A-OKAY at The OK

My part of the renovated OK Theater concession area and entryway is done! The vision has changed quite a bit from the beginning, but I'm very happy with the result. It has been a year since master carver Steve Arment (shown above) asked me to join him in designing this area. He worked along with Anna Vogel to renovate the interior of the theater and it looks amazing. I was honored to be asked to help with this part.

Originally, I was going to paint art nouveau style murals on the entire length of three walls surrounding the concession area. Steve designed "the scrolly bits" as he likes to call his woodcarving, and I came up with a mockup to show the client.

They liked it in general but nixed the animals and suggested having the space filled with flowers. I stole some art nouveau flowers from online, for demonstration purposes, and presented a second mockup.

It was approved and I started with the shortest wall (13 feet!) which represented Zumwalt Prairie.

The client redefined the use and layout of the space, and Steve and I made many other creative changes along the way, so it was ultimately decided to only deal with two walls and to downsize the murals to fit within frames. So I took the right side of what was already done to continue painting native flowers. The style still had an organic flow and was stylized but no longer "pure" art nouveau.

Then on to the second (larger) mural which represented Wallowa Lake and native flowers of the East Moraine.

All done and now playing with possible colors for the surrounding walls and stenciling.

Then the real fun began ... installation. The OK Theater has a wonderful work crew (Brian, Justin & Joseph) that made every whim of Steve's come true.

The season opening Margo Cilker concert was wonderful. Here are two shots of the spaces in use. I'm very appreciative of Steve's guidance and the theater owner's (Darrell and Christy Brann) enthusiasm.