Theater-Masks.com

12/01/2024

09/26/2024

Someone is going to have a Hoppy Halloween.

09/23/2024

The Talanoa Mask, a Custom Project

I was tasked with creating a mask for a Canadian client of Fijian descent. My client is a motivational speaker and wanted the mask to wear during his events.

The challenge was to create a mask that was tied to the Fijian culture and the personal story of the it’s wearer. The challenge presented involved the creation of a mask tied to an indigenous culture that had no masked traditions or at the very least no masks tied directly to the Talanoa.

"Talanoa is a traditional word used in Fiji and across the Pacific to reflect a process of inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue. The purpose of Talanoa is to share stories, build empathy and to make wise decisions for the collective good. The process of Talanoa involves the sharing of ideas, skills and experience through storytelling.”

The research for the project involved listening to Tom’s personal story and research into the masks used by the various pacific island cultures.

The outcome resulted in this mask.

In it are:

The Sea Turtle: Long life, wisdom, patience, a mythical creature resting at the heart of creation representative of the Ocean and so a symbol for life.

Patterns of the sea:
Waves/water – constant ever moving, ever changing, powerful and gentle, provider of life.

Earth – stillness, history, provider of life.

Fire – explosive, indecisive, random, consuming, provider of life (in the mask the fire is covered with an organized geometrical pattern as a reminder of the Talanoa).

The Sugar Cane and h**p rope: A symbol of story and the past representative of the enslavement of the Fijian People to work the sugar cane plantations.

The patterns of the grass and the sand in the mask signify the relationship of earth water and wind and the interconnected nature of the material sphere of creation.

The colors:
• Red: power, leadership
• Yellow: optimism, energy, joy
• Green: Fertility, renewal, resurrection
• Browns: Sustainability, health, nurturing, dependability

09/16/2024

Latest custom mask for a client.

07/23/2024

On Sunday I taught a workshop for the first time in in a few years at NYSSSA. The kids were amazing, the faculty and staff were wonderful. I left inspired and with hope again for the future. I miss the teaching perhaps more than anything.

07/11/2024

A couple of custom projects that have gone out of the studio recently.

06/14/2024

The following post is quite useless but here goes;

Dear social media companies,

You have killed the print media organizations and created world in which we can only communicate through social media. You hide from us our fiends posts, the businesses and the organizations we follow, the content we want to see by having chosen it, and fill our news feed with only ads and paid/sponsored material that isn't what we have chosen. Your algorithms prevent anyone from seeing original, unique and innovative content, create mental illness, provide each individual with only one point of view creating a toxic and dangerous world and have swayed elections in the direction of destructive leaders.

As small businesses and non-profits we now must use social media to do business and or survive but are provided zero customer service or help when things go wrong. No amount of investment in creating a presence is respected. If we can't solve a problem with then we have to start over from nothing as there is never any amount of help offered to the paying customer.

It seems like your sole reason for existing, like the rest of the IT industry, is simply to funnel all the wealth into the pockets of a very few rather than to provide any kind of service or uplifting product to society.

Will you tear everything of worth down just to make a buck (silly question actually because we all know the answer)?

Signed,
A very tired and disgusted small business owner, community organizer, humanitarian and artist.

05/03/2024

The requests for custom work and the difficulties of process in creation have lead to the following that I now automatically send to clients. AI will end us all I think.

The email reads as Follows:

When receiving AI generated artwork as suggested design I have created the following so you know what to expect as concerns the creative process, final product, materials and my skill sets.

How I work:
The masks you see of mine online (website, social media) are what is considered living form or rhythmic sculpture. The masks are created to animate the negative space around them through the way in which the lines and planes of the mask relate to one another through space when the mask is either in stillness or in movement. This is what gives the illusion of the mask shifting expression when in performance. The goal is to create something that has a life of its own and dynamically engages the audience

Product structure:
Perfect symmetry is not possible and in fact not desirable when creating living form. Perfect symmetry is not present in art created by a human being. It is the asymmetry that creates musicality and the dynamic that engages other human beings. Any final product produced by the studio will not be perfectly symmetrical.

Rhythmic form:
Close symmetry and the exacting slick aesthetic created by AI programs can be realized but only through 100s of hours of detailed work. The level of skill to finalize that type of result is extraordinary and the materials necessary to produce such a look are incredibly expensive, often toxic and require sophisticated equipment to work with (polycarbonates, high end thermal plastics, silicones and fiberglass)

This is why the masks on my site and social media have the organic, stylized and conceptual look to them that they do.

The AI generated imagery can be reproduced by sophisticated 3D printers. I know by saying this I am recognizing the human artist will soon be removed from the process, but it is true.

All of this is to say that I can do your project ,but only if the AI generated design is a suggestion of what you are after and not an exact desire.

If it is a suggestion and “close” to the design is what you are after then I would gladly take on your project and we can work together to create something exciting and dynamic for your audience to experience.

04/05/2024

The latest two custom projects

01/09/2024

Modeled shots of Sensa Paura Capitano the braggart soldier.

01/08/2024

A new Dottore Mask. Created for the Ally Theatre in 2023. This is clearly Dottore as a stylish young academic prior to his claims of earning several medical degrees from the best world universities, his claims of publishing the most renowned medical text books, his claims of saving thousands through unique surgical procedures and his election to the US Senate and then his ouster for having just made up the whole thing.... oh wait, that last part wasn't Dottore just a guy modeled after him.

01/04/2024

2024 starts with postings of the custom projects from 2023. Here is Brigella. Created for the Alley Theatre in Houston Texas.