Despite my talent I was nearly not accepted into the Theatre Scene Design Program of the University I had applied to. The Department Chairman expressed concerns I may not be able to paint the massive canvas or wood backdrops in the days long before the amazing computer graphics took over towards the end of my career.
Dr. Ravenall was also very concerned my height challenge could hinder me from using the power saws and the other tools needed in set construction too, yet
I wasn't.😃💫
In my blog piece on Boldness I shared what happened immediately after Dr. Ravenall expressed his concerns in the excerpt below about what can happen when we either learn boldness or must become bold due to certain circumstances...🤣👇
[Even though I am about the same size standing as I am sitting I suddenly stood up in front of Dr. Ravenall to my full height of my very tall 4'3" and boldly let him know a few things about myself. That it was because of my height I would be an asset as I had more to prove, and I would. Not only that I had far more courage than the average person. Furthermore, I was very talented too which he strongly agreed. And one more thing I blurted out to Dr. Ravenall was I owned and galloped my horse bareback across fields asking him how many people he knew who could!
At this his jaw dropped. And he was speechless. He never had ANYONE talk to him before in such a way. Especially such a young person!
He was silent. For a brief moment I thought to myself, "Oh shit. I blew it."
Finally Dr. Ravenall spoke. "Adelaide, I am not only going to admit you to the program but our renown Prof. Emeritus of Scene Painting Dr. Sonderling, takes only eleven students every other year who have extraordinary talent and character. Because you have just shown me both in spades I am putting you in his final class this semester.
WOW. Being one of the few chosen for THAT class was BIG. Really big. So was being admitted to the Theatre Scene Design Program too. Boldness threw the door wide open for me.]
Dr. Sonderling was a beloved Scene Design professor dear to all. I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be one of the few chosen for the last class of his long career. He created this class for Design students who met certain requirements. For
me to be a first year student chosen to be in this, the last class, was really something special. And quite an honour.
In the beginning of the class we prepared the series of huge canvas flats we would need for the Scene Painting assignments Dr. Sonderling would be giving us.
Obviously this was one class where we couldn't take our work home so the ten of my fellow students and I became very close friends, often painting through the nights on our huge assignments.
This class is where I learned I had a very special gift. Normally artists transferring an image from a photo
or page from a book divide the page into grids, then enlarge the grids to the flat, transferring the image. I had a mental block with the grid system yet could freely reproduce a small image in its exact proportions onto a massive flat requiring tall ladders. This proved to be quite a special gift on my career journey.
It blew Dr. Sonderling away! "Adelaide! How do you
DO that?!!"
"I don't know! I just DO IT! I can't explain how! Is it a bad thing I can't do the grid system?"
"Hell no! You really have a gift there!"
Dr. Sonderling wondered if the gift I had was because EVERYTHING from MY perspective is obviously much larger than I am anyway. So as a Scene Design artist this afforded me the ability to easily recreate small into huge.😃
We had begun our first assignment on 4'x4' flats. For this Dr. Sonderling gave us each a page from a very wonderful, colorful children's book called, "Tuesday,"
by David Wiesner, which was a funny book about a Tuesday when frogs could suddenly fly. My page had the frogs on their flying lilypads high above the rooftops as you may see below which I had to recreate onto a canvas flat my height.😂
In High School I had already painted on huge 6'x6' canvas flats for various school productions which contributed to the reasons I was accepted into the Design Program when my portfolio was reviewed.
As Dr. Sonderling observed our individual drawing and painting techniques he discovered another amazing technique I did not know I had.🤔
I was so engrossed in my work I did not realize he was standing behind me watching me work. All of a sudden Dr. Sonderling loudly blurted out, "ADELAIDE!"
In quick succession he so startled me I spilled half a can of green paint down my front from the frogs I was painting.😂🐸
"OH SHIT! Did I do something wrong?!!"😱
Laughing, he said, "NO! But YOU paint from dark to light!"
"Ohhkaaay...doesn't...everyone?"😳
"No, that's just it! Everyone usually draws and paints from light TO dark!"
"OH. Is this something I need to change?"😱
"DON'T TOUCH IT!"
When I told my dear mentor friends this they were not surprised. They reminded me how my very challenging life and indomitable spirit meant I was always striving to overcome the dark to remain in the positive light I held onto in living my life. And it was coming out in my creative technique of dark to light. This made sense to me.😃🖌🎨
The time came for Dr. Sonderling's final assignment on the massive 12'x12' canvas flats. We were anxious to see what we would be painting on this one. This is when he handed each of us a large sealed envelope with our names written on it. Inside was the Edward Hopper painting he had chosen for each of us. Mine was the Empty Storefront seen below.
Not only were we given three weeks to produce this final assignment it accounted for half our grade. A lot was riding on this project.
Since we each had three or four other classes besides this one we had to really burn the midnight oil to complete this project. And do a damn good job. The last two days we hardly left the Scene Shop. Our massive flats, ladders, and paint were everywhere. Besides having a steady stream of Theatre Department students and faculty who kept coming to observe our progress.😱
Finally it was time for both Dr. Sonderling as well as
Dr. Ravenall to critique our work. One by one in the Theatre our massive flats were set up on the stage.
We were being assessed on accuracy and our painting ability of the Hopper painting we each had been given.
Actually we all did well for we wouldn't have been in
the class if we each didn't have talent to begin with.
Nevertheless, a LOT still was depending upon this assignment. We would only be given our actual grade when both professors sat down with each of us privately.
I nailed an A+ the highest possible grade and was well on my way.
We knew our flats became the property of the Theatre Department yet often through the years I have thought how cool keeping my Hopper flat and the flying frogs would have been...😂👏🖌🎨💫
From "Tuesday"
Edward Hoppers' Storefront👇
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