I am happy to announce that I was contacted by One Colorado to donate the invitation suite design as a silent auction item at the Civil Soirée, One Colorado’s civil union celebration on April 30. At midnight on May 1, committed couples will be able to legally apply for civil unions licenses for the first time in Colorado history. Preceding this historic moment, the soiree will feature a seated dinner followed by a dessert and dance reception.

So, if you’re looking to win a free invitation design, buy a ticket to the Soirée, and I’ll see you on April 30.

Also, be on the lookout during Denver PRIDE in June — you might see some of my work around there as well.

Shooting photos for Law Week Colorado, I stood next to Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalists and felt dwarfed by the magnitude of hundreds of Coloradans: old and young, gay and straight, religious and non — packed together in the History Colorado Center to celebrate something they’ve been waiting for their entire lives. They cheered, clapped, congratulated and thanked the lawmakers who made this bill signing possible. I watched from behind my lens as the tear-filled eyes of men, women and children met with Hick’s as he shook their hands. He high-fived two teenagers. “Thank you,” they said to him, “thank you.”

After the ceremony, I gathered my sherpa-pack of equipment near two older women.

“It’s a wonderful day,” they calmly said to me with smiles on their faces.

“It certainly is.”

The sky, which was ominous and gray as I walked into the bill signing, had opened up and that famous Colorado sunshine poured in.

“With the Governor’s signature here today, the protection of Colorado’s laws will now extend equally to all,” House Speaker Mark Ferrandino said in his speech yesterday, “Thousands of Colorado families will now be able to receive the recognition they deserve. — Ladies and gentlemen, the Colorado sun now warms all our people.”

Thank you to all the men and women who made this possible. I am proud to be a Coloradan.

Photo © Matthew Meier/Law Week Colorado 2013

Model: Rachel Fowler
Assistant: Jeffrey Paul
Photos by Matthew Meier

“When we first met, me and you, you thought I was common. How right you was, baby. I was common as dirt… I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it, having them colored lights going!”

“But there are things that happen to a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of makes everything else seem—unimportant.”

Model: Rachel Fowler
Assistant: Jeffrey Paul
Photo by Matthew Meier

“What sign were you born under? […] Astrological sign. I bet you were born under Aries. Aries people are forceful and dynamic. They dote on noise! They love to bang things around.You must have had quite a lot of banging around in the army and now that you’re out, you make up for it by treating inanimate objects with such a fury.”

“Stanley was born just five minutes after Christmas.

“Capricorn—the Goat!”

“What sign were you born under?”

“Oh, my birthday is next month, the fifteenth of September, that’s under Virgo.”

“What’s Virgo?”

“Virgo is the Virgin.”

“Honey, you open the door while I look at the sky. I’m looking for Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, but these girls are not out tonight. Oh, yes, they are, there they are! God bless them! All in a bunch going home from their little bridge party.”

This artwork is part of a series of 25 posters designed for the same play, Tennessee Williams’ A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, over one year. For No. 17/25, I recorded my screen to document the creation process. What you’re seeing is about three hours worth of design time compressed into three and a half minutes. The music, released the same year as STREETCAR (1947), is “The Duel” by Dexter Gordon & Teddy Edwards.

What struck me about the final scene in STREETCAR, Act III, Scene 5, was the burst of color that enters the scene. Particularly since our main character is named Blanche. I see the color as what her world becomes after she breaks from reality and goes into her fantasy state.

*Graphic Designer:
Matthew Meier, mMeier.com
© 2013

What struck me about the final scene in STREETCAR, Act III, Scene 5, was the burst of color that enters the scene. Particularly since our main character is named Blanche. I see the color as what her world becomes after she breaks from reality and goes into her fantasy state.

I also recorded this poster’s creation process — check out the video here.

Act III, Scene 5

“And, Stella—that cool yellow silk—the boucle—see is it’s crushed. If it’s not too crushed I’ll wear it and on the lapel that silver and turquoise pin in the shape of a sea-horse. […] And, oh, Stella—try to locate that bunch of artificial—violets in that box, too, to pin with the sea-horse on the lapel of the jacket.”

“I’m green with envy.”

“Such a pretty blue jacket.”

“It’s lilac-colored.”

“One day out on the ocean I will die—with my hand in the hand of some nice-looking ship’s doctor, a very young one with a small blond mustache and a big silver watch. […] And I’ll be buried at sea sewn up in a clean white sack and dropped overboard at noon—in the blaze of summer—and into an ocean as blue as—the blue of my first lover’s eyes!”

Models: Cassandra Engber, Chiara Motley
Photos layered into this poster are from my personal photo archive and include images from New Orleans, Ohio, Massachusetts, Indiana, Ireland, Chicago, Paris, Spain and even one from an airplane.

“I loved someone, too, and the person I loved I lost. […] He was a boy, just a boy, when I was a very young girl. […]

“I hurt him the way you’d like to hurt me, but you can’t. I’m not young and vulnerable any more. But my young husband was, and I — never mind about that.”

Model: Cassandra Engber
Model & Assistant: David Sherman
Photo by Matthew Meier

Special thanks to Cassandra, David, Carol Finley and the Dayton Theatre Guild in Dayton, Ohio.

“Soft people, soft people have got to shimmer and glow. They’ve got to put on soft colors, the colors of butterfly wings and put a paper lantern over the light. but it isn’t enough to be soft — you’ve got to be soft and attractive — and I’m fading now. I don’t know how much longer I can turn the trick.”

Model: Chiara Motley
Photo by Matthew Meier