Nearly Featured Artwork!

Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler's fabulous Shelter Island pad is featured in this month's Architectural Digest. If you hold your head at a certain angle, and squint your eyes, you can see a painting of mine way, way, in the background. There it is! Way back there. The blue pirate! yay! Thanks, Jonathan and Simon!

Look Book

Sometimes the hardest part of my work is having to wait. Great projects have to be Top Secret for what seems like a long time. We can't post photos, or show anything to the world until they are ready to publish. And it can seem like a long long wait.

 A few months ago, I worked on a great project with David Sicotte. It was a giant re-branding of a company called District Clothing by the Creature agency.  We worked with the dynamic duo of Juco, who took awesome photos. And we painted, and built, and carved, and cut and pasted, and found; and made sets and props and all kinds of great stuff. It was a really fun crew and a great shoot. Carrie worked on it with us, too. Here are some photos from the set, and a link to the final product.  

Red Carpet SIFF Opening

'Your Sister's Sister' was the opening film of this year's Seattle International Film Festival. It was screened at McCaw Hall to a crowd of three thousand people. Here we are on the red carpet, before the screening. 

Movie Update

'Your Sister's Sister' is going to be the Opening Night featured film in the Seattle International Film Festival, on May 17. It will also be featured in the Tribeca Film Festival in April. It opens nationwide in the summer. Make sure you see it!

MINI GOLF

Another fun gig, and fun shot by Michael Clinard for Mental Floss. Always good to work with Michael.

UNPOPPABLE

Here'a a great shot by Michael Clinard for "Mental Floss". It's the kind of assignment I love: "I need a balloon full of darts, but not popped". Michael is a great photographer, with a fun sensibility. And he's got a really cute new baby.

The Building Blocks of Life

Here's a shot by David Clugston for Deloitte Review. It features my young friend Holden, in his modeling debut. I included a picture of the blocks in process, and one of the final image. It was a good concept and a fun gig.

My Modeling Career

My modeling career lasted one day. The evidence is above. Here's the story: I work with the photographer David Clugston (check out his work davidclugston.com) making props and styling. He needed someone to stand in for an article for Deloitte Review, on the same day we were shooting another shot. The rest is History. Or it would be if you define History very, very broadly.

DRAWING ROOM

Here's a shot that we did for Nordstrom. I drew it flat to the floor, and Deb Farley styled it. Alison Katica Blomgren was the shooter.

TIFFANY & CO

I am now installing the window displays at Tiffany&Co. here in the Northwest. They do beautiful work, and it's great to be involved with such a historic company, with such a tradition of beautiful windows. Watch those windows!

OUTSIDE THE BOX

I recently was given the task of making a giant flower from a (giant) cardboard box, for a magazine photo illustration. The gag was a play on the idea of 'thinking outside of the box'. Here are 'before', 'during', and 'after' photos.

MAP

Worked on an infomercial with Kaleo Quenzer recently. Part of the gig was to 'colorize' a large printed map. By 'large', I mean like fifty feet long! It was fun to work with him on the project, and we all took pictures of ourselves on the big map.

BUTTON-HEAD ANTELOPE

Carrie and I collaborated on this button-covered antelope head. I carved the head out of foam and added the 'antlers'. Carrie directed Petra's 5th grade class in covering the head with hundreds and hundreds of buttons. It was donated to the school auction. I loved that thing, and wish we still had it.

SPACESHIP

Carrie and I worked together on this spaceship set for TMobile. The whole thing is made of 1/4" foam core. The details show that the command desk is made up of old keyboards, light switches, calculators, a thermostat -- even a Battleship board!

BIG NEWS!

Lynn Shelton's film, 'Your Sister's Sister', for which I was Production Designer, will premier at this year's Toronto International Film Festival on September 10. This was the film that we shot in the San Juan Islands last fall. Stars Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Mark Duplass. Ben Kasulke is the cinematographer. Great director, great cast, great crew, great time. Good luck in Toronto!!

LOTTO CATS

There's a new bus and billboard ad for the Washington Lottery, on the theme of 'what would you do if you won?'. This lucky winner would make a cat park. I got to make the Cat Climbing Structure (complete with hammock, wind chimes, tree, pinwheels, etc), signs, and other crazy cat-person accoutrements. Jose Mandojana was the photographer.

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft makes a thing called the Surface, which is like a table-sized tablet computer. The touch screen display can be either flat or hang on a wall, like a tv. I designed and made the set for the little studio where they film demonstrations. Kennan Muzzy designed the lighting, which looks really cool through the translucent wall.

Kathryn Barnard Shoot

Here are some sets I made for Kathryn Barnard, for a BabyLegs shoot. They were all in-studio freestanding sets, usually just as wide as the shot you see. There's one of the Beach House, which shows the edge. Carrie Stacey was the prop stylist. It's always fun when we can work on a gig together.

In the Clouds

Recently, I made a video set at Microsoft Studios. It was a discussion in an executive office, about 'the Cloud'. Kaleo helped me put this one together. I love those Brno Chairs.

Armstrong Studios

I had the chance, not long ago, to make a couple of sets at Armstrong Studios for a Starbucks project. Scott Pitts was the shooter, and he sent me a couple of shots from the day. It was a fun project (and it gave me a chance to express my love of fake brick).

Bing Shoot

The Wall Street Journal got photographer Gregg Segal (he's a big deal - look him up) to shoot a portrait of Blaise Aguera y Arcas (ditto). He was the main architect behind the Bing Maps. In a small hotel conference room, across the street from Blaise's office, I made a map-filled set, where he was photographed climbing through the window, looking thoughtful, etc. Gregg took a couple of shots with me on the set as a stand-in.

My Tejon Adventure

More pictures from the Tejon Ranch shoot. Including a Gilligan's Island raft that I got to make. (I've always wanted to make one of those!)

It was a big production. We were creating an African Savanna in the California high desert. With zebras, and a giraffe, Land Rovers and motorcycles. Donovan almost stepped on a rattlesnake. It was a beautiful place to be, and I worked with a talented and interesting crew. Some really great people were on that shoot. (and the wrap party was the most fun Karaoke night ever!)

More Tejon Ranch

Here are a few more pictures of the finished Hut from the Eddie Bauer shoot at Tejon Ranch. Lauren Shields was the (amazing) Prop Stylist.

Rancho Tejon

This summer, I had the chance to go on a great shoot for Eddie Bauer. I got to spend a couple of weeks with a terrific crew in Tejon, California. It's in the high desert between LA and Bakersfield. In the middle of a cattle ranch, in the middle of nowhere, in 104-degree heat, with a howling blow-dryer wind -- we built a 16' x 16' free-standing 'African Savanna' lodge. With a thatched roof! We got the peeled poles delivered from Geronimo Pole in Northern California. It was daunting, to say the least. The nearest hardware store was an hour away. Donovan, Rafael, Ruffino and I built the thing in three days. Here's a picture of the three of them, just after we'd raised the framework for the roof.

Catalog shot

This shows how the set I described below is used in a catalog photograph. A deck, a little fake snow... you're there.

Seattle's Best Coffee

Did a funny job for Brad Lenz, on a video that went along with the rebranding of Seattle's Best Coffee. The SBC folks were 'taking over the Starbucks building' to announce the new look. It was fun to work on the roof of the Starbucks building. (Including up in the tower). I was roped into helping in front of the camera, too. In the video, that's me on the left side of the screen, in the van.

FAKE ROCK WALL 2

Here's where it ended up. It was a fake stone and (real) barnwood wall that I was trying to match from a location shoot.

FAKE ROCK WALL

Here are a few pictures of a fake rock wall that I recently made for a photo client. It all starts with pink foam.

Studio N

I have neglected to keep up on the blog. So, here, after long delay, are some photos of jobs that I've worked on in the past six months.

Here's a photo of me working for Nordstrom, with the good people at Studio N.