and then there’s this

You can see some of my many artful pursuits here. But here is a snapshot of things I am up to.

I paint everything. Boots, light switches, stairs, planters, clothing, wedding signs, storefronts, garbage cans, murals, illustrations…whatever surface calls me.

All the world’s a stage. So my team and I make interactive, immersive sets, that are also bars, at festivals. For Philadelphia Summer Festival (PEX), we created “Pexas.” My role is creative director and I design the graphics and signs, as well as being in charge of decor, aesthetics and staging concepts. For “Pexas,” we re-fashioned a cabin into an 1880’s saloon stage set in an old west town. Guests had to mine for gold nuggets outside in Sassi’s shaft. Three gold nuggets got you a shot of whiskey. Once in the saloon, there was a piano player, a gal playing the saw, and a gambling table and the bar. Our actors, dressed in 1880’s costumes, re-enacted bar fights and shoot outs and invited all old time sing alongs. We even created a song we could all gather around and sing called “Ramblewood Saloon.” “Wanted signs” were placed all over the festival grounds claiming reward for the capture of the festival’s organizers. Click on first thumbnail to see more.

Acting again as creative director at PEX, we converted a giant old barn into a fictional, once-part-of-old-Russia, country called “Pexikstan.” Guests had their papers checked outside at Border Control, where they were slipped a piece of microfiche and told to get it across the Trans-Siberian Pass. The guests would later learn that the microfiche is also a free drink pass. Once in the barn, they passed through the mind-washing room, to get re-programmed to “participate in The Party” via giant projections, propaganda posters and a mind-washing LED chair. Then they passed through the massive red curtains and golden eagle-emblazened archway into Red Square. With enough bribery they could make it into The Samovar, an elite tea room with hibiscus vodka drinks. Here they could sit above the crowd and watch the aerialists dangle dangerously from the barn rafters. Or visit a fortune teller. Or sing our national anthem which was projected in the mist every half hour, along with a choreographed dance. The final stop was the Trans-Siberian pass, a bridge that led out the side of the barn and into a well-hidden, blue velvet and gold decorated freezer truck (nicely cold!). For one piece of microfiche, guests imbibed Leninade (lemon vodka) or Red Scare (a mini bloody mary). Click on first thumbnail to see more.