Arts in the Family: A Family of Artists Just Trying to Make a Living in the Wilds of Texas

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Saturday, May 15, 2010

Puppet Theater Memories 2000



Fe fi fo fum!! Pammy stylin' as the "Jack and the Beanstalk" giant at Le Theatre de Marionette in Dallas, Texas.

When crocs go wild! The world famous crocodile from "Peter Pan".

Backstage at Le Theatre de Marionette L to R: Me, Pammy, Madeline Copeland and Tina Gromova.

Friday, May 14, 2010

The one and only Francesco Villares of Brazil

Cesco riding his mini bike for a parade we did through a Los Angeles neighborhood for the circus.He had a lot of neat toys. That's Pammy right behind him.

Here he's doing a head balance just after juggling three balls while upside down.

A beauty of a hand balance by Cesco. I'm still looking for a photo of him balancing on the beam.

131st Edition of Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus

The cast for the 131st Edition Of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus back when it still had circus rings. You can see Pam and I at the very front on the lower left of the photo.


The last time Pam and I toured with the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus was in 2001. We arrived at winter quarters in December of 2000 to begin rehearsal for the new show. Bello Nock, who is an amazing performer and great clown, was the featured star on the show and let me tell you, this guy does not disappoint. Currently, Bello is the featured clown on the Big Apple Circus directed, if I'm not mistaken, by the irrepressible Steve Smith, who was director of RBBB Clown College for about decade including my year in 1993.


The show also had a large number of multi- talented Brazilian performers, many of whom had never left their native Brazil before. They were so young. I can remember when I was their age I was such a kid with a long way to go before i could begin anything remotely resembling a career. Here were these kids ,though, trained in a variety of performing arts and more than capable of doing them well. Individually they could put on their own show. they were simply amazing and so full of life.

One them was a clown by the name of Francesco Villares, a gifted clown if there ever was one. Pammy and I loved his company and we admired his great love for performing. Some performers become jaded over time and forget how lucky they are to be doing something they love but not Francesco. The same can be said of Bello. Both were great inspirations to us and we are lucky to count them as friends.

Francesco was a fit acrobatic fellow standing about five foot five. He was always ready to do whatever he was called upon to do in the show and always eager to teach you a new skill or help polish an old one.

One of the most amazing thing he did on the show was a head balance on a beam resembling a gymnast's balance beam. Yes, it's impressive to see him do a head balance on a narrow beam but it gets better. He would balance on one end of the beam and then proceed to move across the beam by hopping, a tiny bit at a time, on his head. It took about eight or nine hops to make it to the other end to the great applause. He had a very thick neck from years of performing this feat. I think if he wanted to he could've opened a beer bottle using his neck. He showed us footage where the beam was made to be a small set of stairs on which he did the same thing. Truly amazing!

I'll post more pictures of other performers from that tour in the near future. Right now, I hear the siren call of a bean and cheese taco luring me to my high- caloric doom . Adios !!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Doc at Camp H2O

Pictured with me is magician Kevin Barnes from Las Vegas. He's been doing the event for the last two years and has a really good show, The Green Earth Magic Show, that uses magic to teach kids about the environment and conservation.



This a long shot of one section of Camp H2O that was located on the site of an old Albertson's. Once a year the area is transformed and recycled into a fun and educational event.


Doc Ed showing a 5th grader the finer points of being a Mesozoic dinosaur. Raooourr!!!


Yesterday I spent the day doing three shows at Camp H2O for the San Antonio Water System ( S.A.W.S.). There were booths and presentations throughout the day long event providing information on water conservation and water resources for our area. Greg Wukasch and Lynne Christopher from S.A.W.S. have been putting on this event for the last few years starting out with a few hundred attendees to over a thousand for this year's event. They're some of the hardest workin' people in edutainment!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Caterpillar Prop for the Dance Workshop

I realize this doesn't look like much but in a short while this pile of colorful fabric and one pink hula hoop will transform into a beautiful caterpillar head. The head will be part of a large costume/puppet, similar to the Chinese dragons you see in festivals and parades where several people act as the legs and head. We're constructing the head while a group of seamstresses will make the body.

This project is for Susan Connally's Dance Workshop, which will be presenting a recital at the end of the month with Alice in Wonderland as the theme. The caterpillar will only appear for a short while on stage so we want to make it as memorable as possible. It's great fun to design and then create things like this and even more so when you get to see them in action. I'll post some more photos as the project progresses. See ya!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Circus Themed Paintings


"Lost and Forgotten". Acrylic on canvas 16'x20'.



"Wandering". Acrylic on canvas 12'x18'.


I've been working on a series of circus paintings for a while now and above are the first two I've completed. It'll include clowns ,of course. Once the paintings are done I'll hopefully have found a gallery to show them off making my fortune and become independently wealthy proving my high school teachers wrong once and for all! Bwah ha ha haahaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhaaaaa!

That's the thing about painting your own personal work. It's like tossing the dice. People come to the reception and they might like the art but that doesn't mean they'll buy it. They'll eat the food and drink the wine then they're gone. It's kind of the like going to the grocery store and eating the samples for your lunch or dinner.It's all the fun without the financial commitment. In fact I think I've seen the same art patrons at Cosco munching down on the free nacho chips. Nah! Couldn't be.

I'll be posting more circus paintings in the near future so stay tuned kids to see if our intrepid artist can stay away from the "real job market" and and feed the hungry masses with cheap wine, crackers and bree if I can afford it!

Upcoming Doc Ed Show Dates

Doc at Torrey Park in New Braunfels last year for a Ravenstar sponsored event.



Howdy to all! Here's the latest schedule for good ol' Doc for the next couple of weeks.

May 12th. Camp H2O at Eisenhower Park sponsored by S.A.W.S.

May 22nd Torrey Park in New Braunfels sponsored by Raven Star.

May 28th Herff Elementary Career Day.

Summer will be busy for Doc. Keep an eye out for him at libraries around San Antonio and the surrounding communities. I'll post summer dates soon.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Alamo City Roller Girls


I think this one will make a very lovely Christmas card. All it needs is a Santa hat on Medusa.
By the way all the art work for the Alamo City Rollergirls was done entirely in photoshop which was a first for me. I usually do it the old fashioned way then scan and tweek the art in Photoshop. I figured this was as good a time as any to give it a go one hundred percent.



If I could do this drawing over again I'd add sound effects like "WHAMMO!","BIFF!"and "SMOOSH!". Makes you feel like you're right in the middle of the action right?





I think this one would look good on a t-shirt or maybe a on a wall clock.





This is the second piece I did for them. I was less timid about the subject matter and having a bit more fun. Green is the team color so I thought the more green ... well...the more green.



Art work minus the text for the first poster for the opening bout of the 2009 season. It's a little anemic, I know.


In 2009, an ad in the newspaper caught my attention. The Alamo City Rollergirls, an all female flat- track roller derby team in San Antonio, was looking for an artist to provide illustrations for their posters advertising the bouts for their season. As a kid I remember watching roller derby on t.v. and I remember seeing the roller derby movie" Kansas City Bombers" starring Raquel Welch, on the CBS Late Movie way back before the dominion of cable television. It looked like a fun project. So in the name of fun and sentimentality for the 70's I'd recently began feeling I decided to go for it. I sent in samples of my work to the contact
and before I knew it I was discovering the rough and tumble world of roller derby.

I was provided with a season pass so I could see a live bout and sketch some ideas for the posters. I'm no expert but it looked like a very tough line of work but it was all very fun to go out and draw something new. I was feeling like things were a little stale for me art-wise and drawing the posters reminded of why I do this for a living: Because it's fun and I think I was forgetting that. When it becomes just about the check I've always felt it's time to switch gears in order to recharge the batteries.
Plus I learned that the Alamo City Rollergirls do a lot of volunteer work for local events and organizations like Girls Inc. and they are not paid to compete. They do it free. Gratis! They cover their own equipment and travel expenses when they have an out of town bout. You've got to respect that. If you get a chance check out a bout locally at the Rollercade Skate Center.

Happy Mother's Day !

Mi querida madre: Emilia Cipriana Ramirez. 26 de Septiembre 1923. 22 de Agosto 2001.


This the day we honor our mothers but I think one day is not enough. My mom always supported my interest in the arts though she did worry about how I would make a living from such an unpredictable career.


It's been almost a decade since she left us but there isn't day that goes by that I'm not grateful for the infinite patience she had for her stubborn son. Gracias mama.
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