Sudsy Performance

I don't know about you, but to me, Hollywood actors  - like James Franco, pictured to the left - are entertainers rather than artists.  I make that distinction between theatre people as well as in the film world.  Entertainers, to me, are those that like the familiar and are not interested in seeing how far they can stretch an art form.

In theatre these are the folks that would love to do Sweeney Todd (or insert the name of any popular play that is at least 10 years old) again, for the 5th time.  In film, those are the folks that like to do the big blockbusters with cars exploding and breasts exposed and people being killed and/or mutilated.  I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, it's just something that I've noticed. 

Then there are the people, in both theatre and film, who long to stretch the boundaries of their genres.  They aren't happy unless there's some way to do something differently to make a point or to perhaps give new life to a text.  I consider these folks the artists of their genres.  That's why Viewpoints training (movement training) was so important to me as both an actor and a director.  It was a way to re-conceptualize a show or a portion of a play.

Back in 2003, I was accepted into the Director's Lab West workshop held that year at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena.  It was a great learning experience and I now get group emails from folks who do the workshops each year.  This morning Dan Wilson told a tale of eating lunch in front of the TV and watching a soap opera in which Franco appeared.  Franco, if you don't know, was in both Spiderman and in Milk.  Later he caught an episode of Fresh Air, the NPR show, in which Franco called the soap opera gig a performance art experience!?!

He included a link that was in the Wall Street Journal - who knew that bastion of fiscal conservatives would have any truck with performance art?  Even if you think much performance art is pretentious (and I agree with you on some of it), please read the article HERE.  It might make you think twice.  I know that I've changed my concept of Hollywood actors thanks to Franco!

Burn the Art, Not the Duck

I think it was the 2nd time that I went to the Burning Man Festival out in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada (north of Reno) that I saw a beautiful, huge, balsa-wood duck.  It was as big as a car, or maybe bigger.  And I think that someone sat inside it and drove it around.

This was back in 1997 I do believe.  At that point in time, the Fest was a little less controlled than it is now.  Back then anything out on the playa near The Man was fair game to be burned.  So when it got dark, I was surprised, no horrified, so see that the duck was traveling out to the playa center - the "we'll burn anything" zone.  It was late that night and I was bushed from riding my bike all around Black Rock City, so I decided to let the rave music rock me to sleep.  One of our camp mates - my good friend Art, owner of Luna's Cafe here in Sacramento, go there for lunch sometime - decided to stay up and go out and shoot photos.  As Art walked away from our rented RV, I could hear people yelling  "Burn the duck".




Apparently the guys who built that duck didn't understand the burning rules - if it's out on the playa and if a flamethrower is near it, bring your marshmallows!  A little bit of research on the Burning Man site, showed that it was called Trojan Duck Lounge by Robert Burke.  Robert, I was sorely afraid for you and the duck.  But the next morning Art reported that the duck was safe - whew!

So I think this is the windiest into to just about anything I've written lately.  Aside aside, I want to thank Paddy Johnson of ArtFagCity who is down in Miami at Art Basel Miami Beach for this link


Wish I could be there to "feel the glow".

Art Basel Miami Beach

I think they call this international art fair Art Basel Miami because it's too damn cold in Switzerland this time of year and this way gallery owners and artists get an opportunity to write off a trip to Florida! There was an article and slide show at the Art Info website and I pulled out a couple of  photos of work that I think really express the times we are living in.

All this talk about the economy was probably the genesis of this piece.     At least that's what I thought until I went back and looked at the name of the artist - Cildo Meireles, Zero dollar (1978-84).  OMG, Cildo died in 1984.  But like many works of art, I guess this is just timeless.

And then there's this piece by Kirsten Pieroth, Inflated Dinghy (2009). Harmonica, rubber dinghy, hose, and video. My question to you is does this make music?  Looks like you could fill the boat with air and just let it deflate into the accordion - which they are calling a harmonica?  It's a German gallery that is showing this so it could be a language glitch.

I also liked Gerhard Richter's abstract painting, plus works by Robert Longo, Barbara Kreuger and John Baldessari. But these are only the picks from the Art Info folks.  One of these days I will go there myself,  with my own work, which will sell like hotcakes and get me a wonderful high profile gallery.  Girl can dream can't she?

Will be interesting to compare the faves of Artinfo.com with those of Paddy over at the Art Fag City blog.

Starry Night Music

My dear friend Debra Ayers is one hell of a pianist - be it rag time or contemporary classical music!  So we have to give her and her Montage Music Society a BIG shout out for their excellent review that just came out:

GRAMOPHONE

December 2009

Review of Starry Night Project

Montage Music Society

“Richly colored music inspired by some equally colorful art.…illuminating (Starry Night)…

absolutely delicious  (Seurat)

…sumptuously lyrical (O’Keeffe)  …purely joyous and exuberant (Gauguin)..”

“..an effective and natural unifying idea which musical organizations and concert presenters frequently use to inspire both their audience and themselves.”

Although the Montage Music Society’s Starry Night Project is one of those scary-sounding not-for-profit projects that involve more logistical support than small naval skirmishes, any commissioning initiative that results in such lovely music written exclusively about works of visual art is its own justification. In fact, it’s an effective and natural unifying idea which musical organizations and concert presenters frequently use to inspire both their audience and themselves.

In this case, the featured paintings belong to prominent collections including New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Matthew Harris leads off the night with illuminating and perspective sketches based on paintings by Van Gogh, Rousseau, Picasso, Ensor, Matisse, Dali, and Mondrian, their brevity making this an excellent game for classical music parties.

Stephen Paulus contributes a beautiful adaptation for cello and piano of his rhapsodic, hypnotic song-cycle Art Suite, inspired by Brueghel, Degas, Seurat (absolutely delicious) and Larry Rivers. Libby Larsen’s “portrait” of six Georgia O’Keeffe paintings are suitably ominous and spare, and every now and then sumptuously lyrical. Andrew Lists’s Noa Noa, inspired by a monumental tableau by Gauguin, is the most purely joyous and exuberant music on the program.

The recordings were made in 2008 at Merrimack College’s Rogers Center for the Arts in North Andover, Massachusetts. The sound is full of life and detail, just the way composers like it. The booklet-notes by the composers or collaborators is a historic document in itself.

Laurence Vittes, GRAMOPHONE, December 2009

If you like contemporary classical music as much as I do, you can go here to order it on-line.  Do it now, you won't regret it!

Art from Left Overs??

Hope all you folks in the US had a great Thanksgiving. I'm still in Florida with the Sweet Hubby and his huge family not only celebrating the holiday but also his aunt Lu's 90th birthday.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at the community hall of her mobile home park along with 30 of the relatives and some of the other residents.  But instead of the traditional pumpkin and fruit pies, we had chocolate birthday cake!

As you can tell I wasn't the only one taking photos...

When we get home, late tomorrow, I'll begin preparations for "another turkey dinner that couldn't be beat" (lyrics from Arlo Gutherie's "Alice's Restaurant").  No matter how well something is catered, there is nothing like roasting a turkey at home and making gravy in one's own kitchen, for the aromas if nothing else! When I checked on my email this morning, I found THIS - which is making me think differently about the left overs. 

It also reminds me about one of my favorite artists,. Joseph Bueys, who sometimes worked with food-type substances.  In looking for an image to illustrate that, I stumbled upon this great blog (Art, Life, TV, Etc.)by Cheryl Bernstein.  Thanks Cheryl for making my search so easy and for your great post!

Video Art

This morning was the day to shoot Renee Rhodes' video art piece up at the Bernal Heights park.  Luckily it was only drizzling, not pouring rain.  Out of the 30 people that had said they were GO  on the project, only 20 showed up.  Ever moved as The Borg with 19 other people?  It's quite an experience and perhaps not one that I'd like to repeat in the near future. 

Perhaps it's because I'm a director and used to bossing people around.  I really had to bite my lip a couple of times when some of the group spoke up.  After all it was Renee's project and I was only there as an "actor".  Here are some shots that I took with my camera phone of the site and the people I was working with.

Renee looking over her notes before the shoot.

Renee wanted everyone to wear either yellow or orange.  Of course I don't own any clothing that is yellow or orange so thankfully she brought some bright yellow plastic raincoats.  I would include her website URL, but when I went there some dumb asses had hacked it!  I can see hacking a corporate site or something like that, but why hack the site of an artist?

Figuring out the Art Market

It's difficult at times and varies from place to place and event to event.  This past weekend, I was at the St. Mary's Art Fair in East Sacramento.  I had only sold one print last year, so this year I thought I would be a smarty pants and make some special art specific to the event.  That worked when I did the NadaDada shows these past two years! 

So I made some kanji transfers onto 4 inch square canvases that were about 2 inches thick... think blocks.  Then I painted into the transfer and over the sides.  I (under) priced them at $35 each with a $5 discount for each additional one you bought.  Did they sell?  Hell No.  What did sell were my digital floral woodcut prints and canvases.  OK, please remember I just took these photos on my dining room floor so they're not the best.  I will have to take some better photos for the Etsy site sometime later.

 

 

Please no comments on my bad photography, but what do you think of these? 

Such a Deal

Yes, I'm talking to all my local friends (sorry everyone else) about a special deal just for blog readers - get 25% off any framed art or print at the St Mary's Fine Art and Crafts Fair this Saturday, Nov 14th from 10 am to 7 pm.  The only thing you have to do is to print out this blog post.  And I'm working on being able to take credit cards!

Peace

It's the Blog Blast for Peace today.  You might wonder about the reason that I designed my peace globe with the image of a Muslim woman on it.

Peace be upon all Islamic women in this day and age of fear, anger, hostility and rage toward them.

I have a facebook friend who is not religious and is a student from the United Arab Emirates.   She shared a scene about her mother and father with us.  This scene showed how women are not treated well in the Islamic world because of how some Imams are using religion in the name of politics. 

I think that women must lead us to a world of peace, even if Barak Obama did receive the peace prize.  After all, the men haven't done such a great job.  Or should I say the men who have not recognized their female side.  We all have differing degrees of male and female sides, and it's in the balance that we will find peace.

Moving bodies through space

This Saturday, it's off to San Francisco, Bernal Heights Park to be exact for a rehearsal for a film project I'm involved in.  Not your run-of-the-mill narrative film, but some actual  video art!!!  Whoo Hooo.  Can you tell that I'm really jazzed about working with Renee Rhodes on her new film?  Got an email from her today with this LINK

Pretty exciting that we haven't even had a rehearsal and she's getting some major press on the project.  I don't think she'll have too many problems getting this into festivals etc.  She's a very interesting artist, who shares my love of movement, photography and video.  This is a LINK to her website.

I just might have to bring my little video camera with me and maybe shoot as I'm moving around at rehearsal...might create some interesting footage to be used at a later date.

And don't forget about new afforably priced art that I will be offering on Sat, 11/14 here

The Legend

How does one become a legend in one's own time?  One way is to make a movie about it, as my friend and NadaDada artist cohort SK James has done.  He promised me that my scene will be in the next installment.



But this also brings up the topic of artist promoting ourselves.  It's hard to do I know, but the more we do it, the easier it gets.  Maybe I can get sk to help me with a video one of these days...

BOOOOOO arf

Hi... Ann just stepped out of the studio so I jumped on the computer to say Happy Halloween!  I love to bark at the kids coming for candy, hehehe. 

Sometimes I like to look really mean like in this photo she took that shows my teeth.

Who'd mess with a 4-legged pumpkin?  I think it's really dumb that she tries to dress me up like this.  Wonder why she doesn't try to dress the kitties like this?

But be careful not to let your dogs get any chocolate because it can make them sick or even kill them!  I found a link about this HERE