162 The Painting Tools of Scenic Artistry sprayer is used only occasionally throughout the day, the spray gun can be left immersed in a bucket of water between uses rather than cleaning the machine between each use. After the machine is clean, squirt a little baby oil or mineral oil into the last rinse. The airless sprayer may be flushed with paint thinner if it is going into storage for many weeks or more. This will help keep the parts in the interior of the machine from sticking during long spells between uses. If there is oil or paint thinner in the airless sprayer, make sure to flush it out thoroughly with warm water before the next use. Pattern Pistols and Hopper Guns The pattern pistol, also called a hopper gun, is a pneumatic sprayer designed to spray extremely thick texturing pastes. The spray gun has a wheel at the spray tip with different-sized openings to accommodate different fluids and various-sized chunks of texture, rather like a multipurpose pencil sharpener. On the top of the gun is the hopper, a cone-shaped container that holds the texture and funnels it into the gun. The hopper holds about two gallons of goop, so the gun is rather heavy when full and can be tiring to work with. There is no air valve on a hopper gun; once it is hooked up to the air, it is on. The trigger pulls back the spray tip, which allows the fluid to drop down between it and the spray wheel, where it is blasted out though the selected hole in the spray wheel. You can purchase hopper guns or rent them at contractor supply houses quite inexpensively. They are designed to be easy to take apart and maintain because all manner of goop is forced through these guns. Often, the best way to thoroughly clean them at the end of the day is to take them completely apart. This rather simple tool is very useful for covering surfaces with all manner of water-based textures very quickly. They work well with joint compound and plaster-based textures, even those mixed with vermiculite and perlite, Celotex-based papier-mâché textures, and Quick Texture mix, which is manufactured specifically for use with hopper guns. SC: And how many years have you been there? Give us a bit of the circumstances of how you ended up coming to Brandeis University. ROM: I started at Brandeis in the fall of '73 and I believe this year I am starting my 38th year in the program. I was working for Goodman Theatre in Chicago teaching in terms of painting scenery. I was at a point where I thought I should leave that job for various reasons, and I found out that a job was opening at Brandeis, and without knowing much about Howard Bay before the call, I asked him for the possibility of having an interview and he said, "Oh my, yes" in his way of saying yes. I went up and had the interview, and there had been a number of interviews before me for the job, and he gave me the job. I knew that on the way to the airport when he offered to add to the offer of the salary money for the expense for the moving to the Brandeis area. That is how that started. SC: What has been the focus of your work there at Brandeis? ROM: I think the focus of my work at Brandeis has been to work with graduate designers, primarily, even though I had undergraduate courses, to bring them into as much of a degree of understanding about the scene painting process and how it relates to their profession and their work. So there is a lot in that they learn how to provide information to a shop or to a scenic artist in order to see that their work is realized on stage. So I taught scene painting to set-, light-, and costume-focus students over a three-year program and I also worked on their designs or productions. So while I painted the scenery for them, they saw the connection between what I was teaching and what I was doing regarding their work. To me, the scene painting experience for a designer was very, very important, so I didn't take that on as a mission, but it came very naturally to me to do that in the job because of what I felt was a basic need. SC: You also mentioned lighting and costume students, and I know the program sort of had a philosophical idea that scene painting was very useful and very instructive to them as well; can you speak on that a little bit? ROM: I think that all the disciplines in production (in theatre) are really interconnected and need to be interconnected. I think that understanding how to put information down, how to communicate, how to recognize, how to interpret is important in all the areas ­ sets, lights, and costumes ­ so that is what I would INTERVIEW Robert O. Moody , is Interviewed by Susan Crabtree Susan Crabtree: Where do you work now and what is your position there? Robert O. Moody: I'm a Laurie Professor at Brandeis University.