Back in 2011… I created a painting for Advertising Week on commission. The work ran as full-page ads in Ad Age, Ad Week, Bloomberg’s Business Week and was animated for play in the back of NYC Taxi’s. During that whirlwind week… Lord Matthew Scheckner, Global CEO of Stillwell Partners, rolled out the red carpet.
We spent an evening with Daniel Lamarre, CEO of Cirque du Soleil (I took notes); attended countless cocktail affairs, and sat front row to witness Cirque’s Zarkana at Radio City Music Hall.
On our way in… I looked up, and snapped this picture… one I would paint nine years later, living in Idaho. Of course, when I kicked-off this 60″X60″X1.5″ Acrylic on Belgian Linen canvas on January 21, 2020… I had no idea what the world would look like on May 5, 2020… when it was completed.
Here is a super-condensed, 26-second time lapse of the process. These larger paintings are challenging to film. Huge thank you to Aaron Davis for the amazing soundtrack… check him out here.
And now to the paint! Per usual, I kicked things off with the underpainting… I went with the traditional cadmium red, with one notable departure… a brown mixed with pthalo blue green shade (I typically go orange). From there, I began drawing the massive cursive letters of “Music Hall”.
On a 25-square-foot canvas, it can take two weeks to paint a sky. Now, I love me a good gradient, but it takes some serious patience to roll with 10 days of nothing but blue.
But… but! Then I get to add more letters, and bust out the first neons… along with some window shadows… and suddenly? Everything seems right with the world.
Every inch of brown on this canvas was mixed from red and blue. The idea was to embrace the primary triad (red, yellow, blue) to create visual cohesion.
Honestly, I thought those little windows in the building were tough… that was, until, I go to the blue, arching neon bands. These babies took me three weeks! Again, I know this sounds like complaining… but really, it’s a visual illustration of my Virgo tendencies.
Here I am, in my finest jammies, promoting the painting for a beautiful write-up by Julia Tellman in the Teton Valley News… about my live streaming parties. Throughout the course of this painting, I was on Facebook daily, streaming, allowing folks to watch paint dry, while they peppered me with questions.
Over the years, I’ve learned to lean into the less ‘active’ elements of the composition, and treat them as if they were prestige points… so, the red gradient to the right of the tall “Radio City” sign gets the same love as “Cirque”. While it does add hours to the journey, the destination is far more exciting.
There I am, embracing The Dude (I am, after all, an ordained Dudeist Minister), sipping a Pako’s IPA (6.8%, natch), rocking a goofy smile. I include these photos of yours truly for scale. You see, I’m only two inches shorter than Shaq.
When I got here, I knew the journey’s end was nigh. Now, it was about finishing the neon elements, adding some details, cleaning up the strokes. Oh yes… and how about some helpful 411? Radio City Music Hall was completed in 1932 as part of the larger development of Rockefeller Center. It was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone and interior designer Donald Deskey in the Art Deco style, with Samuel Lionel Rothafel, or “Roxy,” a leading expert on movie palaces, as a primary advisor.
Fin! Excluding my 264-square-foot mural in downtown Victor, Idaho — this is my largest neon to-date (certainly, the largest on canvas). Thank you to everyone who joined me along the way… your support, even virtually, meant the world. Here’s counting down the days and minutes until I can enter this vaunted treasure once again to catch a memorizing show in the great city of Manhattan.
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