Ah! Today feels like autumn... finally! Unfortunately we're supposed to get another warm-up next week, but I slept oh so cozily last night with the chill in the air and the wind rustling through the trees outside. I hope to get out to a pumpkin patch very soon, and I'm earnestly seeking the perfect bowl of soup. And while Southern California does have a teensy bit of fall color (The photo here was taken last week in Costa Mesa.), I look forward to seeing (and feeling) some real autumn when I visit my bro and his family in St. Paul and a bunch of the friends in Chicago later this month. Yay autumn!!
This is the time of the year for reflection and reminiscing. I've spent a good majority of the morning scanning old artwork. As some of you may know, the illustration career was born of my tradition of drawing closing night gifts for each of the show families I've been a part of. I've drawn nearly every full production I've been in since 1993... around 50 pieces. (Wow, that was a long, awkward sentence.) So! I decided it would be wise to finally fill out my digital show sketch archive with the pieces I created before I got a scanner. It has been a fun, warm & fuzzy project. I've been looking back at folks I've worked with: colleagues that have become dear friends, friendships and marriages that have developed, friendships and marriages that have dissolved, friends who are no longer with us (well, in the flesh), and countless magical onstage and offstage moments. I've been laughing a lot, and there's been a lot of – empathizing with Truvy's favorite emotion in Steel Magnolias – laughter through tears. I feel blessed to be an actor in the theatre as well as an illustrator and documentarian.
Here's one piece of the many classic Squigs pieces I've gandered at this morning. This is the Moonlight Amphitheatre's 1999 production of Carousel. So many in the show are such close friends now: Bets Malone and Steve Glaudini, Eric Anderson, Ralph Johnson, Erin Granahan way up there in the back, and so many more wonderful folks. And as I was reminded of just a couple years ago, a future megacelebrity. If you look just to the left of me (I'm the one with the goatee, boater, and pipe.) you'll see a young Vanessa Hudgens (of High School Musical fame) who played mine and Bets' youngest child. It made me feel a bit old, but my niece really appreciated it. The sketch itself was inspired loosely by the amazing work of Lincoln Center artist James McMullan who created the 1994 Broadway revival poster. I usually prefer my more recent work and still feel that my next piece is always my best piece, but I really dig this one for many reasons. Side note: I just remembered that I played a little bit with unique textures in this piece. Eric (the largest figure in the piece – down center) or rather his vest is shaded by spattering ink through a bit of window screen. Ah, illustration experimentation!
So that's more than I anticipated writing, but there you go. I'm heading back to the drawing board now. Happy autumn, all! Peace and love.
