Ziska Childs Scenic Artist, Scenic Designer

I assume you’re going through my resume looking for names you recognize so you can call them up and ask “What’s she really like?”. Good. Now, what are my “strengths”? What are the things that people have hired me to do more than once? I take a mountain of information and turn it into a drafting for load-ins which can be understood at a glance by both management and crews. CNN execs started calling these “Ziska drawings” at postmortem meetings. I’m a bit chuffed by that. Designers continue to request me as their Scenic Charge and also an an Assistant to paint their elevations. Even though I moved out of NYC in 1991 Scene shops will still hire me when I take a “busman’s holiday” back to the East Coast. God Bless them every one. I’ve worked rural and remote since the modem dial up years for both national and international clients. I’ve never missed a deadline since my first gig as an apprentice Scenic Artist at the the Santa Fe Opera in 1978. That could change but so far the record holds. More questions? Please call, text or email.

My studio is in the Aspen Colorado area. Expertise includes standardizing color on multiple virtual and streaming platforms. I travel but most of my design and consultation work is done via virtual meetings, conference calls, ftp, dropbox, email and FedX.

My shop can accommodate a 35'x 40' drop. I have painted scrims up to 35' x 76' in the space. The shop is solar powered.

I have an extensive research library which can be searched on Librarything.com

Credits

MemberId	Show Title	Job Title	Studio	Directors	Producers	Notes	Awards
6007'	Aspen Ideas Festival	Scenic Designer	Ziska Childs Design	Kitty Boone	The Aspen Institute	Art Installation for the yearly Aspen Ideas Festival
11264'	Elf	Scenic Artist	Scenic Art Studios	Casey Nicholaw	Warner Bros.Theatre Ventures, Inc.	National Tour
11261'	The Temporary	Charge Artist	Ziska Childs Design	Dick Carter	Ryan Honey	Interior finish for new performance space - textured walls
11265'	Chris Ofili, Night and Day	Scenic Artist	Scenic Art Studios	Heidi Zuckerman	Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg, Susan and Leonard Feinstein, Lietta and Dakis Joannou, Beth Swofford, David Teiger, and an anonymous donor. Special thanks to David Zwirner, New York/London, and Victoria Miro, London.	Art Installation for the Aspen Art Museum- murals
3013'	TED	Scenic Designer	Thinc Design	Chris Anderson, Curator	TED Conferences	Associate Designer for Thinc Design, Principle Designer for Thinc Design Tom Hennes.
11260'	Elixir of Love	Charge Artist	Ziska Childs Design	James Robinson	Opera Colorado, San Francisco Opera	Assistant Designer (renderings) and Charge Artist for multiple productions.
11259'	The Constant Wife	Charge Artist	Ziska Childs Design	Mark Brokaw	The Roundabout Theatre Company	Chinoiserie Wallpaper
11257'	Loredo	Charge Artist	Ziska Childs Design		Flying Tiger Films	National Commercial, Sketch Artist and Charge Artist.
11263'	Man of La Mancha	Scenic Artist	Hudson	Jonathan Kent	David Stone, Jon B. Platt, Susan Quint Gallin, Sandy Gallin, Seth M. Siegel and USA OSTAR Theatricals; Produced in association with Mary Lu Roffe	Worked as a Journeyman Scenic Artist for Hudson 2002- 2005
11258'	CNN/Turner Broadcasting	Assistant Art Director	IKDZ inc.	Craig McMahon	AOL Time Warner	Freelance Design work for CNN, TBS and TNT was extensive and spanned decades but if I had to pick something out of all those years it would be making sure that the Larry King sets in multiple venues looked the same on camera. The "pegs" were individually painted pieces of plexi rod backlit by dimmable flourescent lights with different camera equipment and studio lighting in each venue. Add to this that "breaking news" could stop the crew at any moment and that the end result had to be approved by multiple department heads each watching from their own remote location on a different monitor it became an educational experience for all involved. There are other highlights like the transroll project and election convention coverage which required making a mountain of information into something each crew could digest at a glance. It was a pleasure to work all those years with the rock solid reliable crew at CNN and I am lucky to count many of them as friends for life.	Emmy Certificate, Lighting Design "My South Speaks"
11262'	Phantom of the Opera	Scenic Artist	Nolans	Harold Prince	Cameron Macintosh	Worked at Nolan's as a journeyman Scenic 1987- 1991, Phantom was my first Union job as a Scenic Artist.

References

Name	Title	Email	Number	Details
Allen Moyer	Scene Designer	allenmoyer@aol.com	718-783-8135
Joyce Kubalak			7187811928

Industry Specializations

Live Performance

Industrial / Trade Shows

Opera

Scenery Suppliers

Theatre

Recorded Media

Commercials

Television

Job Specializations

Assistant Art Director (SD)

Assistant Designer (SD)

Associate Designer (SD)

Charge Artist (SA)

Illustrator / Sketch Artist (SD)

Journey Artist (SA)

Skills

Basic

Drafting - Computer (SD)

Drafting - Hand (SD)

Drop Painting (SA)

Gold Leaf (SA)

Pre-Visualization (SD)

Sketch Artist (SA)

Translucencies (SA)

Trompe L'Oeil (SA)

Software

Adobe Acrobat (SA)

Adobe Photoshop (SD)

Microsoft Excel (SA)

OSX (SA)

Vectorworks 2D (SD)

Web Browser (SA)

Languages

French