Design Diary

Busy, Busy

2026-10-20T19:28:52.859-07:00

It's been hectic around here!

My show at Pocket Sandwich Theatre opened successfully. (Sometimes you wonder if it will ever open!) Here's a photo in the midst of the chaos of building The Werewolf of London.

The creepy swaddled head on the left was left over from the last show (and startled me every single time I caught it in the corner of my eye). The rough floral painting in the foreground was something I painted fast onto a "French" IKEA mirror I had in my garage. That one car garage is where most of my theater supplies and set dressing live... making it quite tricky to park the car! The mirror got hung on the wall above the faux fireplace.

As that build wrapped up, my next one Eureka Day! at Stage West got busy.

The set for this play is the library of a private "community" school in Berkeley, California... in a building designed by ground-breaking architect Julia Morgan. Best known for designing Hurst Castle for the newspaper baron William Randolph Hurst, she was the first woman licensed as an architect in California and the first female architecture student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.

Also a wonderful designer!

This is a swimming pool she designed for the Berkeley City Club.

I felt completely fan-girl about getting to try to imitate her style. (There might be a few arches in my set. Possibly.)

Insulted by a Coffee Cup?

2026-10-07T11:40:06.999-07:00

I'm kidding. Kinda.

Woman drinking coffee from Edwards Coffee

Family Circle February 1952

https://midcenturypage.com/

It's like this... Being too early for a meeting at Stage West, where my set for Eureka Day! is building, I tried out a new coffee shop and one of those house flavors that seem like a good idea at the time. Then I sat outside in their pretty courtyard to enjoy our finally cooler Fall weather and to get a little thinking done. 1

The fancy-flavor coffee's cup came with a Bible verse written on the rim, Romans 3:10-12.

Now, I'm the kind of obnoxious person who, as time allows, reads footnotes and appendices, so of course I also look up Bible verses. In case you haven't noticed, it's not uncommon in the US to throw a little Bible into Business. Plumber's trucks or auto repair places or famous hamburger chains 2 will sometimes include a pithy bit of wisdom from the Good Book. So I read up on my coffee cup...

...and my day darkened...

Romans 3:10-12 is of the opinion that we're none of us good and not really even giving it a try.

Oh, that optimist, Apostle Paul! Given the state of the world at this moment though, his view is somewhat... plausible. 3

As it happened, the day was beautiful and I was feeling cheerful and my sturdy (not to say stubborn) psyche was in good enough fettle that I could bounce back from this scolding. What though if another coffee drinker - first sip of coffee of the day! - were feeling a bit fragile?

Here is the verse, as rendered by those poets and scholars of King James:

As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth,
There is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way,
They are together become unprofitable;
There is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Bleak. Obviously I'm overthinking this. But...?! 4 5

Footnotes:

1 - The thinking was progress on the latest fantasy novel... You'll hear more about it!

2 - In-N-Out Burger's fry boat is much more encouraging, especially today: "For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes." I like the sound of that. Fingers crossed.

3 - Dark. Depressing. But... y'know plausible.

4 - Please! Oh, writers-on-cups or fry boats... Wield Chapter and Verse responsibly!

5 - The fancy flavor? Kinda... okay? Not sure I'll visit again even with a pretty courtyard.

Insta-rific?

2026-09-22T14:02:17.246-07:00

I've been interviewed for other shows for all kinds of media - mostly print, but also radio and film/TV. Upcoming is my first for Instagram.

We'll see how it goes I guess?

I'll admit I'm nervous to be following the vid of the charming costume designer with the nuclear rats though... HERE

The show is Eureka Day! upcoming at Stage West in Fort Worth.

Can I add in a nuclear unicorn?

Stage West Eureka Day! - design by Clare Floyd DeVries

Ever Notice This?

2026-09-21T08:20:51.382-07:00

It seems that, whenever I get engrossed in a thing - an idea or a project - the world suddenly joins me by going along with the theme...

I'm sure that it's a matter of becoming sensitized to a subject and therefore noticing what you'd otherwise overlook. (Like the expectant parent suddenly noticing children everywhere!) Surely the world doesn't start stalking you? But, however it works, I'm being stalked by the subjects of Space and AI.

Well, AI is the subject everywhere right now... As regular, non-tech-first people begin to see and to understand AI's presence everywhere. And its growing threat to jobs, certainly, but more than that. (Threatening jobs is bad enough: no jobs means no money and no health insurance here in the US. And where will young career people get their experience, if AI does all the"easy" work? It's worth worrying about.)

And Space? I'm on quite a reading binge, having just discovered the Liaden Universe series, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. (Only 30 years late!) An excellent, page-turning, many-volumed space opera which I'm really enjoying... in that great "Oh. Is it 2:00 am?" way. Loving it! (I'd suggest starting with Agent of Change HERE.)

On a whim yesterday, one in my household (possibly tired of watching me read?) suggested we go to the matinee of the latest play at Kitchen Dog Theater: Absentee, by Julia Doolittle.

Really, really good! I'll put the blurb at the bottom of the page, if you're curious, but, basically, it's set in space and features AI. Chiming perfectly with my personal theme-of-the-moment. Life is funny that way. This is an excellent production: the script, the acting, and the production values! (I had to turn down designing this show and now I'm so sad. The set, by Brian Woffard, is wonderful! Now I'm having those envious doubts... would I have thought of a set this cool?!) The lighting too and... well, see for yourself. Grab a ticket!

Far out in the Milky Way, “Beacons” serve as lighthouses for warping spaceships around the galaxy. When a U.S. Space Forces ship explodes near Beacon 44.AR.90, its Operator finds herself alone in deep space with only her ship’s A.I. for companionship. That is, until a persistent canvasser calls, desperate to convince her to vote absentee in the 2088 election. As the Operator finds herself waiting over days and weeks and months for the clean up to be over, she finds she has to come to terms with her isolation, grief, and her political voice. Winner of the 2019-2020 Woodward/Newman Drama Award

Chocolates

2026-09-06T09:14:19.837-07:00

Public Domain image: Ladrone Islands by Samuel Davis

Right now I'm reading two different books.

Both are newly published novels by authors I have never read before. Both books I heard about online.

Lately, at one place and time in my days, I'm reading - slowly - Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer. I'm reading it as a first edition, in hardback, and signed by the author, a luxury I hardly ever splurge on. But the author has a Pulitzer (impressive); the review I read (I forget where) was so enthusiastic; the cover design is so charming (I'm actually babying a dust cover, which I rarely bother with); and the characters, settings, and language are so delicious; that I visit the novel daily in the same way that I ration out a box of fine chocolate bonbons. I savor wonderful flavor and try to make the delight last.

Its Italy is beautiful. Not all that much is happening at Villa Coco, but I've met fascinating characters and I've learned about olive harvesting. Autumn is advancing in lovely description - as the main character says, "I am not the first to comment on the poignant beauty of autumn, or the gold-edged pages of its days."

Highly reccomend.

The second book is different in every way I can think of off hand; I'm enjoying it just as much, but differently. Phantom Signals is, I understand, the first fantasy novel in a series called Code and Stone by M. P. Moorland, an IT engineer who (classic motivation!) wrote the book he wanted to read. I heard about it online. If I'm honest, this may be the only time I have ever had my curiousity roused to the point of actually buying the book by an author's pitch and a book website with a sample chapter. Out of amazement, as much as anything, I bought the ebook to tryout. I'm enjoying it!

A mix of IT and magic? aliens? mysterious weirdness? This modern London seems to be suffering from bugs in its oldest operating program. So far the story is, for me, a compulsive read that kept me up until 2:00 am last night.

In feeling it reminds me very much of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, although the more I poke at that comparison, the more differences I see. I'm only about halfway through my read. I can't allow myself to start again today until I finish a few other things, because I know now I won't be able to stop until I finish the book. (High praise! I love a page-turner.) So this book, for me, is another sort of chocolate experience... something compulsive, like M&Ms maybe? Something to binge on.

Recommend! I hope this first novel is just the first in a loooong successful series.

I also recommend this kind of book juggling.

If you have the mental bandwidth - life can be too hectic for this - it's really satisfying to have a book at hand to suit your mood of the moment. Not just stories either. A thick non-fiction tome or an art book sitting by your armchair to wander through in an idle moment is wonderful too. Over time those moments add up: you may find that you absorbed more of a serious topic than you would have predicted.

My non-fiction go-to at the moment is An Atlas of Imagined Islands, edited by Huw Lewis-Jones. This gorgeously illustrated survey of places that don't exist starts with an illustration of a sky-island by Chris Riddell and a quote from Shakespeare:

I think he will carry this island home in his pocket

and give it to his son for an apple.

And sowing the kernels of it in the sea,

bring forth more islands.

It's been a very rich reading year for me so far...

Are You Registered to Vote?

2026-08-27T13:49:26.982-07:00

REALLY?

More than a million Texans have been dropped from the voters' rolls. Please make sure you're not one of them!

And how about all y'all in other states? Be sure. Be very sure.

CHECK NOW

Architectural Historical Research

2026-07-13T14:48:27.970-07:00

My next show will be a treat!

The playwright specifically calls for the set to be a school children's library... as it might be designed by legendary architect Julia Morgan. The first woman to to be admitted to the architecture program at l'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first female architect licensed in California. Most famous for designing Hurst Castle. (Go check her out at Wikipedia!)

More than that, her buildings are beautiful - designed in a unique blend of 19th century Beaux Arts style mixed with a California sensibility and material palette.

Photo by King of Hearts - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21785132

Designer Fashion

2026-06-26T16:06:30.665-07:00

Just found this funny photo... my paint pants and shoes.

As you can see, I'm a messy painter! With a bad habit of wiping my hands on my pants too.

Other fashionista scenic designer trends? One painter I know recomends wearing Hawaiian print shirts because the odd paint drip hardly shows. And I knew one who wore old fashioned golf shoes - the kind with rubber spikes - so he could walk on wet floors without leaving footprints!

There Is Just Joy In It

2026-06-23T13:19:50.662-07:00

An interview with artist Yoshiko Yamamoto, whose woodblock prints amaze me!

She discusses why, in an age of AI, humans still need to make things ourselves.

I'll include just one of her prints here to give you the idea of her Craftsman / Japanese style:

(I happen to own a copy of this print, so feel okay about showing it here.)

There is something so wonderfully observed about her nature printsand a technical command that awes me...

And here is an example of William Morris' work - his ideals of craft are referenced in the video.

Design by William Morris

Book Illustration

2026-06-19T15:23:06.512-07:00

Map Art

2026-06-16T12:52:42.831-07:00

I've been designing and drawing maps for a series of fantasy books that a friend and I have been writing. Maps are fascinating, and making them is fun.

But a different friend just brought my attention to this amazing art map!

Watch the video. Really. It's long, and it's worth the time. From People Make Games:

"He Won't Stop Building a Map to an Imaginary Place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is8N7B9b0GQ

The enormous, wonderful, ever-changing, gameified, art map of Jerry Gretzinger!

The Ghost's Afoot!

2026-05-31T16:10:32.532-07:00

Well, I'm back in town and back in the theater.

While I was away the Stage West production of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Ghost Machine was delayed a week... so I was able to watch the Designer Run yesterday.

Tomorrow I'll be hitting the discount fabric stores along Harry Hines looking for fabric for a seance tablecloth.

Nice to be home!

Public Domain image of a seance circa 1920

Wikimedia

That Bard... At It Again

2026-05-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to me that, whatever the situation, you can find a Shakespeare quote that fits.

Today's America?

O nation miserable,

With an untitled tyrant bloody-sceptered,

When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again?

And that ill-luck-to-name-it Thane's play is just too, too quotable nowadays:

It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Brought to my attention by Ron Charles, former book critic for the murdered Washington Post. An interesting take on the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

What's Going On?

2026-04-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Well, the first draft of the next book is kinda done - mostly done - sorta...

Sssssh.... It's resting.

Which, honestly kills me. I know it's a good idea, necessary even, to let a manuscript rest and cool down a bit before you start working on it again. Just as it is a good idea with any design to walk away for a few days and then come back to it. (That's when that stupid thing smites you in the eye. "How did I not see that?" you exclaim.) Rest is needed.

But.

I hate it.

So I'm moving on to making illustrations.

I've been really enjoying making linocut prints! And, making it even more fun, Santa brought me new really spiffy Japanese carving tools - so much better than the standard tool kit I had before. These make the experience feel like butter carving... smooooooth. Lovely.

Notice the bright red baron? A super special custom 3D printed tool with ball bearings on its underside to pressure the print's paper against the linoleum 'plate.' Another joy to use.

On the theater front?

I just accepted a new play to design for October!

(Can't announce it yet - but it should be fun.)

Secret Projects... Well, Not Yet Ready to Reveal Ones Anyway

2026-04-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

I've needed to cut back on theater work for the next few months, but I'll be staying busy with other projects. The biggest of these is writing a sequel to a novel that a friend and I co-wrote last year!

A fantasy novel set in the world of Aenoriia.

That's the world I've been showing you in Minecraft form since... well, since I discovered it during covid. Then (also in a break from theater work) I joined an international group of Minecrafters building a fantasy city... now a continent. And now a novel. Or two...

Not quite ready to pull the tarp off of that first novel yet (still tinkering under its hood), but pretty soon now, once I've formatted the ebook, and built the website, and solved a fussy little technical glitch... (You know those stripey scanner codes on the backs of books? Eeeevil little things!)

But.

Today I'm working on the map for Book 2, so, as a teaser, here is the map from Book 1,

AKA

Ptolith in the Time of Rain

Map of Ptolith copyright Clare Floyd DeVries

If you want to see / learn more about Aenoriia, check out these sites:

https://www.instagram.com/astrophagymc/?hl=en or

https://www.youtube.com/c/astrophagymc

Close to the Bone

2026-04-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

Art and life sometimes come uncomfortably close.

Sitting through the Designer Run of Kitchen Dog Theater's new play, Dream Hou$e, was...

was weird was what it was.

The premise is that two sisters who recently lost their mother and inherited the long-time family home agree to let a reality TV show rennovate it for sale.

The IRL is that two designers who recently lost their mothers and have/had to deal with the family home watched and tried to seem all professional an' stuff. (Basically, not weep all over the rest of the design team.)

Sometimes theater hits too close to the bone.

I have a visceral memory of watching another play called The Marriage of Betty & Boo, decades ago when I was very pregnant. I have no remembrance of what happened in that play - except that every couple minutes (it seemed like) Betty would have another miscarraige and the actors would bounce a rubber baby doll off the stage. That I remember.

(The other couple, who had picked the play, apologized to the pregnant lady all the way home.)

And I know of at least one person who saw I play I designed, Natural Shocks, who told me later that it had shown her that she needed to get out of bad relationship.

It's not just safely sitting in a plush theater seat where this happens either...

On a trip to Europe once, when I happened to be in the Netherlands, in Amsterdam, actually, on a free day with nothing planned... I got a call from a theater asking whether I was interested in designing The Diary of Anne Frank?

What are the odds of that?

Of course I said yes. And, suddenly, the day had a plan: visit Anne Frank's house, or rather, the warehouse where her family hid during WWII. Which I had intended not to see. Because wimp.

So I toured the Frank's hiding place and felt all the things I had intended not to feel... But, because I was viewing this site professionally, I had just that little bit of distance that allowed me to be touched but not... well, blubber in public.

The other night, watching that Designer Run? I wrapped myself in professionalism. I took notes and, when the actresses cut too close to the bone, I sketched a random sketch.

Dream Hou$e, Kitchen Dog Theater, playing now!

February Rush

2026-03-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Well THAT month rushed by!

Since the New Year, two shows (and a wicked lingering cough)...

Now on stage: Pompeii!! at Kitchen Dog Theater in our new home!

For this clever and darkly funny musical - written by members of the Company - the set design is a blend of the original 2018 production by David Walsh and new bits by myself... like this crazy Wheel of Misfortune.

And Arsenic and Old Lace at Pocket Sandwich Theatre

Both good and funny shows! (Pompeii!! ends Sunday).

Cheese Burger

2026-01-30T09:27:00.000-08:00

Public Domain Image

Some recent advice I'm trying out: ask yourself in the morning what the best thing was about yesterday.

My yesterday was pretty good, so lots to choose from. But my fav moment was probably when I was painting and aging planks for decks for the set of Kitchen Dog Theater's upcoming Pompeii!! (opening Feb. 12th!) and I got to hand our TD a cheeseborough. (In highly technical language, this thingie is a weird, twisty pipe clamp/connector.)

I finally got an answer to a long-nagging question:

"Why are these called cheeseboroughs?"

Apparently, the word "Cheeseborough" is, or was, often stamped right across the thingie. And, as it was much easier to ask for it by that moniker than to ask for "a weird, twisty pipe clamp/connector" that became its nickname. But the nickname also has a nickname... to Americans "cheeseborough" easily morphs to "cheeseburger" then to "burger."

So in a theater you'll occasionally hear a lighting guy call out, "Hand me a burger!"

PS Ha! But why is it stamped "Cheeseborough" you ask? Apparently that's the name of the area of England and the foundry that makes 'em.

Wooly Hats

2026-01-25T10:35:00.000-08:00

Well, Texas and DFW are bracing for another Snowpocalypse...

Of course my next play is supposed to Load Into the Brand New Building Tomorrow, amid "wintery mix."

But amid all the angst of this little problem in the arts in Dallas...

My God!

The situation in Minneapolis!

The government - OUR government - are murdering citizens in the street!

And then lying about them. Blackening their names, lying about the threat they did not pose. Murdering a poet and mother of three who was leaving the scene after only observing. Murdering a nurse, an ICU nurse who worked at the Veterans' hospital and who was protecting a woman ICE agents had shoved. There only to witness and observe ICE's doings.

And what are ICE doing?

ICE agents - masked and nameless - grab a two year old baby to deport. They grab a five year old in a wonderfully cute blue fuzzy hat with puppy dog ears to use him as a hostage to grab more of his family and deport them.

What are the brave people of Minneapolis doing? Witnessing. Documenting on their phones.

Armored only with fuzzy hats against below zero temperatures and even colder hearts...

ICE indeed.

Protest this.

Busy Fall Behind, Busy Winter and Spring Ahead

2026-01-12T15:42:00.000-08:00

It seems like I've had time for everything but blogging!

This Fall it was finally my chance to design The Phantom of the Opera. A melodrama version for Pocket Sandwich Theatre. Popcorn was thrown!

This was a chance to pull out a few foam carvings etc. made for earlier shows, like the grand Water God (8'-0" long) originally designed, years ago, for The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare Dallas. Here he's to be seen hiding in the lights... just as shy as the Phantom himself.

Designing and building the Phantom's organ was the most fun. It was mostly of pool noodles for this full-foam show, but incorporated a real keyboard, and its frame was mostly parts of a vantage baby crib. In this horror-drenched (ha!) tale, the most fearsome sight may have been the stagehands' rear view of this organ case, a 1950's Scary Bunny!

But the BIG deal this Fall was finishing a fantasy novel!

It's a long story... A friend and I started collaborating on a short story... that got out of hand. Huge fun! More news on that story later, when it's closer to public release. Suffice, for now, to say that writing, editing, revising, illustrating, and designing a cover for this epic took a whiiiile.

What else is Up-Coming?

Theatrically there are four shows: the triumphant opening of Kitchen Dog Theater's new home with the critically acclaimed and member-created show Pompeii!! Then Arsenic and Old Lace and Home, I'm Honey at Pocket (plus Werewolf of London in the Fall) and then the third and last installment of Stage West's Sherlock Holmes series, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Ghost Machine.

Scenic Designer Soaks

2025-11-19T21:13:00.000-08:00

Public Domain image courtesy of Picryl

Today was my first day of painting for this year's production of Ebenezer Scrooge at Pocket Sandwich Theatre... and my most recent Scenic Soak TM.

A proper Scenic Soak TM involves a tired paint-stained wretch at the end of a longish day that involved ladders and buckets; a long cool drink, preferably alcoholic; a hot water filled bathtub; soap, of course; and a pumice stone. Because nowadays when most paints are also primers, the paint you painted yourself with doesn't come off easily!

(This is true for the latex house paints commonly used at many theaters. True scenic paint may not.)

A lovely ritual. I recommend it.

Be sure to rinse the tub thoroughly! afterwards... because paint flecks don't come off the tub easily either.

Did I Promise to Post More Often?

2025-10-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

Hahahaha!

A linocut print of the city of Ptolith, in Aenoriia - art by Clare Floyd DeVries,

world by AstrophagyMC

I have been really busy though this Fall; traveling, a little theater, and writing on a long-form fiction project related to those imaginary Minecraft cities I've been helping build for so long.

Now I'm illustrating that and discovering the fun of linocut printing! I'm currently pretty inky myself and my house is even more filled with little teeny tiny slivers of linoleum... everywhere. They stick to bathtubs BTW.

(Now I bury you in examples to make up for so few posts. Brace yourself!)

I love that these crazy prints combine my architecture, Minecraft, D&D, writing, and art.

Theater? Less busy, because of traveling. But my set for the Phantom of the Opera is onstage at Pocket Sandwich Theatre in Carrollton right now. A fun melodrama! Go see it and throw some popcorn.

The Phantom of the Opera melodrama, Pocket Sandwich Theatre

Summer Busy

2025-07-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

In a bit of a break from theater design I've been busy with summer visits - to and fro - as well as swimming, holidays, and a lot of Minecraft, D&D, and writing.

In the Venn diagram of those last three plus artsiness, I've been teaching myself how to make linocut prints. (My house is now covered in teeny tiny slivers of linoleum and smears of ink.)

Part of this effort is just for the fun of it (I've always liked woodcuts and this is a similar aesthetic, but cheaper/easier for a beginner) and part of this is a attempt to learn to design more simply and boldly, and to not lean so heavily on color.

A.I.

2025-05-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

Just read a fascinating - and depressing - conversation HERE between a human writer, Heather Havrilesky, and A.I. which is pretty well summed up by this quote from it:

"About the feeling of watching something that was supposed to help instead smooth over the real with the plausible."

I read with increasing horror...

What's Up?

2025-05-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

First off, I got to see Kitchen Dog Theater's production of The Grown-Ups last night at Samuel Grand Park. Really liked it! Very topical. Read more about it HERE.

Second, I've been off traveling to California and back, but now that I AM back, theater is going full steam ahead: I'm reprising last year's Sherlock set for Stage West's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes and the Fallen Souffle and designing a set at Pocket Sandwich Theatre for the farce, Tom, Dick, and Harry.

Here are a few pics of Sherlock last year - this year will see only modest changes, mostly to furnishings or set dressing... plus adding a chandelier that I need to find!

Getting busy!