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Since graduating from UC's CCM in 1996, BRIAN MEHRING's life has been a blur of activity. Before becoming the resident scenic and lighting designer and scenic painter at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (ETC), he worked in New York, Atlanta and Naples, Fla.
Recently, he got married, began his third year at ETC, completed a year of teaching at CCM, bought and remodeled a house and created ETC's glittering, dangling pig, GLIMMER, GLIMMER AND SWINE, marking the theater's 15th anniversary.
Mehring started with a simple plan for ETC's sow. In retrospect, he says, "(It) took too much time. I got too involved, and it shot my focus of minimalism to hell."
Minimalism is a principal quality in Mehring's usual work. "I like the audience to fill in the blanks," he says. "I don't like to offend and over-decorate." At ETC he designs sets, then uses paint and light to decorate them.
At home he uses abstract painting to depict "a lot of women and buildings." He doesn't plan to display his paintings. "(They're) for friends and family and for my own personal greediness."
But he's sure he won't be hoarding any hogs.
