My Portfolio Page - 1982 to 1992 - Ron Lutz II ~ Photographer

The Hotdog Shop - Butler, PA - 2003

To begin I would like you to know that I'm from a small steel mill town north of Pittsburgh. Butler is nestled in an almost bowl-like valley in the Western Pennsylvanian hills. Somewhat rural in nature the prospect of becoming a professional artist just wasn't something people thought feasible. I was highly encouraged to be clean-cut, join "The Service," and to then go work in the mill, namely ARMCO. When I told my father I wanted to go to art school instead of the army he said, "You're going to end up pumping gas for a living!" I had it in my head that I wanted to make dioramas for a living, only I had no inkling on how to go about making that happen. Thankfully I had an amazing mother who supported my decision to attend art school.

I shot this photo in 2003, the same year I bought my first dSLR, a Canon 10D. It's a typical scene at a once well loved place that is no longer there. I don't think I can take a better photo that truly captures what life in my hometown was like.

A Kid & A Camera

My first camera was a Canon T50 and I had one FDn 50mm f/1.8 lens. Naturally I shot a ton of photos of my friends. As I followed a few of them on an adventure into the late 1980's hardcore punk scene I learned how to photograph in low light, with fast action. Just like my own teenage rampage that I was on, it was a learning process fraught with a lot of trial and error. I can honestly say I fell in love with photography, but by the time I went to art school in 1987 I felt it was a form of expression I simply couldn't afford. Thankfully I found that passion again years later.

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Pittsburgh Punk the 80's

Alley Off Moravian Way

Over the past nearly 30 years I've occasionally told stories of when I lived on an alley off of another alley of the North Side of Pittsburgh. In 1988. Coming from the forested hills of rural PA well to the north of the city, it was bracing like one of those "polar plunges" people seem fond of. Only this wasn't a quick in/out within minutes sort of test. Nope. I only tell those stories to close friends though...

I shot this 03/1988 using a Canon t50 + FDn 50mm f/1.8 + 400iso film.

Off to Art School

Having decided to not join the military and with no real plan for after high school my first year out was chaotic to say the least. While talking to an older friend one night she told me about her experience of attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I hadn't even considered an "art school" or a career in the arts. Though I'd thought about making dioramas as a living it wasn't until that one pivotal talk with a girl named Anne that I realized there just may be a way to do it after all. I had found a direction to apply myself and I have never looked back.

The Object Works - 1987-1989

This is a poster from 1988 advertising the skilled craftsmanship of The Object Works that went into the creation of special props and models. It was a professional fabrication shop that served advertising agencies and film makers

In the late 80's I was in the very first Industrial Design program at the old Art Institute of Pittsburgh. In 1987 I had the very great fortune to walk into the department head's office one day to ask about finding any work related our studies. As I walked in he was literally just hanging up the phone having answered a call from the owner of The Object Works. They were looking for a new apprentice, and were just down the street from the school. Simple as that, I was walking down the street to begin my career as an "artist."

It was the ideal job for me. While most of my work entailed the usual duties the lowest guy on the rung does, such as cleaning and tedious tasks related to model & prop fabrication, it exposed me to the concepts of perfecting your craft. I also saw that you could indeed make a living as an artist. I learned so many fundamentals of the trade that I've never looked back, or even into other career options. I learned some very valuable lessons there.

Wooden Dragon Push Toy
In December of 1987 the Art Institute of Pittsburgh's new Industrial Design program held a wooden push toy contest. The winning design would be chosen via a student voting system. The winner would then get to turn the rest of the class, around 15 - 20 students at that time, into a production assembly line using the wood shop in the basement of the school. I have to admit I was really stumped for a design. The very night before the contest I finally just started playing around with pieces of blue foam insulation and some soda straws and put together a mockup of almost exactly what you see here. Having spent weeks scrapping designs I didn't think my last ditch effort would do well. Mainly I just wanted to make something fun for my girlfriend. Some how I won! The completed toys, around 25 in all, were given to the Salvation Army to give to needy children at Christmas. This photo was taken using a medium format camera by the apprentice of the commercial photographer that often shot the props the fabrication shop I apprenticed at created.
1987 - Wooden Push Toy Hand Drawn 3-Quarter Exploded View
This is a hand drawn, 3-quarter exploded view of the various parts of the wooden push toy I created when I was 19 years old. In 1988 using computers to render models wasn't something you'd even consider as possible while I was in art school. For one, we didn't have personal computers. Nope, we had to draw things by hand using drafting tools, paper and pencils. While I found drafting to be interesting in it's mechanical means of illustrating perspective, I can't say I enjoyed it. I drew this on some heavy paper I happened to find some scraps of in the basement of a building. I can remember having a bit of tedious trouble trying to execute all these rounded and curved edges. I then burnt the edges for the presentation board of my project, trying to give it a different "feel" from the other students' work. I wanted to be as if you were looking at a treasure map.
Me Assembling the Blue Foam Mock-Up
I'm uncertain as to who took this photo, and I just happened to find it as I'm assembling the imagery for this page. It's of me when I was creating the dragon push toy mock-up model. I used insulation foam the exact width of the wood the final would be fabricated from. I'm most likely using that dowel rod to make indents where peg holes will be drilled. *Note; I know I look crazy but hey, I was a teenager in art school... so there you go.*

A Little Recognition

My graduation day went pretty well. My portfolio was given only a B+ for, and I quote, "not doing it in school (I used the shop at The Object Works instead)." I got a few "freelance" job leads during graduation. One was to help work on a claymation piece for a commercial. I also made plans to meet one of the special effects teachers the next morning to work a movie. Another one offered me an apprenticeship working on his fine art projects. Oh, and this piece of paper was given to me in exchange for the school being able to use my dragons in their portfolio to show to potential students. Not bad for a "B+."

Kyler Black

This is one of my coworkers from the Object Works in Pittsburgh. I took these photos in 1988 when I was just an apprentice. He was an amazingly talented artist. His flamboyant manners, and crazy stories made working with him very interesting. I learned a lot about what it takes to "make it" as a pro-artist from him, but more importantly I learned how to be a better person. Having come from a very backwards, rural area where "fags" were hated as a matter of course. If you were gay there was "something" wrong with you and you deserved to be spit upon. I'm glad to have had a chance to see how wrong that thinking can be. When he passed away suddenly in the early 1990's I was saddened to see such a vibrant life gone from this world.

AD&D Diorama
This is one of the only photos I have of the 25mm lead figurines I used to paint in meticulous detail. I also created this little scene in a small "shadow" box. I used angled mirrors in the background to give the illusion of depth. You can't tell from this angle, but the little bridge crossed a "flowing" stream of realistic looking water. The subject was based on the game I once found so enthralling, "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons." There was one period of time where I had thriving little trade going. I'd trade painted figurines for multiple unpainted ones.
Original Designs
These are the original designs used when planning this little diorama. For me they are a real reminder of what doing text on presentation boards was all about. Without computers we'd have to hand burnish pre-made vinyl letters onto the boards and use colored tape for lines, etc. Oh the FUN! Back to the design, the rear mirrors reflected the rear of the foreground corners, where small lights were installed. It seemed to work well and made the tunnel in the back look a lot deeper than the box the scene was placed into.

Faux Artifact

This was part of a project for a class on how to create presentations. We had to use a theme for designing an exhibit and the point was to create a presentation that stood apart. Instead of drawings of "whatever" pasted to tissue covered presentation boards (which was the standard acceptable means of showing your work) I chose to go in an "off the wall" approach. Literally. While I cannot recall all the details basically I created this 3' tall, fake piece of an "ancient" temple wall. My presentation highlighted how this "find" was another Rosetta Stone that helped solve problem "X." X was whatever the original assignment subject was, which I can't recall 30 years later...

Egyptian Glass Bead Maker Figure - 1989

For one of my design classes we took a "behind the scenes" tour of the Exhibits Department of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. By the time I'd begun art school I have fantasized about the possibility of having a career as a "diorama artist." Soon after the tour I became a volunteer (you can even see it says so on my badge!) to the head diorama artist, Patrick Martin. He'd been working on dioramas for over 20 years by this point, and was a very serious, quiet man when I met him. By way of introduction to him I was taken to a small room through a basement full of dinosaur bones, crates, and other assorted items that can't help but tantalize your brain. The room was ice cold. It had to be as he was sculpting a nearly completed life-sized figure of a seated man, sans head, hands, and feet. Made of mostly of a type of plaster it had to be kept cold and damp or it'd get too dry to work on. For a long time he just worked quietly away, the curves of a torso taking shape under his intense gaze. We didn't speak much. I began to hand him the tools I thought he'd need next, and to clean plaster from the used tools. I won't lie. It was very intense.

Eventually, he stopped, stood back and while looking at it asked me what I thought could be better. On the wall and on just about every table could be found photos of the model who posed for the body. I'd been looking at them all through the session so was able to comment about some proportion that was just "off." He then handed me calipers and said, "Show me." I did and with that walked out of the room saying, "I'm leaving for vacation now and won't be back for a week. Have that done."

I did, so when he got back we then had a fun period of time as I began to do something I never thought possible. I was working at the very place that given me inspiration to follow my dream at the age of 17. I eventually had to return to my paid apprenticeship, but was told to, "Come back in a few years. I'll have a job for you."

Link to Website

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

A Short Stint with Buckets of Blood

Towards the end of my attending the Art Institute in 1989 I became friends with one of the special effects teachers. He liked they way I worked and followed direction so asked me to partner with him on various special effect makeup jobs. This culminated in my doing a very brief period of working in the special effects studio owned and operated by Tom Savini. On my first day in the studio I was being given the usual "tour" of the place, which was full of gory props from the numerous horror flicks Tom designed effects for. At one point I was directed to "check out what's in the big garbage bag over there." On opening it I found the original Jason from the first 'Friday the 13th' film. "Cool beans," I thought as I went to place it back on it's place of rest, which was on a bench next to a coat rack with a severed head mounted on the top. As I walked away the body fell over, striking the coat rack causing it to fall over. As it went down it catapulted the severed head directly into the center of the workshop! After that they all remembered me...

The photos on this page are from when I helped install and then pack out the very graphic horror scene for this movie. I'd just graduated the night before and maybe slept all of an hour (the graduation party was at my place...). We worked all day, and in my dream like state I couldn't believe I was on an actual sound-stage doing an actual movie job (for cash). All these talented people were working away, and it was very exciting for me. Pure adrenaline kept me functioning for around 16 hours, at the end of which they effects crew and I went back to Savini's workshop. After putting everything away it was time to watch "the dailies." These are videos recorded on VHS that are shot side by side with the actual film. They help the team review their effects and plan any corrections to the design if needed. I sat in front of Tom as we watched, but sitting there just watching TV after a long couple of days with no sleep had me nodding off. As the room grew dark, and I slipped into dreamland Tom pulled a fast one on me. He took a started pistol, which fired blanks of course, held it behind my head (pointed at the ceiling) and pulled the trigger. Needless to say I had more than enough adrenaline to get through the rest of the dailies...

In the end though, after a few months of dabbling in special effects with his crew I decided I'd rather find work doing set construction. While I appreciated the work they did, I just wasn't passionate about dealing in buckets of blood. I've never been a real horror movie fan so it just didn't grab me.

Link to Buy This Movie from Amazon

Two Evil Eyes (Two-Disc Limited Edition)

Greg Funk - 1989 - Savini Studio

The Art Institute hired Greg Funk to teach us how to create special effects for movies. It was during his class that I created the foam latex red dragon head. He was so very passionate about what he was doing and we became friends outside of school. For a brief period of time, at the very beginning of my career, I partnered up with him and we worked a variety of special effect gigs together. The most important thing I learned from him wasn't any particular technique. His unyielding passion for his craft was what influenced me.

Tom Savini & Annabel's Corpse - 1989 - "Two Evil Eyes"

Tom Savini was the creator of the special effects for the movie, 'Two Evil Eyes,' a horror film by directors Dario Argento and George Romero based on an adaption of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Facts About Mr. Valdeman" and "The Black Cat." I had an interesting opportunity to work in his fabrication studio at the tail end of production for this movie, and some preproduction work on his 1990 remake of "Night of the Living Dead.". This particular special effect is an animatronic piece based on the victim Annabel's body after being discovered by detectives, her corpse consumed by the hell spawn of the demon cat that had been entombed with her. It looked so realistic your brain thought it smelled blood & rotting flesh.

I took these photos the day after shooting this particular scene ended and we came to take it down and clean up the set.

An Artist's Apprentice

I spent about two or three months as an artist's apprentice. It was very enlightening work and I learned a lot about the "Fine Art" world. It was a period of attending gallery shows, setting up installation art in various high profile locations, and learning how to get by on your whits. And those parties! Fun stuff! In the end though, while our projects where large and the work was very entertaining I found I had to go in a different direction. My student loans where coming due, and I wanted to buy a jeep, have my own place to live, etc..

Link to His Website

Angelo Ciotti

The Twin Stupas- 1990

From Angelo Ciotti's website:
Chicora, Butler County, Pennsylvania 1987-1996

Twin Stupas is part of a 22 acre earthwork, conceived and executed as a collaboration between Angelo Ciotti and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and the Pittsburgh Centre for the Arts. The purpose of the earthwork is to reclaim a hazardous abandoned surface mine near Chicora,in Butler County, which is located forty six miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The Twin Stupas are two mounds, each 300 ft. in diameter: One "dead," inverted, and 45 ft. deep, lined with rocks and boulders; the other "living," 60 ft high, and covered with various species of grasses. Both are connected by a spiral that rises from the bottom of the "dead" mound to the top of the "living" mound.

The projects is essentially functional, with a two fold purpose:

To help bring wildlife habitats back into the scarred area, and provide food resources for a variety of species, through the selection of suitable kinds of vegetation to give food and cover for deer, birds, etc. The planting scheme is to be constructed in order to derive the maximum benefit for the wildlife” To provide a sculptural earthwork as a powerful aesthetic entity by utilizing the form and color of the developing vegetation elements. People make "pilgrimage" visits to the site, which is intended to emphasize the precarious nature of the balance between man's use and his abuse of the environment. It is thus desirable that the whole project be undertaken and supported, as widely as possible, as a great group collaboration.

The goal of this collaboration is to deepen the communities’ understanding of the arts in land art, on site events, music, dance, performing arts, etc. I have observed the process in the creating and reclaiming of surface mines by independent mining companies and Soil Conservation Service of Butler County for six summers. Two reclamation projects have been completed, with the planting of 8,000 trees and the Geibel Project, a series of lectures on mine reclamation; Brandywine Workshop at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Philadelphia; the University of Florence, Italy; and the National Coal Board, Mansfield, England."

Park Place Studio

One day I received a phone call from Park Place Studio. The caller had heard that I was a very enthusiastic, and hard worker and they had a job for me. It turned out he needed the basement of the building cleaned out so they could use it to store sets and prepare crates for shipping. It had about 60 years of accumulated junk in it. I was handed a sledge hammer, a cart for hauling things, and pointed to where the dumpster was located. The guy then left for the day. When he came back I was sweeping up an empty basement, and thus began a few year stint at this studio.

As time progressed I went from cleaning things up to helping run the place. The original guy who hired me wasn't actually the owner, but was his "right-hand man." He eventually parted ways with the company after some crazy shenanigans. By the time this all went down I was already doing most of his job. I walked in one day and Park said, "So & so is no longer here. Congratulations, you have his job. Here are the keys."

It was a very exciting time for me. I had a very unique opportunity to help organize, and run a small company. I learned a LOT in a very short period of time. We produced a number of sets for movies, theater and trade shows across the country. Learning how to manage the carpenter and paint shops, and keeping the books straight as well as helping direct the marketing was an invaluable lesson. I won't lie and say it was always fun. There were a lot of very stressful moments, but the rewards were plentiful, especially in pure experience.

If I hadn't always dreamt of working at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and that new opportunity hadn't presented itself I believe I would've spent many, many years working at Park Place Studio. It had the feel of being somewhat of an adventure to me, almost like being on a pirate ship.

Link to Website