Apr 18, 2025
i'm missing too many good shows (instagram)
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Oman
seen from Netherlands
seen from Netherlands
seen from China
seen from Netherlands
seen from United Kingdom
seen from South Africa
seen from Ukraine
seen from Vietnam
seen from Sweden
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Russia
seen from Brazil
seen from United Kingdom
i'm missing too many good shows (instagram)
Day 20: The End
So it was the last day here at Cobalt. I haven't actually left yet but we leave some time around noonish tomorrow and people leave before then so in actuality - it was our last full day here as a group. It was actually a really great day
I got to the studio maybe a half an hour early because I knew there was some stuff I needed to do before i flipped my translucency over (cuz you paint stuff on the back so it shows up on the front with back light - pictures will come shortly.) And I was working from the time I got there to the time we had to put brushes/ sprayers down (minus dry time of course). It was intense. Everyone was working so crazy hard and everyones looked so amazing. Its incredible what you can get done in two days. and the time just flies by
Then it was the light show. Its really interesting when you are painting the backside of the drop you have absolutely no idea what its going to look like so you just hope its dark enough you hope its not going to seep through to the front but you really dont know until you shine a light through it. what you are going to get. And honestly all of them looked fantastic. Some of them could have maybe had something tweaked here and there but they all worked and looked great.
Its really nerve wracking watching your drop get hung and you hope to god that it works the way you want it to. And honestly as someone who is studying both lighting design and scenic painting its awesome to have the two of them play together in such a wonderful way like that. The lighting designer is the scenic artists friend. They can make a blue sky bluer and they can get rid of wrinkles with the proper set up. And scenic designers are also your friend - ask questions to ensure the product you create is in fact the product they want. I probably asked a few too many along the way but I am still learning- its a class not a profession yet.
Tonight was our last dinner as a group and we had Gumbo. It was so good. There was a vegetarian version with mushrooms and beans instead of sausage. Served over rice and with a wild rice salad and a corn casserole. SOO good. AND THEN we had Beignets. great food. good way to send us all out.
We had a repeat of the firefly catching session because one of us missed the original hunt and hadn't experienced them ever before so we had to do it before she left for california. It was awesome still. The bugs were so frantically flashing - very unlike the first time. It was incredible.
And once we had our fill of firefly catching we all sat around in a circle and talked together. it was really nice. We hadn't all done that before just every one of us sitting in a circle just talking about anything. and slowly we dispersed and went to bed - but before any of us could make it to bed we met and had a farewell session for everyone leaving in the morning. we all hugged and said goodbye.
Its weird. I mean its the camp feeling. you are around these people for 24 hours 7 days a week (ish) and you all have common interests in the first place because you all ended up where you are and all of a sudden you become a really tight knit group of people. You know how each other function and their little quirks and their sense of humor and stuff and then all of a sudden its over. I know that probably a few of them will not actually be a huge part of my life in the future (if at all) but they were my entire world while being here - like literally there's not a whole lot up here.
Whether its spending THE ENTIRE day inside a mall to taking a trip to NYC to watch the tonys and almost missing the train or Cooking dinner once a week or Going to the trout parade or getting a tour of the local distillery or getting lost in the middle of nowhere new york looking for gas or staying up until 2 am singing show tunes and trying to finish a drop that needs to be done tomorrow - the adventures I've had within this short span of time are more than I could imagine possible. I honestly don't think i've had more stories or crazy experiences in all my life. I have nothing but stories about this place. And absolutely nothing bad to say about any of it.
it has easily been the greatest solid three weeks in my life. Whatever else happens this summer June takes the cake.
ps i'll go back to my regular blogging procedure after this unless something truly exciting or note worthy happens or you guys actually like me spewing my thoughts and days activities at you but yeah thats a thing
Day 19 : another long day
So We worked on translucencies today. All day. Nothing but translucencies. Everyone's looks so good. I was happy with mine until i started painting the mountains which i think look like crap but i'll see in the morning i've been looking at it for too long.
Other than that I helped cook dinner. nothing particularly exciting happened other wise... so short update for today
tomorrow is our last day. I'm excited to see how they all come out.
for now good night
Day 18: Translucencies
I've been to tired to come up with witty titles. not that they were witty in the first place but now i'm not even trying.
Today we started a new project and a new topic. Translucencies. They're probably the coolest thing a Scenic Painter can do. Its basically a drop that when backlit changes images or colors or adds or removes things. Its really fucking cool.
You have to be really careful how you paint it though because the paint has to be opaque enough that you can't see whats behind it but also translucent enough that when light is shown from behind it looks like the appropriate color.
There is no one way to do this though it all depends on the image how much needs to be opaque and all that. so i'm not going to go into much detail about it because i'm still really trying to figure it out.
we had pizza for dinner and we didn't get to eat it until like 9 because the dough was all home made but boy was it worth the wait it was so tasty.
On my way back to the studio to continue painting i the back of my ankle open on the door. I mean it was really dark and i have to walk through some pretty dense trees to get there and i got wigged out and tried to snake into the door but the door was faster and bit me.
But other than that not a whole lot going on. I feel the days slipping away from me. I only have two days left here (gosh it sounds like i'm dying) but i've had a great three weeks and i've learned so much and made good friends i would not have changed it for the world.
Day 17: Journey.
So today was a thrilling day from start to finish. Maybe thats building it up too much but i had a great day.
We started the day off working on our projects. I added a couple more coats to the sky and masked some of it. Then did the sun in this brilliant red. And finally the birds where I just uncovered some of the bird to spray in the darker feathers. I actually ended up using a sharpie for some of the detailing. i didn't quite finish but that s what tomorrow is for.
We pretty much raced (literally) to starch the new fabric for the translucencies and then bolted inside to eat our crock pot dinner of apple and parsnips soup and ratatouille.
We were all in such a hurry because WE WERE SEEING JOURNEY AT WOODSTOCK
It was magical. The fields. The incredible crowds of people. the music. It was all great.
But what was the most crazy was maybe about ten minutes after we were sitting waiting for the music to start an older couple asks if my friend and I had come together we answer yes and he pulls out two tickets to sit under the pavilion - row V. These are 100 dollar tickets - we paid like thirty-five for lawn seats. So of course we took them.
The seats were fantastic with and excellent view of the stage. You could even see the spot ops up on their ledge which was pretty neat.
however we had left the other eight members of our party standing in the wind. So we got a snack and went back to them and eventually handed the two tickets off to other people in the group who were less interested in sticking with the group.
The music was great. I did not know that they replaced the lead singer of the band however I would not have been able to tell if I couldn't see his face. I danced and sang all night which is all I ever want to do.
It was a great concert. And It was made even better just thinking about where I was listening to the music. The lead guitarist even played the star spangled banner like Jimi Hendrix did at woodstock 45 years ago.
a beautiful night and now i need to get some sleep
Day 16: you want me to paint What on That?
The title of the day is the title of the project we started today so its not original in the slightest.
We had a slow start this morning. We apparently are a slow group. not in terms of grasping concepts but in terms of the actual speed at which we work. we were supposed to be done with the marble on friday but we werent we only finished today. and so we had to clean up and so what was supposed to start at 10 started closer to 11 and everything was pushed back. - which explains a little of why i was in the studio (not alone) until midnight.
We did foliage today. ya know trees. Its a lot less exciting to be honest than it sounds. but its a necessary skill to be able to do trees for landscapes and such. In landscapes you always work back to front. it sounds obvious but generally people want to work on the big stuff like the mountain or the house or the tree with the leaves right in your face - but then you have to mask it to put in the sky or clouds or the far away misty mountains. to put in the sky we used water mixed with some pale blue. Then over that we added in the trees we used the 4" lay in brush and first you scumble in the base coat in and once thats in you stab at it rotating the brush and clumping colors together to avoid patterns or something called wallpapering. to create an atmospheric effect on one tree we sprayed the sky color back over the tree.
to create leaves hanging right in your face as if you were standing under the tree- you start with the large branches. paint them in as a silhouette in a dark green. then with a texture roller that looks like the proper leaves roll over the branches and the particularly dense areas as indicated on the rendering - make sure you protect your sky. once paint is down it doesn't come up - you can always add more. keep adding leaves as necessary until it looks like the rendering making sure to dance the roller and to avoid making the surface look too even (wallpapering again)
Then we were given our you want me to paint WHAT on THAT? assignments. basically each student is given a beautiful rendering and a strange sort of fabric going from a scrim to silk to cotton batting (like for quilts) and they have to recreate the rendering on it... it sounds as crazy as it is. I was given the silk one. Its a beautiful picture of a golden sky with a red setting sun over the ocean and two cranes flying. Its beautiful. Well it took me literally all day to get everything ready before i could even start painting. the fabric is finicky although it dries super fast you can't put too much on it at once or it just goes right through it and looks awful. i had to iron it (the only one that did) because i couldn't size my fabric. the staples pull the fabric funny and I had to create a pounce in order to keep my birds perfectly white. it took me a long time. but the painting part seems fairly simple now i just have to do it... around 10 o clock tonight i finally put the first spray. took me long enough.
I left around 12:30 and then cut some vegetables for our crockpot meal because TOMORROW WE SEE JOURNEY!
so excited. can't wait.
PS at dinner we had tiramasu for desert . OH MY GOD. It was absolutely fabulous. Like I have never had tiramasu so good. I had immediate seconds. It was creamy and soaked in khalua. so good.
Day 15: Woodstock and Dragons
I realize that the title of the day makes it sound like I saw Imagine Dragons at Woodstock and as that would be freaking amazing I have to disappoint. Instead i went to a museum and saw how to train your dragon 2... Today was a little slow but that doesn't stop it from being great up here. Everyday is an adventure.
We started off the day by going to visit the Woodstock museum devoted to anything and all things 1960s america. It covered Kennedy and the Draft and Culture and Counter culture but most importantly the three days of peace and music. There were awesome movies (with awesome lighting) that covered the fans and the music of the place. It was really neat. It was rather small though. I wish there could have been more but I don't know what else they would have put in the exhibit.
I bought a shirt which is really important. it has the original logo from the festival on it.
Then we went out to the actual field where thousands of people gathered to listen to music. We didn't see the stage or anything like that but we're fairly sure we saw the farm house of the guy who owned the property all those years ago which is pretty awesome.
We stopped for some ice cream at Kevins candy cone and it was one of the best ice cream sundays i ever had - very generous with their toppings.
I moped around the house for a little after that and finally convinced a couple of girls to come and see How to Train Your Dragon 2 tonight. It was amazing. I am a very emotional movie watcher so me and one of the girls were super into it and reacting and i actually cried and the other girl just was laughing at us. She was my friend from home so when she would talk about how "guys its only a cartoon/ its only a movie / you know whats going to happen" i would punch her in the arm and shove her aside. Because okay yeah it might be a movie and an animated one at that but that doesn't mean I am any less moved by the story that is being told. in fact I am probably more moved.
Animated movie rant. I genuinely don't understand people that do not like animated movies or do not like kids movies or have stopped seeing children's movies since they are no longer kids. Honestly what does age have to do with you enjoying something? And in my opinion animated movies are even better as an adult because you actually understand the significance of the film and all the dirty jokes thrown in for the writers amusement. The stories to me are more powerful and more moving than any i have seen. They carry messages that other films dont find worth talking about. And that bothers me.
But anyway... we saw the movie it was fantastic it was a good sequel good for you dream works don't fuck it up now. but the real adventure started on our way back. on the way there we knew we had enough gas to get there but we would try and get gas on the way home. But here's the thing. We are in the middle of no where new york and going to an even smaller no where of new york where none of us know where we are and none of us can get service on out cell phones. We were driving around on the two main roads of this tiny ass town looking for a gas station. The only one we found was closed before 9:30 and there was no way for us to pay for the gas without there being a person there. It honestly felt like we were in a horror movie and we were going to be found on the side of the twisty roads in the morning all carved up... But we made it. We found another seemingly deserted gas station that looked like the one from Cars with all the bugs (and i mean all of them) swarming around the lights. But we made it home finally.
When we got home there were fresh applesauce and ginger chocolate chocolate chip cookies (the best) and fresh hummus so that was exciting. Now I'm watching Say yes to the Dress and intending to go to bed...
I know i lead such an extraordinary life.
back to the grind tomorrow- good night
Day 14: Trout, Whiskey, Music
If you couldnt tell by my title - today was quite an adventure!
I had such a great day.
I got to sleep in just a bit today which was wonderful. I was dragging the last few days and having a real hard time waking up (which for anyone that knows me personally shouldn't find much of a surprise) and so sleeping in was great. But today was the trout parade up in Livingston Manner which is apparently where all the presidents go to fish. My friend and I got to ride with the wonderful Rachel and so we took the scenic route and we saw the beautiful Swan Lake (yes swan lake) and the Walnut Mountain which apparently used to be used as a look out peak in the Revolutionary War because it was a lone peak that was fairly easily identifiable. Rachel knows literally everything about everything and pretty much everyone, Its incredible how many people she's touched.
Once we got to the town where the trout parade is she took us into an incredible german bakery that had some of the BEST cinnamon rolls (that includes anne sathers too - but they might be tied) and we walked through the town which is pretty much one street and all the windows were covered in children's art work which all depicted a trout in some way. We did walk into an art gallery where they had a services auction - some one offered to be a couch potato for two hours one afternoon- and we wandered into a food shop of some sort and they had the biggest supply of maple syrup i have ever seen. But this place had literally just gotten signs painted by Rachel and they were hanging outside the building. and some where else in the building was a mural done by one of rachels students. and rachel knew the lady that owned the wild life store down the street. And rachel painted a mural on the side of a chinese restaurant. It was incredible just how many people she touched.
And then the parade started! Oh wow was it incredible. It was maybe ten minutes (which to be honest thats pretty much the max length of parade I can take) and there was a giant trout puppet and people dressed up as fish and stilt walkers. It was incredible. I ended up buying a pocket knife my first one and its beautiful its got wood on it and yep.
Rachel left ahead of us so the rest of us went to eat at the Robin Hood. It was just a super cute little diner and it was staffed by family and grandma was cooking in the kitchen in the back. Super cute
But the next thing on out agenda for the day was to visit the local distillery. One of the girls here knows someone that used to go to Cobalt and worked at the distillery during their time here. Apparently she was a huge asset to the company because just one drop of her name and we got a full tour by the owner and free samples and drinks. we even got to see the room where they keep all the aging barrels of whiskey - it smelled amazing. Unfortunately being underage and the owner knowing this I was unable to participate. They had several of their own wiskeys and vodkas. They were making a 45 year anniversary of woodstock festival bottle of their peace vodka that was being sold in bottles with little peace signs in them - i really wanted to get one but alas. according to everyone else the bourbon and whiskeys were very good and very smooth. It was rated number five on new york times' list of the best whiskey's in america. One of the girls bought some so if she opens it up here within the week perhaps i'll be able to sample. we'll see.
But tonight they distillery's bar and restaurant was having live music. So we went home for a little while and returned ready to have a good time and we did. The band was great. It was apparently a father on lead guitar and a son on drums and they had a bass cello player. it was awesome. And the father and son make and sell guitars which is even more awesome. The atmosphere was great. The crowd was much older like in their 40s maybe but everyone was dancing and I had a blast. The band played sweet home chicago for us and they almost played a hawaiian song for our friend from hawaii but we needed to leave before then...
their special drink was a Fearless Lemonade - made with their special fearless whiskey and i'm assuming lemonade? but i don't really know. I had a tiny sip and goodness it was fantastic. what i usually don't like about alcohol is the after taste and usually pop or something can mask that but apparently citrus is the best at it and thats why there is lime in margaritas and why you bite into a lemon for a lemon drop shot (i'm still young i'm learning don't judge me its all new to me) and so the lemonade in the whiskey which was supposedly good on its own was quite good (i think thats a winner for me and future outings)
it was just a really great day. full of really great people and new experiences. Thats why i'm here for days like today. and the adventure continues tomorrow