Bill Carman at the Basement Gallery

This is my rendering of Bill Carman's picture, "Oh crap, sorry," which was hanging at the Basement Gallery. He's been a longtime favorite at the Basement, so it's nice to see the new owners haven't changed that. I love this little narwhal-headed guy.

2010 Idaho Triennial at BAM

I went to the Boise Art Museum last weekend and sketched a few pieces by Idaho artists for the 2010 Idaho Triennial. This is "Delusions" by Matt Bodett. I like the horrific, detailed mouth on the figure on the right compared to how rough everything else is.


And this is a partial rendition of "Snorkels with Floating Prison" by Garth Claassen, one of my art professors at College of Idaho. I think he'd be pleased that I'm still sketching in galleries.

Ego and Kelly Packer

This exhibit actually just closed at the Basement Gallery. I came in Friday afternoon, the second-to-last day of the exhibit. But I wanted to post these anyhow. Above is A Comparative Reading of the Past by Kelly Packer. I liked the blocky shapes in the background and especially along the spine.


This is Forgotten Monarch by an artist called Ego. I like the kind of ancient, but not deadened look to him.

Noises Off (quick and dirty)

I saw Noises Off at Stage Coach Theatre opening night, and it's very funny. Great cast, great set, great comic timing. It continues Sept. 9-12 and 16-18.

Metapost -- No more formal theater reviews (for now)

When I started this blog, I was unemployed. I had no prospects and a lot of free time. Today, I'm going to school full-time for a computer science degree and working part-time at a software company I really like. I'm taking 300- and 400-level classes, so my homework load is getting bigger and more challenging. This summer I had a full-time internship and a part-time job, and I never said word one on this blog about the show I was directing at the time. My life has gotten much more complex, and I need to scale back some of the ancillary things I'm doing. Theater reviews is one of them.

I might still post my reactions to shows on this blog, but when I do, it's going to be quick and dirty. Like a couple sentences. I'll be posting one of those shortly.

I still enjoy doing the sketching, and I'll keep posting drawings I make of other artists' work in Boise galleries. I may even try to do that more often. I'll be posting one of those Monday morning.

If you see value in formal, long-form theater reviews and would like the chance to do them, let me know in the comments. I could make you an admin for this blog. And if you miss the lists of upcoming shows, check out the link to Larry Dennis' site "Theater in the Boise Valley" in the left column.

Robots: Evolution of a Cultural Icon

Oh boy oh boy oh boy robots and art! Two of my favorite things! I've been telling myself since I saw this exhibit was coming to BAM that I had to see it. I finally saw it a couple weeks ago, and it actually lived up to my grand expectations for it. Lots of cool fine art and multimedia stuff, plus some actual robots from local FIRST Robotics Competition teams. This is a sketch of part of Michael Mew's "Robot 4," and it actually combines three of my favorite things: art, robots and comic book characters. I recognized the guy on the right as a Marvel superhero from the Avengers who was married to Scarlet Witch. (Apparently his name is The Vision. Thank you, Wikipedia.)

This exhibit closes on Sunday, May 16, so if you like robots and art as much as I do and you haven't seen it yet, you'd better high-tail it down to Boise Art Museum.

Panache

Stage Coach Theatre's production of Panache is an inventive, heartwarming romantic comedy between two unlikely characters: socialite Kathleen Trafalgar and Brooklyn diner cook and artist Harry Baldwin.

The show was filled with fantastic performances. Jodi Nelson Deerfield was delightful as the perfectly polished Kathleen and brought a lot of humor through her poor attempts to relate to the lower classes by talking about the time she roughed it at a Holiday Inn. Randy Lord did an excellent job portraying Harry as he tries and sometimes fails to wrestle his inner demons and come to grips with the losses in his life. The two achieve a real believable romantic connection onstage. Liam Tain was very funny as Jumbo Dombroski. Bradley Campbell had an infectious enthusiasm as Irwin Alcott, an old college friend Harry set up on a date. And Robina Bant was sweet as Laura Baldwin.

The show has excellent acting a great script -- not at all a cliche romantic comedy. It closes this weekend, but if you see it, you're in for a treat.