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Cecilia's Artistry
The Phantom of the Opera"This was the throne, we made several of these. One of them was shipped to Hamburg and I believe one was shipped to Australia." Cecilia confesses as to final location she gets "muddled up on the throne and the chandeliers". She worked on The Phantom of the Opera. "In Toronto, and for the United States and other productions in various parts of the world. I did a lot of mold-making. I helped to create the upholstery and the mechanics where the Phantom hides inside the throne at the end of the show. The Phantom disappears into the throne right at the end of the performance. It really is quite an amazing prop. We used a lot of velvet with the pile facing downwards so things disappeared into blackness. I made these pillars, panels and I upholstered with the velvet. I did a lot of work on the throne with fibre glass and mold making and problem solving. At the Rabbit's Choice Prop Shop the other people I worked with on The Phantom of the Opera, the technicians and carpenters were amazing. They are geniuses. We worked together and that's why people came to us when they wanted additional thrones and chandeliers for other productions of Phantom." One more prop stands out, the monkey with the cymbals, "there were several of them actually and all were remote controlled except for an additional one we made for a wealthy collector who wanted one of his own. The box and the face took a lot of work. I went with another prop worker researching all over Ontario trying to buy the right colored fur for the monkey. We had to buy more fur, sheepskin and get it specially dyed.
"I was very lucky that I've always been creative and flexible with those creations. I went to a prop shop and showed them my stuff and they took me on. I went from being a nanny to working on Phantom. I worked on that show throughout its Toronto production and the Canadian tour. I worked on the thrones for Hamburg, Amsterdam and Manchester. I also worked on the chandelier for both the Toronto and the Canadian tour. This is the large chandelier that swooped over the audience. These big productions were great fun to work on, though I'm not keen on musicals. They supported other smaller productions. I enjoyed working on Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, Theatre Plus, Young People's Theatre (Lorraine Kimsa Theatre), Madrigal Theatre. I've worked on Cirque de Soleil and Disney's The Lion King and many other industrial displays including Canadian Stage. I've done scenic painting, and I've worked on Movies. I also worked on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."
"One of the best designers I ever worked with was the designer for Sunset Boulevard and Miss Saigon, Keith Gonzales. I loved him. "Probably the most fun to work on was the Donny Osmond version of Joseph. The designers for that were these two English guys who didn't like women at all. They'd come round the workshop and love everything the men had made, usually in the carpentry area, and the other props were usually built by women. So, one time when they were coming we traded the men's work for the women's work before they gave their opinion. Anyone could see that a carpenter wouldn't want to stick little oars on a little boat and put glittery stuff on various items or glue wool on a sheep. The designers came round and hated everything that was sitting in front of the women that the men had in fact made. They loved everything that sat in front of the men that the women had made. We got all of our props in anyway but this one time they didn't give us such terrible notes on our work. All we had to do was trade with the men and they liked our stuff." The Broken PicassoAs much as Cecilia loves to create, she did accidentally destroy a Picasso ceramic in her youth. Cecilia explains, "my grandparents traveled in Europe in the 1950's and stopped at Picasso's ceramics workshop. They brought a bunch of stuff back. I didn't know who Picasso was at all. We had some things in the family cottage. One piece was a big mug like a tankard. It was kept on a shelf in the kitchen. I remember when I was kid in the late '60s in North Yorkshire, in a small village, I'd sit and watch my Mum cook and play with this tankard. My Mum let me play with it. I remember when I played with it I saw the name Picasso: it was a signed piece. I remember asking who Picasso was. My Mum replied 'he's some artist in Spain'. Neither my Mum nor Grandmother were very impressed with him. Whenever he was mentioned they frowned and said he didn't like women and they didn't like the way he treated or portrayed women. Neither of these women would ever call themselves a feminist, but they knew when men didn't like them and when to stick up for themselves. My Mum always said she had a bad feeling from this Picasso mug so, to my surprise, the day I smashed it I didn't get into any trouble. I just remembered this because my Dad recently found out we have another Picasso in the family cottage in Whitby, England. The cottage was vandalized twice and broken into several times with a Picasso plate high up on the shelf. The Picasso was never touched. The Picasso is a beautiful yellow ceramic plate with an owl on it." The owl was a popular theme in Picasso's ceramics. Masks
"Commedia dell'arte masks date back to ancient street theatre in Italy. The dell'arte masks made by Cecilia are very light weight and are padded with foam and leather so they are comfortable for the actors. The actors may need to wear these for days on end. Some were for stage for actors to practice with. Some commedia characters morphed into other characters, Arlequino became the Harlequin. Pantomime became the pantomime in England. Someone could study commedia dell'arte for their entire life." LandscapesCecilia says, "I always have a sketchbook going, I carry it around with me in my purse and I make notes or I'll sketch people on the subway or sketch anything when I have a brainwave and write down what inspires me and I'll sketch when I'm at the playground with my kids, I sketch all the time."
"I have painted all seasons. I've drawn and painted when there has been snow or with big walls of ice when it has been difficult to get around. I've painted on the hottest summer days and found a little bit of shade. I love being by the water. I miss the sea having come from England but Lake Ontario does the trick for me. The colors are amazing with the water and the light reflecting off it. Even the sound on the Leslie Spit is gorgeous, along with the images of the waves and the sky. It's all so changeable. "Sometimes I just love a view when I walk or bike, particularly of nature and water. For me it's a great combination and this view has everything in it that I love. The time I like most is just before the sunset when time seems to stand still and the colors are so vivid. The sky is pink and blue and the water is as well, but the light on the land starts to fade a little bit and the sky and water become almost luminous.
"Ice on the Spit with the Bird Sanctuary and Toronto Islands has Ward's Island in the background, I did this outside, in January, so it must have been a reasonably nice January day because I was doing this live though I had to do it quickly because of the cold. I often find that when I have to do things quickly they work out better. Sometimes I'll bring them home and work on them again and I'm getting better at doing things from memory."
Cecilia has sold multiple pieces. "A doctor in Vancouver bought this acrylic on canvas painting and it is my favorite cityscape. It's called Don Valley Brickworks Study Number One. The sky was spectacular and I just love the earthy colors of the terracotta. There was this weird little chunk of building kind of suspended in mid-air, a corridor almost, and I found the shape inspirational and that's what I wanted to capture. When I painted it I took some liberties with the colors, using lots of blue, red, and orange. I painted as long as my inspiration lasted. Colors are something that we have in our lives and I find that there isn't quite enough, so I'm happy to add any wherever I can. I love painting people's portraits when they wear bright colors or they have unusually colored hair, like red hair or very dark black hair that looks like it has blue streaks in it. I find that colours in a landscape are especially rich after it's rained."
"Abigail Cherry Beach Combing With Windsurfers, comes from one of my favorite activities, which is beachcombing. I wanted to capture that moment when you find something great on the ground and you bend to pick it up. My daughter did that and I caught the moment and I'm pleased with the effort. All the windsurfing sails in the background create their own rhythm and it's got that wonderful Toronto windy sky." Portraits
Dreamscapes
Sometimes life itself inspires. "Parenting Dream was when I was feeling overwhelmed with parenting and being the main child care provider and the responsibility with the lack of sleep, the lack of money, and the feeling that you're doing everything and it's a really tough side of parenting that people rarely talk about. It makes you so strong and you find out so much about yourself. You really find out what your priorities are. It turns you into the most dangerous animal. I mean what could be more dangerous than a parent looking after their young." Masks
Face Painting
Bringing a smile to a child's face is one way Cecilia uses her talent. "With face painting I just started off doing kids on the street for a street party. Now I do a few schools, and I've done a fair at Toronto's Harbourfront for the Canada Day weekend. It is just great fun. I have excellent body paints that I like using for face painting and I love using glitter. Once the kids see the other children walking around they come to me. It's very comfortable paint to wear. It's like watercolor and you can sponge or paint it on. I must have done hundreds of children." Painted Jacket
Versatility is the word to describe Cecilia. To help a friend she took a jacket and made it stand out. "This is just a very old military jacket and it's all grey wool and is quite heavy." A friend acted as a deejay for her 40th Birthday party. He asked her to "please make this jacket funky and jazz it up. I really went over the top on the piece. Everywhere he wears it he gets positive comments, people even follow him to ask about it. It's mostly acrylic and it also has hot glue that is painted gold; that's my props heritage coming, using hot glue. It was a fun piece to create. I love making things funky and putting color where it didn't exist before." The Artist's BiographyCecilia was born in Bradford, North Yorkshire. "My parents were passing through the area. My Mum's French and my Dad is from Yorkshire. He's also an artist and he'd just started to produce a lot of beautiful paintings. He works mostly in oils and he's very good at portraits and landscapes. His name is Richard Booth. My Mum is very creative too, she knits the most extraordinary sweaters, each one a work of art. Her name is Renee Entwistle." "I remember my earliest time of being creative was when I was a kid in the countryside. I was making mud pies and mud cakes in the garden and decorating them with flowers and leaves. I recall the satisfying feeling of that process of creativity. I was very young at the time. When I was older it was being able to draw and paint in class better than anybody else without even really trying. I always had a very good sense of color, shape and form. It's been natural for me to be able to put colors together and make it look great." The Hexagon Quilt
One of her most time-consuming projects came out of the blue: The Hexagon Quilt. Every stitch was sewn by hand. Cecilia said, "I would never really choose to work on anything so picky normally, but the pregnancy hormones with my last daughter did it to me. I have always saved fabric and old clothes including many pieces of fabric from shows I worked on. I was very interested in hexagons at the time along with snowflakes, two and three dimensional images. This all came together in the Hexagon Quilt. The hexagons are only about 3 inches across. I used upholstery fabrics, gold and silver lamés, along with silver velvet from a costume we made for Mrs. Eaton years ago, fabric from Phantom and Joseph, my kids clothes, my own teenage clothing, curtains from houses I used to live in, clothing from friends. I realized that looking at a fabric can bring back a memory just like smell does. It can take you way back. I compiled this huge quilt and it took ages. Once I had the baby, I put it down and didn't work on it for about eight years. Now it's finished, and I backed it with a King sized piece of cotton sheeting. I think it's looks spectacular. Clocks
The Artist's InspirationWhat inspires the artist? Cecilia answers, "My back garden is inspiring. It's mostly native plants, meant to be low maintenance. These are plants that was here before the Europeans arrived in North America. I have lots of potted plants in the house from cuttings so I have an indoor garden as well. Cecilia adds, "My main influence is nature. There are lots of artists I love such as Marc Chagall, The Bauhaus, Frida Kahlo and Christine Pybus." Contribuing to the Design of the Phantom's Throne and Chandelier and destroying a Picasso are just a small part of the artistic excperience of Cecilia Booth. Her landscapes beautifully capture Toronto's Leslie Spit and other picturesque locales. Add to that portraits, masks, abstracts, decorative arts and Cecilia is a very versatile artist. Who knows what she will do next, but whatever it is, the piece will be impressive. |
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