Scenic Artist – Andrew Geis and his designs for the Twin City Scenic Company

Over the years, I have tracked down a variety of scenic artists and their work, finding bits and pieces of information regarding their life and painting. During this time, my primary focus always remained on Thomas Gibbs Moses (1856-1934) and his Masonic installations.

Recently, I have branched off to look at some of Moses’ contemporaries. Andrew Geis will be my first subject as I have an immediate connection to him.

Many years back, I received multiple packages from a friend in Chicago. I have often become the depository of “things a local museum won’t take and I can’t store them anymore.” Each once is loving placed in a file or stored in my studio until I am able to find a better home – one that the future generations can access. This is one of the reasons that I have started a blog.  I want to get the information out sooner rather than later as it takes years to process a museum/archival collection ad digitize it. The blog also provides a searchable format for the information that I am sharing with the public.

So, back to my story…One of the Chicago boxes contained a portion of Geis’ design book.  My training introduced me to this type of source book as a “painter’s morgue.”  This term was introduced to me by my Professor Emeritus C. Lance Brockman at the University of Minnesota. In short, it is a source book for painters and designers with a variety of images to reference when drawing and painting.

Looking at Geis’ imagery with “older eyes” (and a tad more experience) I was able to pair up some of Geis’ sources with Masonic stage compositions.  This excited me and I immediately went to my “Andrew Geis” file.  Unfortunately, it only had four images of his design, currently held at the University of Minnesota Performing Arts archives.  I contacted my friend in Chicago to see if he had any idea about Geis’ background.  He recalled seeing the name in the 1927 Scenic Artists’ Ball program.  Bingo.

I finally stumbled across a single census entry from 1920.  Here is what I know to date about Geis.  Both of his parents were born in Germany, emigrating the the United States before Andrew was born.  Andrew is born in 1888 and eventually marries his wife Elizabeth (b. 1891).  They lived in Chicago’s 34 Ward at 3906 West 19th Street in Chicago, Cook County. His profession was listed as scenic artist for the art industry.  Both Geis and his wife are listed in the 1927 program as helping with the event.

The Scenery Collection renderings also his union affiliation: United Scenic Artists Local 350-2021.  Again, here is the link to the online collection – http://umedia.lib.umn.edu/scenicsearch.  You can find his rendering by typing in “Geis” in the Keyword option and hitting the “search” button.

Today, I will start with sharing his four rendering of interiors that were created for the Twin Cities Scenic Co.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…the current December event that replaced staged performances in many Masonic facilities.
 
Why? Here is my thought – a simple lack of individuals to participate in the performance during a busy time of year. This is one of the main reasons that many Scottish Rite Valleys stage a very small number of degrees; comparative to previous decades. Declining membership has taken its toll. Unfortunately, the message sent to the public from the fraternity also changes when they lose the message of the “Christmas Carol” to “we give you something for free.” In many ways, this is a continuation of the discussion that I started about Masonic museum exhibits in Europe where the main message focused on how members gave back to society and NOT how an organization donates a lot of money. It was more of a discussion that depicted how masonry didn’t just “make good men better,” but gave them the tools to make a difference in the world of politics, music, art, medicine, etc…
 
I hope that you all have enjoyed the twelve days of Christmas!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…

This is one of the only times that I encountered something that was too damaged to save. As it was on my own dime, I had to be selective with what I kept for future training. The reason for the disposable was because of the newspaper plastered on the back of the drop (for opacity from upstage lights, I’m sure). This, combined with massive dusting pigment and a pretty ugly composition made it undesirable to salvage and store for restoration training. We unrolled the drop in the parking lot of the Minneapolis Scottish Rite because of the mess. It was one of 70+ scenes! This is just drop that I salvaged from the Peoria, Illinois Scottish Rite Cathedral after they transitioned to rear projections and gutted the rigging. All of the Peoria Christmas Carol Scenery had to be thrown out due to the contaminants. I ended up only saving the Peoria Scottish Rite Masonic scenery for future experimentation with restoration methods. The remainder of the collection was from the turn-of-the-twentieth century (Volland & Toomey) that Becker Studios refurbished and sold to the Peoria Scottish Rite in 1924. Over time, Twin Cities Scenic Company contributed a few pieces to the collection, such as the “Christmas Carol” in the 1940s.