Journey to Jerusalem

This weekend our church put on a "Broadway-style" musical titled "Alone at the Alter". The musical starts with Abraham and Issac at the alter that Abraham was suppose to sacrafice his son on. It then moves to the highlights of Jesus' last days.

I was asked to direct the painting of the backdrop. The set was built last Sunday afternoon. We began the painting on Monday. It was completed on Wednesday. There is NO WAY that I could have completed this project on my own. There were many volunteers who were willing to listen to my "suggestions" (or bossing as it probably was!) as to how to paint the details. So I will take the responsibility of the mistakes too!! (and I will point the BIG one that I made that DH noticed right away in the first draft of pics that did NOT get fixed due to lack of time). When looking at these picture, keep in mind that I have a cheapo-point and shoot digital camera. And that I am the worst at editing my photos in my whateverprogram that I have. BUT!! I wanted to give you an idea of the set.

This is a 3D creation. It is actually framed and covered with huge sheets of cardboard. Here is the overall view (I think you can click on the picture to enlarge...no guarentees!)

And some close up shots starting with the right side of the scene and then moving to the middle and left side.
Some little details that are hard to see in the photos: the "beams" sticking out of the two houses are actual small beams.
The doors have 3D handles and hinges that do not really show up from a distance (but look great up close! hehe)

And here is my BIG mistake. Now in all honesty, most people would not notice this. But there will be a few who do. Notice the shading on the window on the "rocked" house? IT'S ON THE STINKIN' WRONG SIDE!! No one to blame but yours truely for that one!! I was doing the shadowing on the right side of the stage and even mentioned to everyone that we needed to change the shading to the other side once we got past the center house. GUESS WHO DID IT WRONG?!!! Ahhhh, geesh!! I literally had nightmares about this stupid window!! But to change it would have been more of a nightmare. We had run out of the "base" color paint to put over my mistake and that left the option of me having to put some Kilz (primer) over the window to cover the dark shadowing. No big deal, except that would have meant another trip to Home Depot or the paint store and we were running out of time. So, here is our story: The person who lives in this house put their large oil lamp on that side causing the shadows to be on the "wrong" side!! BWHAHHAAAThe stones over the archway have shading too, but again, my photography skills are sorely lacking!!

Most of my "mural" paintings have been for household rooms or smaller public areas. I learned that it is REALLY hard to get little details to show up from the back of a church!! But, we are hoping to use this set again for VBS or other smaller venues and then the small details can be appreciated more (of course, I just might have to fix that window before it gets used again!!)

I want to acknowledge all of those who helped in this painting endeavor. As I said prior, there is absolutely no way I could have gotten this job done by myself. Jen and Tres Hoffer (set designers), Jennifer Gorton, Stephanie Church, Laural Haglund, Caroline Kim, Rhonda and Rob Wilson and

Collette Carr~~if I missed anyone, please know that your efforts are not forgotten, just my brain is mush!!