners stripped a lot of the balcony down, ripping out a lot of decorative work to install several small theater screens in the balcony, and enclosing it so it would be dark enough for separate movies, sealing off most of the view down below to the main screen. This allowed them to show more than one movie at a time and keep the theatre open longer. Because of this it ironically kept it open longer as a functioning theatre during a time when many other architectural treasures were lost to the wrecking ball. The sad thing is though; I was told stories from people who remembered the old theatre over the weekend and they told me that balcony was almost as decorative as the main auditorium, I even heard there were two more statues flanking the sides of the balcony similar to the ones below guarding the stairs. No one seems to know where all this extra decor went. And sadly there isn't even any photo documentation available of how it looked.

Looking upwards at the ceiling you can see a little bit of the carnage. It's very hard to take pictures of with the balcony being so dark.

As you look from the stage towards the audience you can get a better view of the balcony layout and can see more of the ceiling which gives some idea of how they accomplished turning the balcony into extra viewing rooms.

This was the table set up for me at the foot of the stairs. I was in charge of telling people about my painting and selling raffle tickets for it. I sold $300 worth of tickets for the theatre, and two of the actual prints. I really had hoped it would be a lot more, but the theatre assures me they will sell out eventually on their website store once it is established. I do hope so. I did this all to help the theatre, and would love to have them sell out they need it for the next phases of renovation. The good news is the theatre is saved, but its going to make more to really bring back its glory.

Some of the fantastic volunteers that took over my table when I needed a break. Everyone was just so helpful and friendly and made an already wonderful experience even better.

They restored the brightness to some of the original painted decor in the downstairs area. This is the overhead part leaving the stairs from the balcony into the lobby.

The front of the same overhang facing the stairs.

One of the side wings downstairs by the newly renovated ADA compliant bathrooms.

This cloth wall covering is ORIGINAL. Incredible.

One of my favorite shots. :)

Reproduction ceiling lights were made for various areas of the theatre. This is one of them.

There are a couple original art deco hand painted tiles on the backside of the ticket booth inside the lobby. I find these bits left particularly beautiful and a tantalizing reminder of what may have been in the original. Rumor has it that one of the previous owners actually stripped a lot of the Egyptian bric a brac out sometime after the 1950's. This place must have been overflowing in opulence.

Back into the theatre auditorium...

There are something like five ORIGINAL 1925 backdrops that were discovered hidden way up in the fly loft when they were renovating. Can you imagine that? Actual backdrops painted in 1925 hidden away all these years. This is one of the real treasures of the Egyptian, and they use them between movie showings interchanging them. For the grand re-opening they showed off all of them.

This one is the original fire curtain. You will note it says "Asbestos". It had asbestos wove into it to prevent any fire on stage from going past the curtain once it is dropped. This used to be a practice in every theater from the 1920's through much of the 50's.

This one betrays its Portland origins (the backdrops have fine print on the backs that say they were painted in Portland Oregon LOL).

Another Portland-esque backdrop...

Three of the backdrops are Egyptian themed, this is the last one it is a night time look of Egypt.

Why, you may wonder did the Egyptian need to raise over a million dollars for renovation? You see, the entire back half of the theatre was slowly cracking and slipping into the alley. They had to drill 150 feet to bedrock and affix steel poles to the back of the theatre that go down to the bedrock. Originally the Egyptian was a car garage and later converted to a theatre. They never really planned for the weight of the organ loft among other things.

Speaking of the organ loft... I got a personal tour of it, something they don't allow too often and not with just anybody because the instruments are so delicate they can be affected even by a hand touching them. I was told the entire organ had to be re-caliberated if someone even touched one of the pipes because he heat of the hand would mess it up. They have to keep the loft at a constant temperature even when the theatre is not open. And they keep buckets of water up there so that the air is not too dry. What I found so fascinating is, the "brain" of the organ that works with electro magnets is essentially a primitive computer using opening and closing circuits instead of 1's and 0's. Very few places use the original electronics for the "brain" anymore, most have gone digital the Egyptian is one of the few left, and still has its original Wurlitzer organ.

First, here is the mighty Wurlitzer which is still used by two organists for silent movies and between shows to entertain the crowd.

Once you go up an old twisting set of rickety stairs backstage, you will reach the locked door of the organ loft. Once inside one of the first things that greets you is the temperature gauge.

Then as you very carefully step forwards over jutting boards and pipes you can see the first view of the organ pipes. Its really an almost surreal object to gape at.

Looks like something out of Doctor Who, or Forbidden Planet. :wink:

These are some of the littlest guys...

And these are some of the big bruisers...

This is what they call the "toy shelf" it has all kinds of sound effect mechanisms for the organ. See those octagonal shaped things? When they go together they create the sound of horses hooves. There is also a fire siren and various other sound effects in there.

Now lets go back a bit in time on the tour. At the very beginning while I was getting things ready for my table inside, outside they were having the ribbon cutting ceremony which my dad took pics of. Being a theatre though, they cut film. :wink: I figured I didn't need to stick around for all the posturing and speeches and stuff so let dad handle that one. :wink:

This is a obelisk painting on the wall that showed during the main money drive how much had been raised for preserving the theatre.

They also had an antique car show in front of the theatre, mainly featuring cars from around the time of the theatre opening.

For the night time entertainment, on the first night we go to see "Sugar Daddies" one of the earliest Laurel and Hardy films before they became a duo, and "Tillie's Punctured Romance" an early Charlie Chaplin film where he plays a villian, both accompanied by the wonderful Mighty Wurlitzer.
The second night was one of my favorite movies: "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World!" which was the big night for the general public and they charged the same price for a ticket as they did in 1925: 25 cents. Now here is the thing about that "Mad" movie... it was intended for the Cinerama screen, a fad in the 50's where they had this huge curved screens that wrapped around an audience. The Egyptian does not have a Cinerama screen so what we saw was a version slightly chopped on the sides. Still a HUGE improvement over watching it on home video where its usually cropped even more eliminating some very important visual aspects to the story. Well... I was a naughty boy (ok not too naughty I didn't use a flash which would have been pointless anyways) I took a picture of the opening credits screen. It turned out blurry of course but I had to have it as some kind of weird finale to the whole journey. A journey that started out months and months ago with a small proposal to help with a place I dearly loved.

It is saved. It needs more TLC, which it will get from all the most wonderful volunteers ever, but it is saved. And that makes me so very happy.

Through these doors pass the most wonderful people, indeed. People who took time out of their busy lives to help save a historical treasure for future generations.

This has been super long. A love letter of great length to that marvelous palace of childhood inspiration. So I will save some of the other stuff we did along the coast till next time. Thanks for stopping by the tomb one last time, and remember to put your camels in their upright positions before exiting.

I have no idea why, but it posted twice. Hopefully this corrects it. Stop freaking out the scarabs by posting twice, TC.

[ Edited by: tigertail777 2014-06-27 00:52 ]

Tigertail, thanks for a fabulous tour of this historical theater. What a great story, I found it very interesting.