iburkard.worklog
Saturday, August 11, 2007
I spent most of my down time fixing a "red wine" Les Paul Epiphone for one of my friends. He purchased it broken for $100. The head was almost cracked off, with a pretty broad split running down a third of the neck. I ended up countersinking some screw in the fingerboard, to pull the neck and head back together. I covered the screw heads with ebony plugs, so the fingerboard looks normal, and will play fine. Several coats of polyurethane later, it's in almost playable condition; it just needs a new nut, and a bridge. The finish on the guitar was impossible for me to mimic. There was no stain on the wood, just a clear coat of red polyurethane. Where do you buy that?
I should post some images of the guitar, but I have a crappy web camera. I hope to invest in a real digital camera soon.
I have added some images to the Jiri Trnka information (see previous posts below), so that it isn't quite so bland. Tne Czech to English translation is pretty dry and repetative, and it's no fun reading about interesting artwork without being able to see it.
Here's more Trnka reading... sorry I didn't type more, but I'm multitasking enough as is.
Trnka had hoped to turn the Wooden Theatre into a successful professional puppet theatre. He had failed, but the failure had been balanced by the great success of his illustrations for children's books. He had hoped that his rag puppets would revolutionize children's toys, but his ambitious plans had come to nothing. But again the failure was balanced by success, for the exhibition gained him fame and opened the door to the theatre. It seemed that it was always his side-line which brought him success, and that, in the field dearest to his heart; he was to experience failure after failure. Yet puppets continued to absorb him and to draw him to an extraordinary extent, even when he tried to turn to other things.
Now orders for illustrations were pouring in. He found them restricting, like a suit of heavy armour. He kept trying to escape feeling frustrated, but then he would humbly return. In his moments of relaxation he would stoop over his puppets again, only to lay them aside once more. He was beginning to despair for ever finding a use for them.
During the period of 1940 to 1945 he scattered his energies in a variety of directions. His work during this time seems outwardly harmonious and well-balanced, but to look into it closely is to detect his feeling of nervousness and uncertainty. The word is varies, and at time the different pieces of work seem at variance with each other. By comparing them we can detect his price and despair, his fits of hopelessness. He felt that he was not using his gifts to the full. He began to work for the theatre: the real theatre, not that of puppets, and he also sought an outlet for his creative urge in oil painting and graphic design.
While Trnka had been preparing his exhibition 'The Children's Painter', he had met Jiri Frejka, the producer of the National Theatre in Prague. He already knew a certain amount about stage design, and from his work with the puppet theatre. Nor was he a complete greenhorn at designing stage scenery for the large theatre. He had already done some visual work in this direction, producing simple designs distinguishable from his designs for puppets plays largely by the face that the indications along the margins did not include such directions as 'neck 3.5 cm' 'arm 30 cm' 'leg 30 cm'. Back in Plzen he had helped Josef Skupa to design the sets for the opera Raduz and Mahulena by Zeyer.
But Trnka's exhibition, especially the insect diorama, showed his potentialities as a stage designer. Also he felt the need for work in another sphere, as a release from book illustration. And invitation to work for the National Theatre came just at the right moment.
February 1940 saw the opening night of Goldoni's Venetian Carnival, with stage design by J. Trnka. This was the beginning of several years' work for the National Theatre.
Trnka's technique as a stage designer was also only at its beginning. But its basis was the same as that of his illustrations, and typical of him. He did not seek external motifs, so much as inner themes, concerning himself with the atmosphere of the play, its moods and emotions. He placed the emphasis on colour and visual effect. He tried to create and active setting for the play, instead of a static picture. His design for The Venetian Carnival was conceived in the form of a semicircular horizon. Certain sections turned and opened for the different scenes, producing and impression of a constantly changing environment. This horizon was simply drawn, and the actors stood outline against it. The whole thing was faintly reminiscent of a book illustration in Susan Discovers the World. He united apparently disconnected scenes and themes, so that they made an impact as a whole. He regarded the stage as something more than an effective setting for the actors: to him, it was an integral part of the play, of the ‘willing suspension of disbelief'. Its function as to produce enchantment: a dream.
It was typical of Trnka's sense of unity that he was not content merely to design the stage set, but also designing the costumes, and in his later lays went even further and involved himself with production.
The Venetian Carnival was followed by Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. Again he used a simple, colorful design. The play was being produced at a time of the German Occupation, and the references in it to a powerful kingdom of Bohemia sounded a patriotic note. Trnka's designs showed his awareness of the new meaning the play had acquired. He designed the Sicilian scenes in black and white and those set in Bohemia in colour. He used tapestries in the Sicilian scenes to produce a sense of the past, while in the Bohemian scenes he conveyed the intimate charm of nature, the lyrical landscapes of his native country.
His meaning came through clearly to both audience and critics, who appreciated the note of optimism. It was perhaps the favorable reactions to A Winter's Tale that gave Frejka and Trnka the idea of producing a series of Czech classics at the National Theatre. Their work together reached its peak with these plays. The original intention was to produce a series of four, but owing to the Occupation, they were able to produce only two. There was nearly a year between the first nights of these two plays, but they show a common inspiration, and they represent Trnka's finest work ad a stage designer. Each is in his lyrical mood; each is a painter's dream. He never surpassed them in any later designs.
Trnka's work with the Nation Theatre came to an end in 1944. He had not finished with stage design, however, and later he entered for a competition to design the stage sets for Smetana's opera Libuse. He won the first prize, but the Germans forbade the opera to be performed. They suppressed anything which they thought might lead to an upsurge of national feeling, or to a belief that the Germans could be defeated.
This opera, however, brought Trnka his first encounter with the old legends of Bohemia, and it revealed his strong feeling for ancient traditional themes. This was something he was to develop many years later in his film Old Czech Legends.
Trnka's work for the theatre represents an important phase in his development. But it was only one of several activities he was engaged in at the time.
I should post some images of the guitar, but I have a crappy web camera. I hope to invest in a real digital camera soon.
I have added some images to the Jiri Trnka information (see previous posts below), so that it isn't quite so bland. Tne Czech to English translation is pretty dry and repetative, and it's no fun reading about interesting artwork without being able to see it.
Here's more Trnka reading... sorry I didn't type more, but I'm multitasking enough as is.
Trnka had hoped to turn the Wooden Theatre into a successful professional puppet theatre. He had failed, but the failure had been balanced by the great success of his illustrations for children's books. He had hoped that his rag puppets would revolutionize children's toys, but his ambitious plans had come to nothing. But again the failure was balanced by success, for the exhibition gained him fame and opened the door to the theatre. It seemed that it was always his side-line which brought him success, and that, in the field dearest to his heart; he was to experience failure after failure. Yet puppets continued to absorb him and to draw him to an extraordinary extent, even when he tried to turn to other things.
Now orders for illustrations were pouring in. He found them restricting, like a suit of heavy armour. He kept trying to escape feeling frustrated, but then he would humbly return. In his moments of relaxation he would stoop over his puppets again, only to lay them aside once more. He was beginning to despair for ever finding a use for them.
During the period of 1940 to 1945 he scattered his energies in a variety of directions. His work during this time seems outwardly harmonious and well-balanced, but to look into it closely is to detect his feeling of nervousness and uncertainty. The word is varies, and at time the different pieces of work seem at variance with each other. By comparing them we can detect his price and despair, his fits of hopelessness. He felt that he was not using his gifts to the full. He began to work for the theatre: the real theatre, not that of puppets, and he also sought an outlet for his creative urge in oil painting and graphic design.
While Trnka had been preparing his exhibition 'The Children's Painter', he had met Jiri Frejka, the producer of the National Theatre in Prague. He already knew a certain amount about stage design, and from his work with the puppet theatre. Nor was he a complete greenhorn at designing stage scenery for the large theatre. He had already done some visual work in this direction, producing simple designs distinguishable from his designs for puppets plays largely by the face that the indications along the margins did not include such directions as 'neck 3.5 cm' 'arm 30 cm' 'leg 30 cm'. Back in Plzen he had helped Josef Skupa to design the sets for the opera Raduz and Mahulena by Zeyer.
But Trnka's exhibition, especially the insect diorama, showed his potentialities as a stage designer. Also he felt the need for work in another sphere, as a release from book illustration. And invitation to work for the National Theatre came just at the right moment.
February 1940 saw the opening night of Goldoni's Venetian Carnival, with stage design by J. Trnka. This was the beginning of several years' work for the National Theatre.
Scene by Jiri Trnka
Strakonice Bagpiper
Trnka's technique as a stage designer was also only at its beginning. But its basis was the same as that of his illustrations, and typical of him. He did not seek external motifs, so much as inner themes, concerning himself with the atmosphere of the play, its moods and emotions. He placed the emphasis on colour and visual effect. He tried to create and active setting for the play, instead of a static picture. His design for The Venetian Carnival was conceived in the form of a semicircular horizon. Certain sections turned and opened for the different scenes, producing and impression of a constantly changing environment. This horizon was simply drawn, and the actors stood outline against it. The whole thing was faintly reminiscent of a book illustration in Susan Discovers the World. He united apparently disconnected scenes and themes, so that they made an impact as a whole. He regarded the stage as something more than an effective setting for the actors: to him, it was an integral part of the play, of the ‘willing suspension of disbelief'. Its function as to produce enchantment: a dream.
It was typical of Trnka's sense of unity that he was not content merely to design the stage set, but also designing the costumes, and in his later lays went even further and involved himself with production.
The Venetian Carnival was followed by Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. Again he used a simple, colorful design. The play was being produced at a time of the German Occupation, and the references in it to a powerful kingdom of Bohemia sounded a patriotic note. Trnka's designs showed his awareness of the new meaning the play had acquired. He designed the Sicilian scenes in black and white and those set in Bohemia in colour. He used tapestries in the Sicilian scenes to produce a sense of the past, while in the Bohemian scenes he conveyed the intimate charm of nature, the lyrical landscapes of his native country.
His meaning came through clearly to both audience and critics, who appreciated the note of optimism. It was perhaps the favorable reactions to A Winter's Tale that gave Frejka and Trnka the idea of producing a series of Czech classics at the National Theatre. Their work together reached its peak with these plays. The original intention was to produce a series of four, but owing to the Occupation, they were able to produce only two. There was nearly a year between the first nights of these two plays, but they show a common inspiration, and they represent Trnka's finest work ad a stage designer. Each is in his lyrical mood; each is a painter's dream. He never surpassed them in any later designs.
Trnka's work with the Nation Theatre came to an end in 1944. He had not finished with stage design, however, and later he entered for a competition to design the stage sets for Smetana's opera Libuse. He won the first prize, but the Germans forbade the opera to be performed. They suppressed anything which they thought might lead to an upsurge of national feeling, or to a belief that the Germans could be defeated.
This opera, however, brought Trnka his first encounter with the old legends of Bohemia, and it revealed his strong feeling for ancient traditional themes. This was something he was to develop many years later in his film Old Czech Legends.
Trnka's work for the theatre represents an important phase in his development. But it was only one of several activities he was engaged in at the time.