Shifting Our Lenses

In a warehouse in Valencia, California, long rolls of nondescript canvas are tied with string and piled on top of one another, some with numbered tags and many without. The dusty canvas rolls are 10, 20, and 30 feet long, taking up precious space in an expensive Santa Clarita neighborhood. But if you untie the string, a magical world emerges: a snowy suburban home from National Velvet, a sunlit glass gazebo from The Sound of Music, a craggy Mount Rushmore scene from North by Northwest.

In Hollywood's early days, studios hired artists to paint enormous, intricate backdrops that transported us magically to the Sistine Chapel or the African Serengeti, all thanks to the craft of talented backdrop artists. Some of the canvases were shared among studios, but many have been discarded over the years. And as moviemakers increasingly turn to digital artistry and traditional Hollywood studios are repurposed, what to do with these dusty piles has become a critical question.

Thanks to the perseverance of an art and design professor at UT-Austin, Texas Performing Arts now owns the largest collection of education Hollywood Motion Picture backdrops in the world, and visitors can wander through monumental scenes from Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris, and The Wizard of Oz for a general admission fee of only $12. "Behind the Scenes: The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop" features 12 of the art studio's 50 backdrops, and this month is the first time the almost-discarded canvases have been open to the public.

For UT Professor Karen Maness, the exhibition brings to life for her students majestic hand-painted artworks that truly befuddle the mind. The Austrian backdrop for The Sound of Music towers 15 feet tall and 30 feet wide, and other backings stretch 45 feet tall and 90 feet wide, surrounding the viewer with a grand illusion that can be both breath-taking and invigorating.

"This is critical knowledge that has almost been lost," Maness says, "the ability to see color truly, the ability to understand what linear perspective does and means, the ability to create atmospheric perspective, how to make a mark efficiently with a paintbrush to communicate your design idea."

As Maness describes, the paintings themselves are so precisely drawn that when you look at them up close, they don't seem to portray anything at all. But when you step back, the world unfurls before you.

The magic is all about perspective, and now more than ever before, we need to have the agility to shift our lenses, stepping in and out of majestic scenes, emotional memories, historical promises, and dusty warehouses as we seek to understand both the toll and the new understanding this past year has brought. As Jesus taught the gathered crowds in his Sermon on the Mount, the world is not as we assume, and our worldly lenses too often slide askew from God's lens. Can you imagine the shock of those gathered when they heard Jesus say, "Blessed are the poor in Spirit," "Blessed are those who mourn," and "Blessed are the meek"? As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5 and as the masterful perspectives of aging Hollywood backdrops demonstrate, so much in life appears simple when we are up close; and then we step back to see the beauty of the world.

For a glimpse of the backdrops on display at Texas Performing Arts this month look here, and for a look at the Art Directors guild Backdrop Recovery Project, an effort to keep hundreds of these irreplaceable pieces out of Hollywood studio dumpsters, look here. May the Lord keep your lenses shifting and your focus, ultimately, on Him.

Peace on your week,
Jennie