Theatrical Design as an artist

Right now, I am getting an opportunity to do work within the theatre world that I rarely get to do: design. I'm working on one scenic and lighting design as part of my main job at the high school I work at and I'm working on three different lighting design projects with two different local companies. In my personal life, I'm working on my painting, learning some new skills in a completely different world of thought than art, and making a 3D shark just because I felt like the white space on my wall was too much. 

Theatrical design is what I actually went to school to do. I never had an interest in being the one building the sets or coordinating the show, but that is how my career has ended up working out so far. For me, design is where I love being. I am still learning and practicing because art is never fully mastered, but I am a skilled designer and I enjoy the process of research and learning that comes with design. I am a strong researcher and I've always been very academic with a wide variety of interests so designing a show taps into all of that and really allows me to think in a way that is very abstract and very imaginative. Or, with lighting design specifically, there is a technical mindset to it that I don't often get to use. Programming plays a big role in lighting and understanding how to create a design without being able to see it or touch it without that programming is a vastly different way of thinking than a scenic design is. 

Now, I've rambled without much of a point, but I've never spoken about my design work in any meaningful way. I express a fondness for it, I mention that I enjoy it, but even through my undergraduate degree, no one ever really expressed the joy of what theatrical design really means. It is highly technical and yet it is wildly artistic. It is also one of the ultimate forms of artistic collaboration because without actors on the stage, your work is not finished. The design is a part of a larger "painting." That painting is interactive, it is dynamic, and it relies on the presence of an audience for its very existence. 

I have fallen out of love with theatre in recent years for various reasons. Design has given my work a lot of meaning again and I will discuss more designs here in the near future if only to share some of the background of a process that I believe is often very hidden and can be difficult to understand. I'll share some work here and with some new labels, I'll sort of my theatre stuff out. This post does not come to any big revelation, but I did feel it was important to discuss as someone who has considered themselves an artist before just about anything else. I also felt it was important for myself to write it out as I have been burned out and exhausted and unable to find as much joy in my creativity as I had in the past. Thank you all for reading.