Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

I had such a lovely day yesterday. It all started in the morning when I was reading my emails, I had commented on a blogging friends site about her wonderful drawings, and I received a lovely email in return. This email made me start thinking, although I have made collages and applique and sewn items, I haven't seriously drawn since I left art college. When I was designing theatrical costumes, of course, I drew the designs but over the years I seem to have convinced myself that I wouldn't be good enough to draw anymore. LIke a bolt of lightning I suddenly realised, it didn't have to be wonderful right away, I should just let go and do it. I did everything I had to do in the morning in a sort of mad fever and finally sat down in the afternoon and made myself put something down on a sheet of paper. Once I had made a couple of marks on the sheet, and remembered to let go of my breath and breathe again, there was no stopping me. I finished a drawing using felt tips and watercolour pencils. The drawing represents what I hope to achieve by going back to pens and paper. I know it's not fantastic, but I felt I just had to post it as I feel I have overcome some sort of mind barrier that I had put up. Oh, and by the way, of course, I had to add a sprinkling of glitter to it. It was a perfect afternoon, sitting totally absorbed in my work, Joni Mitchell blaring away on the stereo.



After I had finished my drawing, I started sorting out one of the many boxes of photographs, clippings, articles, old theatre programme and art gallery catalogues, that I am determined to organise. I came across some photographs of a couple of the many theatrical costumes and scenery designs I had made. The productions were all amateur productions, but very interesting ones. The first three photographs are from a production of Alice, which was a ballet combining elements of Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the Looking Glass with interludes of the life of Victorian Children. The characters from Alice all wore lyrca catsuits on which I actually painted on the costume, such as a tailcoat for the mad hatter. This was to make everything look like comic book illustrations, I designed all the scenery to be made out of cardboard that was painted. The photograph on the left shows Humpty Dumpty sitting on his wall, the white catsuit was stuffed at the back and front to make it egg-like.


This photograph of the Mad Hatter shows what I mean about painted costumes, they are bit like those joke tee-shirts that were round a few years ago that had evening jackets and bow ties printed on them. These costumes contrasted with the scenes set in a park where the Victorian people wore ballet styled traditional Victorian Clothes which were to show the difference between reality and the fantasy Alice scenes. The best fun was designing the caterpillar's costume. The ensemble dancers wore red or white cat suits with tabards over with applique card signs on to portray the playing cards, with little red or white pillbox hats on their heads. Therefore, they just had to remove their tabards to become chess pieces. The last photograph from this production shows Tweedledum and Tweedledee and they wore padding underneath their catsuits so they look extremely plump when they turned sideways. The costumes for this show were a marathon undertaking, as I had to design and make all of them. It kept me occupied for weeks.



The other two photographs I am posting are from a production that was based on Longfellow's poem Hiawatha. This production was a mixture of dance and drama. Once again I designed the costumes and all the scenery. Although the scenery was quite minimal, mainly hangings that divided the stage into areas and two totem poles, one each side of the stage. I made the hangings by painting Native American Imagery straight onto canvas and these were hung up around the stage. An important part of the production was a long dance sequence with the dancers wearing masks. I made the masks and here is a row of some of them waiting for the glue to set and the paint to dry. I also costumed a contemporary version of the Jungle Book, musicals such as The King and I and Oliver and many other dance productions. Looking back now, I wonder how on earth I managed all that work, I remember how fraught everything was as the time for the production drew nearer and the last few days you were almost working twenty-four a day.
I did love the work and the buzz researching and finding inspiration for the costume and scenery designs, but when money gets tight in the Arts, groups find it more and more difficult to put big productions on because of the finance it requires, and tend to not be able to afford to have productions that need difficult costumes, plus, of course, costumes are then reused, or there is a trend for simplicity or a tendency to try to keep to present day settings. I think I could only ever get involved in something large scale again, if I just designed the costumes, and picked the material, but after that there would have to be the finance for people to sew the costumes for me. I am glad I have experienced making theatrical costumes, because it all adds to the rich tapestry of life.


I hope I haven't rambled on too long in the above post, but I do tend to get carried away when I talk about costume designing and making. I am also so pleased that I have lost my drawing inhibitions after all these years.