Jason Coale

There is a wonderful article today in the Kansas City Star about my good friend Jason Coale. Jason has been collaborating with me on my projects for years, and is now the most active and sought-after scenic designer in Kansas City.

I met Jason during my first commercial job for the rapper Tech N9ne. I hired Jason to make the set for the “controversial” cover that was never used. (If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you’ll know what I’m talking about). At that time, he was still earning his Masters degree at the UMKC theater department. He put himself through school as an undergraduate working as a magician. On the set of Tech N9ne’s photo shoot, Jason performed magic tricks for the crew and entourage. He was a big hit.

Jason has a very cool personality. You can’t help but like Jason. I quickly made him a part of my clan. We spent a summer living as roommates in a decrepit house on the edge of Westport. We spent most of our nights drinking beer and watching old VHS tapes about magic tricks.

Jason has helped me out on several of my projects. He built the amazing set for HANDS. He also helped me with the set for ISOLATION, as well as DEVIL. The set for DEVIL, like the set for HANDS, was built with a raised floor so that people could fit underneath.

During our summer as roommates we also spent a lot of time experimenting with special effects make-up. Jason helped me with the make-up on my film BLACK LULLABY, he created the skin-less mask in FACE, and did all of the make-up for DEVIL.

He will also be the chief collaborator on my upcoming project THE GRAND GUIGNOL.

To learn more about Jason Coale the superstar, check out today’s article in The Kansas City Star.

Exit Magazine

This month my work is featured in Exit Magazine, an amazing art publication from Madrid, Spain.  The theme for this issue was “Once Upon a Time…”  My photographs are alongside the works of such artists as Julia Margaret Cameron, Lewis Carroll, Anthony Goicolea, Yeondoo Jung, Annie Leibovitz, Cindy Sherman, and Miwa Yanagi.

Miwa Yanagi is one of my favorite contemporary photographers.  Her latest body of work is called FAIRY TALES.  This series deals with the relationships between young girls and older women.   She chooses famous children’s stories, such as Rapunzel and Snow White,  stories in which the central characters are either young or old, then reinvents the story by confusing the distinctions.  Both roles are played by adolescent girls, but the older character wears the mask of an old hag.  You almost get the sense of children playing dress up. The images in this series were all shot in black and white.  I love her sets and the styling is marvelous.  Here is one of my favorites:

Lithuanian Playboy

Ukrainian Playboy recently published an article about me and my work. This month, a similar article is being published in Lithuanian Playboy.  In comparison to the American version, these magazines are relatively chaste, light on nudie pics and heavy on art.  Now, of course, I’m hoping to be published in every foreign Playboy there is.