As soon as the last coat of varnish was dry, the door score was picked up by the shipper this morning. Less than 24 hours ago I was still painting the last letters. Here are some photos of the door’s journey from a bathroom of a very old house in Vancouver to its new incarnation as a musical score. I am very happy to have given this broken piece of history destined for the landfill a new lease on life.

The door in its original condition.

The door was stripped of paint using a heat gun and some heavy duty chemicals. 

When most of the paint and old varnish was scrubbed off, the beautiful old growth wood was sanded to silky smoothness. I then laid out and transferred the bits of manuscript onto the surface using oil-based paint pens.

And here’s the door just before shipping.

This door manuscript will be premiered by the Thin Edge New Music Collective in Waterloo on Sept. 20. Details to come soon.

As I finish up the ‘B side’ of the massive door score for Through closed doors, I get to experiment with curving staves. This is something I didn’t get to do on the paper manuscript.

As soon as the paint dries, this score will be shipped off to Ontario for two events. You can see violinists Ilana Waniuk and Suhashini Arulanandam perform the door in Waterloo on September 20th. More info soon.

As my departure from Vancouver draws nigh, I am feverishly working to complete the final objects involved in the semi-theatrical piece Through closed doors for the Thin Edge New Music Collective. I don’t think I’ve ever had to use so many different skills in any of my creative projects. There has even been carpentry involved (my ‘day’ job coming in handy). The only thing I haven’t done here is fiber arts.

The final ‘score’ for the piece is an antique door, which the violinists will circle in pursuit of each other. The piece was inspired by it and built around it. You can see some pages of the hand-inked manuscript I made first by scrolling down to some earlier posts.

Here’s the door all ready for engraving with the manuscript laid out below it. 

My original plan was to burn the notes into the wood with a wood burning pen. It seemed like a good idea until the metal nibs started bending from the heat of the tool they were made for (talk about quality!). Moreover, the wood the door is made from has widely varying density and is not that suitable for pyrography (things got rather bumpy).

After an episode of some first rate artistic misery, panic and hair-pulling (“Oh my god, this whole project is a disaster!!!! Who the hell did I think I was trying to pull something like this????), I discovered the Sharpie oil-based paint pens. Life is looking up.