In this shirt

I am lost, in our rainbow, now our rainbow has gone,
Overcast, by your shadow, as our worlds move on,
But in this shirt, I can be you, to be near you for a while,
There's a crane, knocking down all those things, that we were,
I awake, in the night, to hear the engines purr,
There's a pain, it does ripple through my frame, makes me lame,
There's a thorn, in my side, it's the shame, it's the pride...
Of you and me, ever changing, moving on now, moving fast,
And his touch, must be wanted, must become, through your ask,
But I need Jake to tell you, that I love you, it never rests,
And I've bled every day now, for a year, for a year,
I did send you a note on the wind for to read....
... Our names there together must have fallen like a seed...
... To the depths of the soil buried deep in the ground,
On the wind, I could hear you, call my name, held the sounds,
I am lost,
I am lost, in our rainbow, now our rainbow has gone,
I am lost, in our rainbow, now our rainbow has gone,
I am lost.

Victorian Door Knocker:The Ghost of Jacob Marley

Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning, during his whole residence in that place; also that Scrooge had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the City of London, even including -- which is a bold word -- the corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be borne in mind that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on Marley, since his last mention of his seven-year's dead partner that afternoon. And then let any man explain to me, if he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its undergoing any intermediate process of change: not a knocker, but Marley's face. ~ from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"

Limited edition sculpture, life size head in pallid grey flesh with exposed skull. Overall size 18 inches long x 13 inches wide. Gold leafed and sculpted knocker, vintage doll eye, custom icicles, stained fabric kerchief, and frosty snow on holly and greenery. Indoor or covered display only.

A psychedelic Thanksgiving...Dude

I didn't grow up with many Holiday rituals unless you count television, which I do not. In my young adulthood I took it upon myself to institute the tradition of roasting chestnuts. They are warm and delicious and fill your belly with old-timey nostalgia. They make you wish you had been born to a big good looking family of well-off Easterners who drank hot chocolate and went snowshoeing in real wool sweaters from Ireland. I had several tastey and satisfying years under my belt until this one year, I was at my folks newly purchased house. My crazy Mother had a plastic grocery bag full of "chestnuts" waiting for me...she said there was a tree on the property. While they all went shopping I prepared and roasted the nuts. And ate a few. The first was bitter. The second more so. The third I spit out. And staring at the drain in the kitchen sink my vision started to quiver and vibrate.

I suddenly felt very sluggish and not myself at all. I sat on the kitchen counter just staring at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the little black and white television on top of the frige. Staring for hours at the whole parade with all the commercials and screaming singers from bad Broadway plays and marching bands from every American podunk town and horribly written jokes from the morning TV talking heads, not moving at all. Just the occasional blink.

In a stupor, I deemed the nuts unfit for consumption or even my Mother's stuffing. Watching Dad carve the bird was both mesmerizing and terrifying.

I remember chit chatting the whole day thinking I was very clever, but I'm sure I was a complete bore.

The moral of the story? Number 1: Chestnut trees do not grow in California. Number 2: Chestnuts are not to be confused with Horse Chestnuts or Buckeyes. The extract of which Native Americans used on their spear tips to stun their game. Number 3: Never sit and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from start to finish.

A Wicked Good Show

The official Ghoultide Gathering 2011 video has been released, we sure had a good time! Music by The Appleseed Collective, who played non-stop for the 2 day show.

I'm at the 4:00 mark posing with my lovely assistant.

Happy Halloween

PANDA BEAR "Surfer's Hymn" on Vimeo.

Scenic Design: TIGERS BE STILL

Put a cheesy plaid sofa and ugly shag carpeting in front of a New York audience and it makes a real statement. Put that same set in front of a Cleveland audience and it could be their next door neighbor's living room or worse yet...their own (shudder).

In my scenic design for "Tigers Be Still" by Kim Rosenstock, Directed by Marc Moritz at the Dobama Theater, I opted for a generic representation of suburban life by making everything white. Not to make a pretty designer-ish set, but to say "these are the pieces you expect to see...they don't need personality or history because from house to house on any given suburban block it's all pretty much the same".

I hope that by making the set a blank white the audience will focus on the characters and their stories.

The one element of personality I used on set was the graphic image of trees. They are important to the script and also because the characters are lost in a forest of their own disillusionment and disappointment.

Oh, and there are also some Chihuahuas locked in a basement just for laughs.

Marjorie Preston, for the Sun News - "Scenic Designer William Bezek has sacrificed a wing of the theater’s seating to create a full living room in stark white. It has the effect of sterility, like a hospital room, and, by contrast, makes the actors seem even more alive."



Dating Service for the Sincerely Dead

Cordelia enjoys moonlight picnics in the cemetery and arson.

Opal is an avid fungi gardener looking for a soul mate.

SOLD

Griffin collects fingernails and doesn't like to be touched.

Lisette likes screaming underwater and the companionship of short men.

SOLD

Felix enjoys practical jokes, like the time he replaced the formaldehyde with Mountain Dew

and stuffed Mentos in every orifice of his brother's corpse.

SOLD

Aurelia's hobbies included ricochet target shooting.

SOLD

Milton thinks a woman should be kept in the kitchen, and in the bed, and maybe her head in the garage.

SOLD

These fine candidates are all available and looking for a permanent situation for the modest fee of $225.



The Big Halloween Blog Sale!

HAUNTED CANDLE SET
SOLD!
Terrified Taper and Petrified Pillar

Scuplted in Paperclay, each about 6" tall

JACK O' LYNN AND KITTY

SOLD!

Paperclay and cotton batting figures mounted to treat box, about 8" tall

THE VINEGAR DOLLS

Sculpted head and limbs with a wooden jointed body, 10" tall with removable Halloween hats

CHARLIE AND CECILIA

DERRICK AND DELIA

TOBEY

SOLD!

DUDLEY

SOLD!

EDDY

LA CATRINA MILAGRO

SOLD!

One of a kind Day of the Dead doll, 26" tall

COLONEL PUMPKIN

23" tall, sculpted head and soft sculpture body

JACK-JACK THE PUMPKIN CLOWN

23" tall, sculpted head and soft sculpture body

PUMPKIN PETE THE CLOWN

23" tall, sculpted head and soft sculpture body

THE SINCERELY DEAD DOLLS

14" tall, made in the manner of antique china dolls with sculpted head on shoulder plate and inset eyes, sculpted arms and legs with a fabric body, removable hats and bonnets.

MADAME ET MONSIEUR SET

SOLD!

 with doll stands

JUDGE BROWN AND HIS WIFE LULABELLE SET

SOLD!

THE DREAD WITCH FELICITY

Who smokes cigars made from the shavings off children's knees!

THE WITCH HELGA

FLORENCE

SOLD!

Who choked on a chicken bone!

LOUIS

SOLD!

Who had a fatal Lobotomy!

A NEEDFUL GHOUL

SOLD!

Sculpted head and hands, Lambskin wig, mounted to wood base 16" tall

ROCOCO ZOMBIE

SOLD!

Life Size One of a Kind Sculpture

Two piece constuction (torso and legs), 6'6" tall...that's some big hair!

Sculpted in paperclay and epoxyclay over wood and plastic armature with inset antique glass eyes.

She holds an electric candle lamp with a flicker bulb.

She wears a custom made removable/wearable ladies costume gown size 8/10,

earrings, necklace, cameo, and buckled shoes.

Her hair has been lacquered and permanently "powdered",

she wears black feather plumes, dyed fabric roses, and a large black spider in her coiffure!

Minor assembly will be required, as she will be dismembered in 3 boxes. One for her torso, one for her bloomer clad legs, and another for her arms....Muuuuwwahhhhahhhhaa!