despite the practical self...

I have a tendency from time to time to buy objects that most likely won't serve much purpose in my life outside of being beautiful. This weekend I found a few little treasures that fit that category. As I was standing in the shop holding them, a tug of war between my practical self and my treasure hunter self went on in my head:

practical self: "this is just stuff. stuff that will accumulate and take up space. you don't need it. why are you considering this?"

treasure hunter self: "treasure!"

practical self: "how and when are you going to use these?"

treasure hunter self: "pretty!"

... and on.

This time, my treasure hunter self won out, with it's thorough, compelling, irrefutable arguments. So, for $16, I got this bell, letter opener and pin. I also found eggshell peacock feathers at another spot and splurged $6 on a pair. To me their lovely and I think that sometimes (as absurd and legitimate as the tug of war is) that's all the reason you need.

This last one was free! I found it on my walk on Sunday morning.

going for a little bit of pop...

For this year's set and costume designs for The Original Show, I was given the task of creating a work of art on stage that begins in a nearly colorless state and gradually transforms with pops of it as the show develops. Actually, this was just the beginning of the list of criteria that went into this design, and I found myself vacillating between multiple ideas for a while, trying to find the one that best fit the hopes of the director.

The one I ended up going with was this Roy Lichtenstein inspired design. I really liked doing something playful and vivid like this and I think it will work well with the vibe of the show. The central wall is made up of 6 units - each one with three sides. Each side is painted differently, so the units can be spun around to bring in the pops of color. This stage has red curtains, so I tied those into the design, by painting a continuation of the curtains onto the walls in order to bring them into the work of art. The cast will start out in black, and start changing into a more colorful wardrobe (below) as their characters develop.

The title of the show this year, "It's so... original!" came from my word bubble on the right. :)