Red Willow Vineyards

I had a great day painting at the Red Willow Vineyards, in the Yakima Valley. I am working on a big painting for Bennett's Bistro, on Mercer Island, and wanted to get out there to make some studies. I met Mike Sauer, who let me run around and set up my easel on his hillsides.  Mike has been on this land for years -- he was one of the first grape growers in the Yakima Valley. He took the great photos on Red Willow's website. The little chapel on the hill was built from rocks cleared from the land, and has become a real local landmark.  Mike sent me home with a nice bottle of wine from his vines, and I left him with a souvenir painting (the one on the easel), a picture of his chapel. It was a great way to spend a beautiful fall day. 

Nordstrom Shoe Catalog

Nordstrom asked me to do the sets for their shoe catalog. I made a bunch of backdrops, some flats, some on fabric. Kevin Zeigler did the Art Direction, and Gary Martino did the styling on this beautiful shoot.

World Famous Nordstrom video

I recently Art Directed another project with World Famous. This was a shoot for Nordstrom's website. Tony Fulgham directed, and Ryan McMackin was the shooter (that's him in the shot above). I made the set. Oscar Lofgren helped me. It was supposed to be a loft, with a wood floor, with 20 feet of wall, part finished, part exposed brick.  We had two days of shooting on the loft set.  I particularly like the way the big metal rolling door (on the left side) turned out. It was made of foam, contact paper, tape and roofing nails, and weighed a couple of pounds, but it looked like it weighed a ton.

I'll attach a link to the final product when I get it.

Anchor

I was asked by The Workshop to make a ship's anchor, as a prop for a TV commercial. It was supposed to look heavy, rusting and old.  It's made from pink foam and paint. 

The Tall Ships were coming to Tacoma, and people were getting in the spirit. 

Xbox 360 Video

Recently, I Art Directed an Xbox 360 marketing video for World Famous productions. The shot used the 'Cinemonster', which made a single moving shot, over and over again. The gag was that the TV screen stays in the same place, while the room switches out around it. Oscar Lofgren and Kaleo Quinzer worked with me in the art department, and over two very busy days we put together 32 different backgrounds. The Pause button comes in handy when watching this one.  Most of what we did flies by in the first ten seconds. If you look quickly, you can see me writing on the chalkboard.

Wall Street Journal Asia - Singapore Map

I recently did another map for the Wall Street Journal Asia. It was for a story about Singapore hotels with art collections.  I like doing these maps -- distilling a lot of information into a format that is easily understood, and hopefully, fun.