Week #4 -Jackie Gonzalez - Your good friend, Texture

Texture is defined as the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or substance. It can be found in everyday shadows, on the leaves of plants, on fabrics, paintings, basically it is not hard to find. Not to mention it is included in the basic elements of design. In lighting design, texture can add dimension to our composition(s); can give clues on where you are slash tell you the setting; and or can make something more interesting to look at. Although color is wonderful to work with, adding texture can make your design look finished or just add a little extra zhuzh. 

I was walking on Hennessy St. on the main backlot of Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California after getting lunch with my friend, Victoria, at the WB Commissary. I came across this exterior with a bright red door and window with a giant shadow of the fire escape above it. This picture and texture has always wow'ed me because of the complex line configurations that are lined up, but at the same time it is kind of all over the place with the spacing between the safety railing; the spacing between the floor pattern and the medium beams holding it above the door. The texture reassures you that this is indeed a metropolitan setting, it screams New York at me even though these lots can be dressed to be any city really. Also, if you squint your eyes, the fire escape becomes a distorted or very angled 3-D cage!

Lastly, I wanted to share this memory of last year's Brown Bag Variety Show when I helped Nita with tech in the Robert Cohen theatre. Nita, Natori, and I were trying to decide what texture would go on the back curtain to liven up the space a bit. We landed on this speckled gobo and Nita added blue light to make the texture pop along with the strong red center, down light where the performers would be. This made the space eery yet really fun since the speckle texture looks like confetti coming down and worked well with the show's theme of "it's the end of the world, let's party!".