Environment Artist and El Paso Native, Patrick Sullivan, has been doing some serious work lately! He graduates from the Art Institute of Phoenix on Friday, June 17, 2011, with a BA in Game Art Design! Congratulations Patrick, we know you will go far! Check out this demo video of his work and be sure to check out his website: Navillus 3D
 |
| David Beck holding his piece "No Name #32" |
David Beck is Chuco to the core! This El Paso homie has been living in the Chuco for years! He is the manager of a boot factory in downtown El Paso called Back at the Ranch. He is an artist in multiple ways. Not only does he paint, but he also makes some of the glass featured in our "Home Blown Glass" section. Check out this painting David did, and look for him in the upcoming "Annual Skate Deck Art Show"
 |
| Click on image to enlarge |
Neon Desert Entrance Sign
Neon Desert is to be El Paso's first official music festival. Fortunately, the Neon Desert Crew picked us to help them construct some of the structural components of the festival. Here are some of the beginnings of what will become the Neon Desert sign. The first part of making this unique sign is planning out the shape. Once the shape, size, and design of the sign are set in place, this all needs to be transfered to the wood being used to construct the sign.
Drawing out the sign may be the toughest, yet most important part. After the sign is drawn out, the wood needs to be cut. This sign has some really interesting cuts. To save wood all the sign template letters were cut out of six sheets. There wasn't much scrap wood left over from these template sheets. This sign is going to be quite large, well over twenty feet long, and eight feet tall. To add a bit of a twist, the sign is also going to be three-dimensional.
"NEON" Template Letters
Once your templates are cut, then its time to trace out these templates on the rest of your pieces and cut those out. Cutting can really be time consuming when you have as many cuts as this project does. As you can tell in the picture to the right, we have material scattered everywhere. Falcore is looming in the background.
This "N" is 8'x8'
All sorts of weird pieces!
"O" and "E"
Tracing part of the "N"
Cut!
Tracing the "E"
Scrap pile.
 |
| Philip Sullivan. Owner/Operator of Chuco Fresh! |
Lets make these letters 3-D!
Now that's how you cut 2x4's
Knockin' out the first half of the first "N"
Making the other half of the first "N"
Can you see it?
Philip Sullivan and Chase Ortiz holding up the two parts that will make the "N"!
Now thats lookin' Fresh!
 |
| Kim Sully! Thanks for all the help and support! It took almost twenty, 8' foot 2"x4"s to finish the first "N". The next step after finishing the "N" was to finish the rest of the "Neon" letters. To finish these letters, we needed to cut another round of 2"x4"s. So, we cut another 60 studs to get the job done! Without a mitre saw, this would have been hell! |
The wood piles up quickly!
That's how you cut studs!
The aftermath of cutting sixty 2"x4"s
Here is the "E" being built
Took all day, but we got the "E" and "O" connected and ready to go! Now for the last "N"...
Success! Next step... Construct the "Desert" letters.
Tracing and cutting the "R"
Making the "E
Photos: Kim and Philip Sullivan Once all of the framework is complete, its time to enclose the letters and REALLY make them three-dimensional!
The picture to the left is a picture of Philip Sullivan putting the layers of ply on the first "N" of "NEON". Enjoy the pictures, and .GIF files. 
Both "N"'s complete!
Another 40 sheets of ply, and 30 - 2"x4"s
Neon Desert
Goofin' around on the sign
Enclosing the "E" and "O" of "Neon"
It gets tricky
Sweet! Now that the "NEON" letters were completed, it was time that the painters start their work.
Putting down the primer layer
The "D" of "DESERT" was being built at the same time.
Maggie Sullivan measuring and marking the 2"x4"s to be cut
"NEON" with primer and "D"
Kim Cutty, gettin' his cut on!
Painting the "NEON", neon!
Cutting into the night!
Building that "T"
Now that is NEON PINK!
With the "D" and "T" primered
The beautiful Nicole Ingraham posing for the camera in front of the lit Neon Desert Sign.
Neon Desert has now come and gone. The first year went down in the record books as a huge success! There were about 11,000 who attended the Neon Desert Music Festival! The bands killed it, the weather permitted, the artist threw down, the people were feelin' it, and our sign was a focal point of the festival!
People seemed to really enjoy a "transformed" El Paso! A number of people at the festival kept saying, "It doesn't feel like we're in El Paso." The event livened up Downtown! El Paso needs a signature event such as this! You could compare this event to a "Small-Scale" Austin City Limits, or Lollapalooza. Hopefully, this event will enrich El Paso's culture for years to come!
Check out the final process of building this 24' x 8' x 4' sign created from wood! Lots of Gifs in this one! All good things take patience and hard work!
Some fitting quotes:
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all.
- Sam Ewing
- Sam Ewing
Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.
- Henry David Thoreau
- Henry David Thoreau
One letter left to frame out!
The framing of one letter, from beginning to end!
Kim Sullivan cutting the studs for the framing of the letters!
All letters framed out!
Miss Maggie Sully measuring it up!
Nice fit!
Doin' work! Boxin' it up!
Yo!
Drill 90! That's what's up!
Almost complete!
Complete! Success!
Adios! Till next time Neon Desert!
Special Thanks to Maggie and Kim Sullivan, LJ Shamaley, Nicole Ingraham, and David Beck for helping with this intense project!
