Making a mountain

Each year as we were constructing the sets for Streets of Bethlehem we talked about designing a new mountain but never seemed to get it done. So last year, on my flight back to South Dakota, I decided that I needed to strike while the iron is hot and quickly sketched out an idea for the new set. It was rough but it was down on paper.
Over the year it began to take more shape, through discussions, meetings and plans. Then the time came to start building and painting. It is always exciting to see ideas manifested into something you can see, touch and walk around. It especially exciting when it is something of this magnitude. Also the process of problem sloving to make and sketch into a functional apparatus.
It was fun to see the team building the structure in real life and then to see everyone walk through the event. Knowing that it was part of telling the story of Christ's birth adds an extra bonus.

Here is a timelapse of the mountain being painted. You can see some of the construction still taking place as well.




Streets of Bethlehem 2012: Mountain Painting Timelapse from daniel vangerpen on Vimeo.