Next week I am going to be in a group show called Pancakes and Booze that is taking place on Friday. The show has been traveling from LA, using local artists in each city it stops in.
I sounds like it's going to be a really cool show. I mean, who wouldn't want a pile of pancakes to munch on at an opening?
"Something To Remember You By" 11x14" Graphite and colored pencil on paper Karen O'Bryan 2010
About a month ago I was cast as an extra in a music video for the Barenaked Ladies. They are coming out with a new album soon, and touring with it all over the US. Most recently, they played during the pre-game of this year's Super Bowl.
I was waiting to post any behind the scenes footage until the video came out so as to not ruin any surprises.
We started shooting bright and early (7am) and continued for a solid 12 hours. The way this video was shot was really interesting actually. Instead of using a typical film or video camera, the director used a regular photo camera (although, quite a good one I should add) and took millions of stills.
All of the actors/models had to hold a pose - frozen in mid action - for about 15 minutes, while the crew worked their way through the scene taking stills, like a stop-motion animation. This sounds simple enough, but try holding an animated pose like walking/talking/laughing perfectly still for 15 minutes.. in heels. You don't notice how much you switch your body weight until you're not allowed to move a muscle.
Everyone did a fantastic job though, which in turn made the whole process go a lot smoother. God forbid anyone had to sneeze.. we'd have to start all over again!
The same actors are used over and over again in the film, which you may or may not notice. As the camera man worked his way through the scene, and passed a group of people out of frame, they would circle back around and appear again at the end of the scene. The band was constantly moving around - try and see how many times you can find them! It's like a "Where's Waldo" game.
We shot several different scenes throughout the day, including quite a few outside. Might I remind you this was shot in Mpls/St Paul in January... so we were freezing our butts off! It was about 5 degrees that day.. typical.
I only shot once outside. What can I say, I'm a wuss! We actually had to hold our breath as the camera rolled by so that you wouldn't see a bunch of steam coming out of our noses. Luckily, they were on a dolly outside so they moved much quicker, so we really only had to hold our breath for about 10 seconds at a time.
There was also an airplane scene that they shot at the end of the day:
The only part of the video that was shot as actual video was for when they taped the band performing.
It was very cool to get to hang out with the band all day. They are all super nice guys. They are coming back to the Midwest in May on their tour. They play Davenport, IA on May 16th, and in Minneapolis on May 17th. Hopefully I'll be around to make it to the show!
Thanks to everyone involved who made this project happen, it was great working with you all! Good luck to the Barenaked Ladies with their new album. I wish you guys much success!
Thursday night was the opening of Foot In The Door 4, a show at the Minneapolis Institutes of the Arts that promotes and exhibits Minnesotan artists of all ages.
I heard that over 9,000 people attended throughout the 4 hour opening! We got there a little late, and it was still completely packed. After waiting in line for about a half an hour, we weaved our way through the masses in the first room and decided we would come back another time. The show is up until June, so there is still plenty of time to go check it out!
A very happy (and be-lated) Valentines Day to everyone! Thank you so much to those of you who could join us for this ooey-gooey holiday last night for our closing reception of "Till Death Do Us Part" at the Rogue Buddha Gallery.
The event was titled "Paper Hearts," hosted by L'etoile Magazine. A very big Thank You to L'etoile for putting together such a fun and romantic evening! And credit and thanks must also be given to Jahna Peloquin, who helped us out greatly by promoting the festivities in various papers/blogs.
Aside from all of the lovely decorations and sweet treats, L'etoile also had hundreds of paper hearts (hense the title of the show) for everyone to write messages on, then placed on the wall for everyone to see. It was a fun idea, and quite entertaining to read what was written - ranging from the sincerely romantic to down right dirty. The spirit of Saint Valentine at it's finest.
The night turned out to be a great success, so thanks again to everyone who came and supported Ryan and I in our Minneapolis debut. Hopefully this will be the first of many successful shows.
First and foremost, THANK YOU to everyone who attended our opening on Friday at the Rogue Buddha; we had a really great turn out and it was a total blast! I meant to post these photos over the weekend, but I actually got really, really sick on Saturday. Luckily, it appears to have only been a 24 hour bug and I am feeling much better now.
Here are a few photos of our progress of putting the show together. The hardest part about hanging the show was deciding how to display everything. Once we got that figured out, the actual installation only took about an hour.
Ryan, who is much better at hand-drawn typography than I am, painted our show sign for us. We also saved quite a bit of money just doing it ourselves as opposed to using vinyl lettering.
Here are some photos from the opening:
My photos are not the best quality, I know. After a certain point I was too busy running around to focus on taking pictures. Luckily, I am friends with some really amazing photographers, Patrick Kelley and Todd Townley, who were (naturally) also snapping photos that night. So a big THANK YOU to them as well!
I also want to give a much deserved, THANK YOU, to my friends Erika, Jared, Todd, and AJ (and anyone else who I may have missed) for helping us bartend. You guys rock!
Last, but certainly not least, THANK YOU to Nick and the Rogue Buddha Gallery for hosting this event.
If you missed the opening, there's still time to check out/purchase the work. We also have a number of prints for sale for only $15 for those who like the work but can't quite afford the originals.
And don't forget about our Closing Reception this Sunday, Feb. 14th (a.k.a Valentines Day) hosted in part by L'etoile.
So make this Valentines Day suck a lot less by enjoying great art, great company, and cheap booze at the Rogue Buddha!
