Paintin' Fool

The flats being set up at the park.


The panels in the garage stall. It was a little cramped but art isn't about comfort, man.

The map of the event. Looks fun.

When I painted murals I got used to working outdoors. That doesn't happen so much these days. I just spent the last nine and a half hours drawing at the computer while simultaneously spewing a torrent of obscenities at it but every so often I get to see the light. Last September I was commissioned by the San Antonio Water System (S.A.W.S.) to paint a landscape on several 4'x8' sheets of plywood that would be displayed at a S.A.W.S. sponsored event. I got my sunscreen and my boom box ( do they still call it that?) and started slinging paint. Above are some photos of the panels in the garage stall ready for transport then being put in place for display.
I also drew a map for the event showing the different booths and activities that could be found there. That map was created with photoshop but I still like it.

Holy Deja Flu Batman!!

I sold this painting along with two others to this collector a few years ago for a cool chunk'o' change but it was spent the minute it went in the bank. Alas.


Okay, so I was mistaken. Monday was rough on me but then Tuesday felt the competition and put the whammy on me. My son had a bout of some kind of stomach bug around three a.m. then three hours later I felt the "love" too. I started to feel somewhat human again, though you couldn't tell by looking at me, around four o'clock this afternoon.

So, Monday, you have my heart felt apology. I'm glad to be in the land of the living again and to celebrate I will share this thumbnail sketch for the painting above. And no, I wont be going near any wine or moonpies tonight.

Mondays Are Hell

It's been a long day. I've been working on a illustration assignment for the last couple of weeks and today was a long one at the computer, so I haven't had time to work on the blog. All is quiet on the western front now so I thought I'd share this photo of myself and Jay Stewart on the road with Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus in 2001.

He played a character of his own creation he called "Big Mamma" or "The Fat Broad". Really, it was Jay just being Jay but with an enormous bosom and hips. I was generally pounded by Big Mamma during the course of our gags. At the end of this particular gag he throws the mattress I was sleeping on at me for the "big finish".

Metaphorically speaking, today was "one big finish". I will now conclude my day with a healthy dose of "Big Bang Theory" whilst I enjoy a chocolate Moon Pie with a tall glass of pinot noir. Night, night.

Son of Ghepetto (Not the Little Wooden Head)

Sketch for the first full marionette I designed, carved and assembled for Le Theatre de Marionette's production of "The Little Mermaid".




Tickets for the Little Mermaid show at Le Theatre de Marionette for the 2ooo season. I just wanted to show you these tickets because even a little theatre in a mall in Dallas goes to the trouble of printing nice looking tickets.




The finished puppet hanging in repose backstage after one of our shows. I wish it was a better picture but all I had was an Instamatic that was used for taking pictures of the birthday kid for the day.

Most of what I know of puppet repairs and building I've taught myself during our tenure at Le Theatre de Marionette. While there we learned to operate marionettes but quickly learned that there was no one on staff that had the knowledge to repair or build any new puppets.

As time went on I slowly taught myself how to repair broken puppet noses or replace an arm or carve a hand too damaged to repair. I had learned some of the basics of wood carving from my father, Alberto Sr., and applied it to carving marionettes but also read up on the subject and watched instructional videos. I also had the good fortune of having some of the best puppet builders and performers in the country just a phone call away and also minutes from our home.

When the opportunity to make a marionette from scratch finally came I felt pretty confident. It was for "The Little Mermaid", a show which they had built a few years earlier but were missing the protagonist, the sea witch Ursulla though they still had the land- walking, two- legged land version. Not having any photo reference of the original marionette I set out to design a new one. I produced several sketches, one which you see above was that was selected by Mr. John Hardman, the theatre owner and producer. I seem to have lost the other sketches somewhere between our "moves".

I modeled the face and hands on the "land-walking" version sculpting the face in clay then making a plaster mold to which I pressed plastic wood into for the final positive of the face. The rest of the puppet was carved from basswood using hand tools given to me by my father. Thanks, Dad. I painted it with acrylic paints and the costume was made from dyed muslin and burlap. It worked really well for the run of the show and never required any repairs. All in all, it wasn't too shabby for my first one. Now I have to learn how to build a theatre to house all our marionettes and assorted costumes and props as well as do shows. Man, do I need to win the lottery or what?!

Puttin' on the Mask at Le Theatre de Marionette

Pammy backstage at Le Theatre de Marionette in Dallas, Texas in 2000 with a genie mask for the marionette play Alladin and His Magic Lamp. The mask was designed and made by, you guessed it, Pammy and I.


WHASSUP!!! Raymond Banda, the lead puppeteer and a very funny guy, in the costume for the Genie minus the mask. The costume was designed and made by the multi-talented Tina Gromova.

During our time at Le Theatre de Marionette, we sometimes called upon to play characters in the show. This usually meant double, triple or quadruple duty depending on the show. Sometimes it meant you were operating a puppet on the bridge above the stage then hurrying down to raise or lower a drop or pull a prop off the stage. Sometimes you had to do all that plus going onstage, as was the case in the Alladin show, as the genie.

Even though the photo shows Raymond in the genie costume he wasn't the only one to play the part during the month-long run. That honor was shared by Raymond, Pam and myself. It's a challenge to move around backstage at a puppet theatre but even more so while wearing that kind of costume because everything is in miniature and in the dark. Not to mention the fact that the space betwen the proscenium and the bridge/flats, where the Genie sometimes entered, was better suited to three foot tall marionettes and not for full- sized humans in a billowy genie costume and mask.

Nonetheless, we persevered and finished the run, a little better off from the experience...I think. At least we were more in tune with the Force so we could puppeteer with our blaster shield down over our eyes. Cool!

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Above: My second of two rejection letters for the Ringling Brothers Barnum ad Bailey Clown College.

In 1991 my life changed in a huge way, for the better, when I walked into the old Woodlawn Theater in the early spring of that year. Up until then I was working as a freelance artist. The trouble was I was not very good commercial artist and I was simply bored with my life so I needed a change. That change turned out to be acting which was soon accompanied by clowning for which I'm most grateful for my wife's stories from her time at Clown College then the road with the Greatest Show on Earth. She taught me about acting and clowning and encouraged me to audition for Clown College when the show came to town in early July.

The first time around was shortly after I'd begun acting so I was very green and my audition had to be the worst but being naive I didn't know any better. I didn't make it in that year so I tried again the following year and again I was rejected. Between auditions I'd work at improving myself as a clown by studying the silent comedians and watching other circus clowns at work. I was also working as a clown doing everything from birthday parties to fairs.

After the second time I was more determined than ever to make it into Clown College. But on the off chance I'd get another rejection letter to add to my collection I attended three clown workshops the spring and summer of '93. The last two were the best: One was in at the Dell Arte School of Physical Theatre taught by Joan Mankin and Jeff Raz of the Pickle Family Circus and the other was at the Advanced Studies in Clowning taught by several Ringling clowns most notably Frosty Little. He taught the class on circus clowning where I learned more in one week than I thought possible. He was a great no nonsense teacher who really loved and respected the art of circus clowning. At the beginning of the week his class started with about two dozen eager students and by mid week it was down to about eight. Circus clowning is not for the weak, baby!

After all those workshops I felt I was ready for anything. July rolled around so my best friend,Chad Miller ( A very talented clown) and I both auditioned in July of 1993 at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio. At the end of the audition I felt like I'd nailed it. It was the best audition I ever had for anything. Now it was a matter of waiting. If you got a letter in the mail you didn't make it but if you got a phone call you'd better start packing. I was like a kid when I got the call. I don't remember the exact conversation. All I knew was that my life was about change again and would never be the same after that all thanks to a bit of stubbornness and boredom.

At the San Fernando Cathedral

A little over a year after I had graduated from college I got to paint the biggest commission I'd done up to that point in my career. Together with Alex Rubio we designed and painted five large paintings to be displayed at the San Fernando Cathedral for the The Serenata a la Virgen Morena.

We painted all day seven days a week for about a month to complete the works and towards the end it was round the clock. I recall the paint was still wet a few hours before the event. I think it was this particular commission that made my parents realize that perhaps an art career wasn't such a bad idea. I wish I'd had better luck convincing them a theater and circus career was just as good. Oh, well. You can't win them all.