MEDIA INQUIRIES For Immediate Release Kristin Carlson Think All Day Outside Inside: Prairie Prince ‘The Tubes’ Rock Drummer/Painter 505-501-2497 To Create Contemporary Murals in Santa Fe Home [email protected] November 30-December 4, 2013
“I’m on the outside/Even though I’m right now, I’m inside the tube/ But I’m telling you how it is from the outside/Outside looking inside.” -The Tubes, Outside Lookin’ Inside (Outside Inside, 1983)
SANTA FE, NM (November 21, 2013)—Renowned international visual and recording artist Prairie Prince of San Francisco has been commissioned to design and paint original murals for the interior of a newly renovated historic home in Santa Fe.
The residence, owned by Cathy and Chris Stoia (most recently of Los Angeles) is a luxurious and lovingly maintained Pueblo style adobe located in the scenic foothills east of downtown. “Santa Fe has an active film community and art community; it was a perfect match to everything we wanted at this point in our lives. We found this home just by chance and when we walked in, I knew we could make it our dream house,” said Ms. Stoia.
Artist Prairie Prince will be available Saturday, November 30th through Monday, December 4th for onsite interview and photo opportunities with members of the press at the Stoia residence off Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe. To schedule an appointment, or to request high-resolution images, please contact: Kristin Carlson, Think All Day Design + PR, at 505-501-2497 or [email protected].
Photos Courtesy Prairie Prince // (L) Painting Shania Twain’s set at Caesar’s Palace Las Vegas 2012 (R) At Los Poblanos, Albuquerque 2013 MEDIA INQUIRIES Founding member and drummer of The Tubes, Prince has played and recorded with Kristin Carlson Brian Eno, David Byrne, Tom Waits, Jefferson Starship, Todd Rundgren, and many Think All Day others. He continues to play worldwide as a 40-year member of The Tubes, 505-501-2497 international tour drummer for Todd Rundgren, and session artist in studios across [email protected] the US. In addition to his extraordinary music career, Prince studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Raised in Arizona with two older sisters who offered a wealth of musical influences, Prince was exposed to swing, jazz, blues, rock and roll, and visual art from an early age. “Both my parents were music-lovers, and my father played drums in his youth. My mother was an artist and encouraged pursuing both music and art during my entire childhood, which I did and still do,” said Prince. “I’m inspired by rhythm and listening to music while I’m painting, and by lighting and visions of what music must ‘look’ like when I’m drumming; they work well together, and I think I will always attempt to combine the two.”
With Michael Cotten (former Tubes member), Prince has designed and painted some of the world’s largest and most famous murals: ‘Flying Records’ on A&M Records’ exterior in Hollywood; ‘Crashing Waves’ on San Francisco’s Cliff House; and art deco themed-walls for Chemical Bank of New York at Rockefeller Center. They have also painted murals for brands including I. Magnin, Macy’s, The Limited, Federated Stores, and grand-scale interiors for casinos and clients throughout the US, Europe, Mexico, and Japan. Since the late 1990s, Prince has been a muralist and decorative painter at the Thorton House in San Francisco, a residence designed by Palace of Fine Arts architect Willis Polk (1915).
Photo Courtesy Cathy Stoia // Dining Room
Stoia explains: “As far as asking Prairie to create the special paintings for our house, I met him while he was touring with Todd Rundgren and I was managing Todd’s merchandise. We became fast friends with common likes and creative sensibilities. Prairie knows my taste and also has a fascination with the Southwest style all his own.”
Prince elaborates: “Cathy and I have worked together on projects for HBO and its actors and producers during her LA days. She was a big fan of both Todd and The Tubes when we first met, and when she and Chris moved here to Santa Fe, I decided to apply my hand to their interior design. The murals will be a work in progress, however many years it takes until I run out of ideas!” MEDIA INQUIRIES Prince cites his biggest interest in transforming the inside of a room as the French Kristin Carlson trompe l’oeil technique, which has been used since the 14th century to trick the eye— Think All Day particularly through creating false frames and window-like images that appear to be 505-501-2497 physical openings in a wall or ceiling. “It’s semi-surrealistic in nature, taking the viewers [email protected] out of their environment and in to new surroundings.” In the Stoias’ Santa Fe project, Prince has worked to eliminate the square corners of the walls and replace them with a recreation of the home’s exterior roofline, sky, and feel of approaching the horizon: “Outside looking inside—I’ve always loved that concept.”
In the Stoias’ home, Prince incorporates traditional Native American art and South- west style, calling on his upbringing in Phoenix and influences from the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe in Arizona and Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico. For the dining room, he has blended the ceiling color into the structure’s natural adobe, lightening tonalities as the image grows closer to the horizon line. The kiva fireplace in the sitting room incorporates a geometric Zuni scheme of grass blades and birds, while the dining table’s feathered pattern is inspired by a Navajo rug design from a piece in his personal collection. “I’ve tried to incorporate the ecology of the local Santa Fe landscape into the murals, and I’ve also placed my own personal stamp onto the outdoor guest tee- pee—‘Prairie’ fire, with images of trees and smoke.” During his early December visit, Prince will proceed with new paintings in the second story master suite.
Photo Courtesy Cathy Stoia // Sitting Room MEDIA INQUIRIES ABOUT PRAIRIE PRINCE Born in 1950 in Charlotte, North Carolina, Prairie Prince was raised in Arizona where he Kristin Carlson and friend Roger Steen started a band during their high school years. After uniting with Think All Day fellow Arizonan Bill Spooner, the group became The Tubes and has since produced 19 505-501-2497 albums and over 40 years of national and international touring. His work as a drummer [email protected] includes playing for greats such as Nicky Hopkins, George Harrison, Mick Taylor, Ron Wood, Ray Cooper, and Klas Voorman, Tommy Bolin, Brewer and Shipley, Chris Isaak, XTC, Glen Frey, David Pack, Richard Marx, John Fogerty, Dick Dale, Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, Jack Casady, Papa John Creach, Phil Lesh, Steve Kimock, Bobby Vega, Pete Sears, Vince Welnick, and many others. Prince is a founding member of the band Journey, with Neal Schon and Greg Rolly.
In addition to music, Prince has a thriving and multi-faceted career in the visual arts: production, graphic, and mural design, as well as custom finishes for drums, guitars, motorcycles, and vehicles. With former Tubes member Michael Cotten, Prince has collaborated to produce artistic projects for top live performers, high-end retailers, and companies across the globe. The late Vince Welnick (Grateful Dead, The Tubes) also commissioned the pair to paint murals for his Mexican villa in Akumal, Maya Riviera. With longtime collaborator Kenny Ortega, Prince has created set and stage designs for acts from Michael Jackson and Shania Twain to Bonnie Raitt, Gloria Estefan, Bette Midler, and Broadway productions, the Closing Ceremonies of the 1996 Olympic Games, and Super Bowl XXX Half-Time Show starring Diana Ross. Prince is Artistic Director of MouthMan, a company founded with Ross Valory (founding member and bassist of Journey). Their line of shirts feature graphics of jaws and teeth on the sleeves, which form a mouth when the wearer ‘hugs’ him/herself. Prince continues to paint interiors in private residencies throughout the US and abroad.
For a complete discography, visit his page on allmusic.com.
ABOUT CATHY STOIA Cathy Stoia’s career in the film industry has taken her from her native Brooklyn to sunny Los Angeles and New Mexico. During a 7-year stint in London in the 1970s, her love of finding treasures at flea markets and vintage shops, and discovering beautiful design, was finding treasures at flea markets and vintage shops, and discovering beautiful -de sign, was born. Stoia began her film industry career in New York City in the 1980s as a sought-after production coordinator; her projects include The Verdict, Garbo Talks, F/X, The Pick Up Artist, Ghostbusters, Ishtar, Baby Boom, Fatal Attraction, Last Action Hero, and many more. Her clients have included HBO, Playtone, NBC, Universal Studios, Dreamworks, and Hollywood Squares, among others, during 18 years at the helm of her first company, Mixed Bag, in LA. In 2012, Stoia and her husband relocated to Santa Fe where she founded Search & Design, a creative concierge service committed to finding solutions both simple and “impossible”: hard-to-find items, exotic materials, accommodations, event planning, venue procurement, and idea development. Chris Stoia continues to work in the New Mexico film industry as well. The Stoias served as volunteers at the 2012 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival and will be sponsors of as well as volunteers at the 2013 SFIFF. Their Santa Fe residence will serve as their primary home as well as a luxury vacation rental.
To learn more, visit www.searchanddesign.com.