nother pic

Shep Paine has done the appraisal on this one ,so now all I have to do is box it up and send it to Ottawa.

Stephen Lawson you have a private message.

Got it!

Thanks Stephen for everything.Cheers! John.

Thanks, John. I'll have a look.

This is where I am right now.I have broken it down again into 5 separate modules so that I can fine tune the modules where they join together.I want to have an invisible joint where they meet.I will completely finish each module now so that when I set it up at the museum there will be minimal finishing required.I have to do it this way as I can't get it out of my basement in one piece(I was just lucky with the others,especially the Jenny piece as it just barely fit out the door).

Man I sure love the creative process, with so many different options to explore, I keep changing my mind on the storyline.I could appeal to a wide audience by using the poster idea or I could narrow it down to my original idea.This decision has to be made fairly soon before I get too far into it.
All of my dioramas to this point have been aimed at a wide audience in a museum setting.My last diorama " The Homecoming" was originally to be titled "The Road Taken".The idea was quite simple a man returning from war, standing on a spot in the road and remembering making a decision that changed the rest of his life.Now he has returned from the war and is standing in the same spot looking at his "Backyard Flyer" and wondering that after all that he has seen at war could he ever go back to those innocent days and continue his life as before.
Any veteran would understand his dilemma but would a wider audience really get the point of the story.(Fortunately this original story still exists but now in pictures only that I took before I decided to make all of changes.)
The changes that I made came at the suggestion of many of my friends and family to open things up a bit to make it more of a celebration of his return home.
They made many good points,the subject matter is too heavy and most viewers would not get it.It is too stark in nature and does not have enough detail to keep a museum audience interested for very long.The colors are drab and not very appealing.Too depressing in general. These are all valid points but not my vision of what it should say or what I am trying to say in the diorama.And of course there is the money aspect.Originally the diorama was appraised by my appraisers at half the value of others that I had done mostly because of the reasons I have already mentioned.
Well in the end you could say I sold out artistically and went for the buck and pleasing the viewer which of course is true when looked at from this point of view.In the end I had to ask myself are you doing this for yourself or have you already promised the piece to a wider audience when it was finished.
Viewers usually love detail and enjoy searching for it.It has been said that a good diorama is one where you can always find new things to look at.Capturing the imagination of kids and holding it for awhile has always been my primary goal in doing this stuff. I think that I made the right decision.

The next diorama I am doing is for myself and it is promised to nobody.

I look forward to seeing it!

Today I hope to finished boxing up the latest diorama and sending it off to its new home on Friday.It has been a long but interesting journey.
The new RR/Sergio diorama is now well underway but the storyline has yet to be finalized.I have mulled this over in my mind for some time now,mostly about how broad or narrow should I make it.The overall theme is a movie set and how old movies were made using a kind of theme park idea set in Hollywood or even as a Monument Valley tourist attraction.
Because I am doing it as an imaginary general public attraction,it should be made appealing to a wide audience just as any creative entrepreneur would do in real life.
The time era would be from the beginnings of the western genre to the present day taking in movies up to the present time.
I want to represent the best examples of each decade ,from silent films to the talkies to today.I will have a special corner for Sergio's work and a hero and villains section as well.
Later if I decide to I can open a parking lot with cars and motorcycles outside the main gates of the park and lots of other interesting things going on as well etc..etc.. Anyway that is the plan for now.Should be fun !

Until I get back to the Falcon/Bleriot piece,I won't be posting a lot here.Please see the RR section of this forum for posts on my latest stuff.

Diorama 5 is finally finished and waiting to be picked up !

Well three of the boxes are gone,the other two proved to be too heavy for us to lift so they will be coming back to get them next week.At least now my wife has half a smile on her face.

Now my wife can really smile (for awhile anyway) The last box is out the door.

Congratulations John!

Thank you Stephen ! and thank you for your encouragement when I really needed it.

Everything arrived safe and sound in Ottawa the same day as it was shipped a couple of weeks ago but this time I will have to go up there and put it together myself as there are a few tricks to doing it right without damaging anything.I will take a few pics and post them here once it is installed.Cheers! John.