THE SUMMER…

The summer is here! Whoopee! Time for Summer Heat, Beaches, People allowing the sun to molest them, girls in scandalous dresses with dumps like a truck (truck), Thighs like what (what), all night long…let me see that– uh…off topic…ANYWAYS THE SUMMER IS HERE! WHOOOOOooooooOh right, that’s not a good thing for me  since my job at Harvard won’t need me in the summer time. Not getting paid = Shit. Well at least I still have the front of the house managing Improv Asylum job to keep me above water.

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SPEAKING OF IMPROV…

Having put improvising on the shelf allowed me extra time to focus on my art. No longer doing improv was a hard thing to do….wait…no, I mean not being able to perform with friends was a hard thing to do…the improv itself? Surprisingly not so hard to drop. I’m never sure if my performance was ever any good and I’m beginning to think I was alienating everyone with my constant “critique me!” attitude after each show. Plus, I’m extremely anxious on stage…especially if an audience member shouts out what everyone else might think is a simple English word to start a scene  and I wouldn’t have a damn clue what that word meant. I constantly question myself if I’m clever enough to work around that.

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SPEAKING OF LANGUAGE BARRIER…

So English is not my first language. When I see a words like… I don’t know… um… “UHAUL”….my thought process is to call it “yoo-hah-ool”. A pronunciation my sister called out when she saw one of their trucks for the first time. She was severely made fun of by our father and I laughed pretending I knew she was wrong. Which brings me to the Wacom Tablet or as I used to call it, the “Whack-um tablet.” I used to think that people giggled when I say it because the name sounded giggle-worthy, it wasn’t until someone who didn’t have a sense of humor corrected me, that’s when I realized that those people were giggling because I was saying “way-com” wrong. (Note: I’ve just been told that it is OK to call it “whack-um”…not sure if this is plot to make me look like an idiot again so I’ll stick to calling it “way-com”). Anyways, because of this little pronunciation embarrassment, I’ve decided to make the Wacom tablet my bitch.

I’ve trained it to work for me. Okay so it took hours to get used to, but eventually, after breaking that clicky thing on the side of the pen from frustration, I’ve become fairly good at using it.

The first time I used this tablet to finish an artwork was when I made this:

This was the cover for our Improv Graduation show program. All the people on here are stylized with a bit of exaggeration.  I’m the one with the square face, glasses, and Asian.  The first 4 people took 4-6 hours…. yes, that’s 240 to 360 minutes of curse words and head to the keyboard bashing drawing time. I needed to get used to the nature of free hand drawing on the Wacom. After those four, the others became easier and easier as I go. Me and Mr. Wacom came to an understanding; it would no longer continue drawing or erasing when the tip of the pen is NOT touching the tablet, and I won’t break anymore of its parts. The final product was shown to people days before the show and it was met with approval. So much so, that the Director of Operations at Improv Asylum commissioned me to do a portrait of the current Main stage cast in similar style.

I found myself vastly improving as I worked on the commissioned project. It was gradually becoming more realistic than the Grad show program cover. All in all the process went down pretty smoothly….OK not really. After I finished the drawing ready for the Improv Asylum grand re-opening, I was told that one cast member, who wasn’t in the cast when the drawing was commissioned, should have been included. Which, clearly…makes sense since it was about the “CURRENT” main stage cast…Oops! Luckily, we had the 12th anniversary party to celebrate a few days later. It bought me some time to finish the piece and it was unveiled on the night of the anniversary. It too was met with approval.

After this was finished, I was commissioned again to create a portrait in similar style. This time, as a father’s day present.

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SPEAKING OF FATHER’S DAY…

Anyone else notice how almost every year, more and more of your childhood friends are celebrating this day? It’s like the new thing to do or something…anyways, before I left for work on Father’s Day, I called my dad to wish him a happy one, only to be met with his stupid ass voice mail. So I decided to lamely facebook greet him instead. But I felt weird as hell doing that, so in an attempt to make it less weird, I made a quick drawing of him attached to the  greeting.

I was going for a gangster look, but my dad’s reply to this was, “I look like a very mean villain.” I didn’t want to tell him it was because of his villainous looking mustache. I feared  that he might shave it and I finally see where I got my looks from. *shivers* No, I don’t want that mustache to disappear.

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SPEAKING OF DISAPPEARING…

Richie Moriarty has left Improv Asylum’s main stage.  Besides having a badass last name, Richie was one of the first cast members who was genuinely nice to me when I first started working there. He is one extremely funny dude who made his craft look easy. Richie not being in Improv Asylum will take some getting used to.

On his last performance, Patty Barrett asked me to draw a picture of her and Richie in reference to Michelangelo’s God creating Adam painting on the Sistine Chapel. With Richie being Adam and Patty being God. Don’t really know the significance of this (Did Patty make Richie?) but I’ve been looking for an excuse to use that painting as a motif for anything. So I made this for her (for him):

And the entire cast and staff said their goodbyes to Richie. Had a few drinks, laughs, drinks, dance, drinks, hugs, drinks, dance, drinks…and so on until we beat the night.  I left Imrpov Asylum very very very early in the morning. I was looking to get a group together and get breakfast but everyone was either too exhausted, drunk, passed out or whatever to do anything. So I went on an adventure looking for any eatery place, besides Dunkin’ Donuts, that was open. Walked from the North End to Downtown Crossing and nothing was opened. I remembered there was a food court at South Station so I headed over there. The only thing opened was Mcdonalds…not even good Mcdonalds, but shitty breakfast only Mcdonalds. Too tired/drunk/hungover to continue searching  I ordered some “McFood” which I regretted instantly at first bite. Should’ve settled for Dunkin Donuts. Can’t find any great places to eat these days.

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SPEAKING OF GREAT PLACES TO EAT…

Norm Laviolette, the co-owner of Improv Asylum, brought some chips and a buffet of salsa with him one night at the theater. They were sample salsas for his up coming taqueria in Duxbury, MA. A project he and his business partners have been working on for quite some time now. I know this because he commissioned me to make a concept design of what the front of the restaurant and the logo would look like. The name of the establishment was to be “¡Yo Taco!” but was then changed to “Tootie’s Beach Burrito”

and the front of the place was to be Beach inspired. Having spent some time in Long Beach Island, NJ during my teens, I decided to use that area as inspiration.

I was later told that they needed to show no drastic modifications to the original building. So a second design was made.

Very close except for two things, one: those picnic tables need to go, and two, they’ve reverted back to calling it “¡Yo Taco!” So another logo was made:

And a final design was created:

And if the salsas I tasted was any indication of the quality of food this place will serve….I can’t wait to taste their tacos.

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SPEAKING OF THINGS YOU CAN’T WAIT FOR…

This is the end of the blog.