Words, Music & Heart:
The Great Poets and Songwriters of Romantic Germany
Marcella Calabi, soprano
Ann Sears, piano
Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
The Cornerstone Center
Bennett Avenue and 189th Street in Manhattan
one block west of Broadway
Songs of Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Beethoven, Mahler, and others
Suggested admission $15/$10 students and seniors
At the door or call 212-928-4798 for reservations
Artist-blogger Anna L. Conti (Working Artist’s Journal) is putting together a permanent on-line exhibition of portraits of artists by other artists. Submissions are open to all. Scroll down her post for full info.
greenmuseum.org is an on-line museum and forum for and about environmental art, which they loosely define as “art that helps improve our relationship with the natural world.” And what could be more important than that? In one sense, work that addresses environmental issues is also very political, however it seems less likely to come across as strident, dated, or one-note than most political art.
(image: “Whalsay”, by Keith Barrett, built on the remote island of Whalsay in Shetland, Scotland, this sculpture forms its own sheltered space in a hostile environment. Elm with concrete foundations and steel fixings, length 7 meters, 2001)
Preserving America’s Cultural Heritage is a project by Jeffrey Vallance in collaboration with the MA Curatorial Practice class of 2006 at California College of the Arts. It proposes a solution to the lack of an effective cultural policy on the federal level through a 1% tax on the sale of all art in the United States to fund a program to benefit individual artists.
Proposal (Draft)
The bill under discussion proposes a solution to the lack of an effective cultural policy on the federal level. It proposes a 1% tax on the sale of all art in the United States to fund a program to benefit individual artists. Annual disbursements from this fund would be paid to eligible artists living in the US. Eligibility would be awarded to visual artists that have evidence of an exhibition history. Additionally, the new legislation would create an artist registry organization that would administer the annual payments. The organization would also assist with the enforcement and efficacy of resale royalty laws like the California Resale Royalties Act (Civil Code 986), which requires a 5% royalty from sales of $1,000 or more to be paid to the artist or their estate.
Offhand, this sounds like a great idea, but there are compelling arguments both pro and con. Any opinions?
Blanka Amezkua “Mistaken Zygote Syndrome”
April 23 - May 21, 2006
Studio Gallery 88
205 West 88th St, 1D
New York, NY 10024
212.579.4654
Gallery hours: Fri-Sat-Sun, 2-6 or by appointment.
Barbara Beck, Director
This image is of a piece entitled Fluffy Anemone and it belongs to a current body of work. As humans always are, the stuffed animals (as well as the embroideries) are in constant transformation. Becoming more abstract or perhaps more real depends on how you see it.
The title for the show was taken from an article by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D. An internationally recognized scholar, award-winning poet, Diplomate senior Jungian psychoanalyst, and cantadora in the Latina tradition. (more…)
One thing I admire about artist-blogger JT Kirkland is his ability to come up with simple, original, and excellent ideas for engaging artists. For the “One Word Project,” JT would familiarize himself with an artists work, and then decide upon a single word that came to his mind about the art. He then asked the participating artist to write 100-500 words about the chosen word and what it means in their art. Here’s the final post from the One Word Project. Now JT’s published the One Word Project book. He used the print-on-demand company lulu.com, which looks like it’d be a good resource for those thinking of making artists books, exhibition catalogs, etc.
JT’s other projects include Artists Interview Artists, in which each artist responds to 5 questions posed by another artist, randomly assigned to them. In order to participate (respond to questions), each artist must provide five questions for some other artist to answer.
Now, he’s come up with an idea for exchanging works instead of words. His latest lightbulb: bARTer
The sap has gone from motionless to oozing bringing on that queasy feeling that spring is here. And if you must know, I am now having trouble with my dry cleaning. That golf fanatic Leary, who always has these specials on shirts, seems to have left his signature smell on my dry cleaning. And once you smell it, you smell it for the rest of the day. And it just adds to that queasy spring feeling. I have already returned these clothes once and had to muster all my powers of confrontation to tell Mr. Leary that the clothes had retained a certain unpleasant chemical smell. I had planned to be civil yet humorous in our meeting. I had planned to tell him how supportive I had been of his previous efforts that had resulted in daisy-fresh garments. As I pulled up in front of his shop, I pictured two English lords in bowlers politely tipping their brims. “I say, Leary. I admired your gait as you approached. Yes, I did. Reminded me of the noble peacock. Or a robin hopping forward. But I must share with you a funny encounter that my nose had with those clothes you attempted cleaning. Did I say ‘attempted?’” How rude of me? I should have said “those clothes you laced with skin-curdling poisons? What? Did I say that? I should have stuck with the word ‘attempted.’ Now where were we, Leary? Oh yes, a duel. But I am afraid I have not brought a gun for you. Bit of a shame, really. What’s that you, say? Sorry, I can’t hear you over the horrible smell of my dry cleaning. Yes, I know it’s back at the house and that’s exactly my point. How fast can you run, Leary? You know in this light you look not unlike a fairly attractive female Guinea Hen. My feelings are mixed now because I want to pull you close but I also want to see you run. Learrrry!”
The entire scene played in my head like a scene from the Lavender Hill Mob with Alec Guinness as I entered the shop and rang the bell at the counter to summons Leary. He had a big, funny ship’s bell that you rang for service. He was standing directly behind the counter, but still I rang with abandon because it was a big, funny ship’s bell and demanded ringing.
I decided to cut to the chase. That’s the exciting part of the movie. I decided I was going to use an absurd approach—just bursting with good humor. I said flat out with a smile to convey exaggeration: “If I were to imagine Donald Trump’s hair on fire, it would smell like these clothes.” I sniffed the clothes in front of him, and drew the corners of my mouth down toward my shoulders, and ever so slightly, I rolled my eyes and stuck out my tongue. I wanted to give him that brief flash of someone dying horribly in HELL, but while keeping up a Lucille Ball-like zaniness. I think my subliminal shot of seriousness was getting through, nicely washed down with a chaser of brash wit.
Oh I’d like to tell you what happened next…but I really wrote to tell you to mark your calendars for two Life In A Blender shows
Breathe deep and keep marking your calendar with a big fat marker….
Tuesday, May 2, 9 pm–Don’s birthday commences at Mo Pitkin’s (34 Ave. A,
bet. 2nd and 3rd Aves.) in the East Village with the full Life In A
Blender….and many surprising songs.
See the great poster below by the illustrious and illustrating Pete
Friedrich.
Chris Rael and Church of Betty, and Ed Pastorini and 101 Crustaceans will
also play this night.
Visit www.lifeinablender.net and www.myspace.com/lifeinablender
Saturday, Mat 6, 10 pm–the Blender returns to the exotic Barbes (6th Ave.
and 9th St.) in Brooklyn with special guest Josh Neretin on the cajon.
Also: Sea of Scarves will play a tribute to Nikkin Sudden immediately after
our set:
Pin Your Heart to Me. It is with great sadness that Sea of Scarves, the
world’s only Jacobites tribute band, offers up what they hope will be a
fitting memorial to their patron saint, Nikki Sudden. Protopunk, King
Jangler and a man who out-Keith’d Keith himself, St. Nikki died in late
March after a gig at the Knitting Factory. None of us went to see the show.
And it breaks our hearts. Perhaps Olivier will run a special on small sour
drinks with which to toast the sweet memory of this undersung giant. Sea of
Scarves is Mark Rozzo, Sam Erickson, Ira Elliott and Henry Tenney.
Karen Hudson has been awarded a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Manhattan Community Arts Fund grant. This funding means Karen will be bringing the Inwood Coffeehouse back to Inwood in the fall for 3 shows. Karen plans to keep the original format, starting the evening off with an open mic, then an evening of quality Acoustic Roots Music. Keep your eyes peeled for more info!
For Karen’s shows in the immediate future, see Events.
Next Sunday, Sunday, Sunday…
May 7th, 11PM in Brooklyn
Karen Hudson with Jon Light at Hank’s Saloon!!!
I’ll hop on the A train and skedaddle down to Brooklyn for a nite of drinkin’ and carousing.
Yep, folks, I’ll be playing Hanks again…consider me the creamy
sweet middle set sandwiched between 2 crunchy delicious sets of Cowpunk with the New Jack Ramblers.
Sean and the fellers host the eve with Soul Sausage cookin on the BBQ and beer aflowing like there’s no tomorry!
And the quality of drunks there in the audience have improved…expect a rip roaring good ol’ time.
Quality Drunks? That’s an Oxy-moron!
10 PM New Jacks
11 PM Me and Jon, pedal steel guitar wiz
HANKS: 46 3rd Ave. @ Atlantic Ave. Brooklyn
Directions: D, Q; 2, 3; 4, 5; B, M; N, R at Atlantic Ave.-Pacific St.;
Or A, C; G at Hoyt-Schermerhorn.
www.karenhudson.com
Please help create space in my apartment and
BUY HUDSON RIVER VIEW at CDBABY-Only 800 more CD’s to go!
http://www.cdbaby.com/all/karenhudson
***************
The Bronx is the “New†Brooklyn…with happenings like this
Saturday May 13th in the Bronx 9:30 PM
Riverdale Round-Up at An Beal Bocht Café
I’ll be your hostess with the mostess, startin’
the night out right with a few tunes of my own..
Then the really big shoe…
Featuring Our Special Guests:
Li’l Mo and the Monicats 10PM
2 sets-Never A Cover! Trivia/CD giveaways
An Beal Bocht: 445 West 238th St., Bronx, 718-884-7127
Subway-1 train to 238th St. #7 Bus to 238th and Riverdale Ave.
About Li’l Mo and the Monicats- Honky Tonk hi-jinx with the li’l lady herself!
This is country that jumps and swings, twangs and slides. It’s downright fun!
Li’l Mo has toured nationally and internationally—and was a guest performer as part
of the Required Listening series on WFUV with Rita Houston.
http://home.earthlink.net/~lilmo/index.html
***************
Some News…
I am the proud recipient of a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Manhattan Community Arts Fund grant
This funding will enable me to bring the Inwood Coffeehouse back to my fabulous neighborhood, Inwood,
in the fall…for 3 shows. I am now an official high falootin’ arts/music presenter in NYC.
I’ll be bringing the same format back, starting the evening off with an open mic,
then an evening of quality Acoustic Roots Music…all for you…my friends of Inwood.
These shows are worth hopping on th A train to 207th Street to see and hear for yourself.
Keep your eyes peeled for more info!
“Inwood Coffeehouse—the sly atmosphere of a west village happening.†—Manhattan Times
Transcendent Waves
Carol Pfeffer, David Mackowiecki, Nikolai Solonski
Exhibition May 6th - May 27th.
Gallery Hours: Tues-Sun, 12-6pm
Opening Reception, May 13th, 6-8 pm
A-forest Gallery
134 W 29th St, Suite 1010 (10F) between 6th & 7th Aves.
New York, NY 10001
Tel: 212-673-1168
www.a-forestgallery.com
info@a-forestgallery.com
Got a comment on the April 14 Now:Here:This? Make it here!
Brian Lehrer will be hosting a conversation about intellectual property rights in today’s cut-and-paste world. The show is slated for Thursday morning, on WNYC. Outside NYC, you can listen live or as an archive or podcast if you’re savvy enough.
About 6 years ago I was leafing through an art book and I found an image that captivated me. It was a small reproduction of Reading Baudelaire by Sandra Fisher 1983, a portrait of a man reading by a fire. The book Reported Sightings by John Ashbery contained only two sentences about the artist; it was merely a mention. For the years that followed this image became both a talisman of sorts and a source of irritation. At the time I was trying to make a change in my own work and this image became important to me because it had the qualities I was searching for in my paintings. This little portrait was brightly colored without being sugary. Directly observed, it seemed to be painted quickly, in a single session, the canvas below showing through providing light.
The drawing was confident and strong, not clunky. Although it paid homage to a tradition it was not regressive. In a word it had a freshness that I desired (in my own work). This little reproduction became even more vital to me because it provided nourishment I was not getting in the galleries. Being that it was figurative, direct and fresh when at the time it seemed I was seeing a lot labor intensive funky abstraction (by which I mean a vein of abstract painting with a dash of irony and pinch of pop culture reference). And so this unassuming and straightforward little portrait fortified and inspired me. The source of my annoyance came at not finding any of her work to look at in person or even any more reproductions. Numerous internet searches over a couple of years yielded little information except a listing of her untimely death (1994), that she had been an American expat in London and information about her grieving and far more conspicuous husband R.B. Kitaj. Some relief finally came in an annual Art in America listing of artists and their representation. This finally led me to David Cohen at the Gallery at the NY Studio School. There he let me look at some rare reproductions. He assured me that my difficulties were understandable as the galleries where she had showed were mostly in London and defunct.
He also told me that the NYSS were to have a show of her work in a year a half. And so I continued on with my work, through which I discovered the merits of working alla prima in natural light, a big change for me, as I had been a night painter who worked my paintings over many sessions. However, the more I moved forward the more I became convinced that this was the right way for me to work. All the time I held the idea of this little reproduction in the back of my head and waited for the exhibition. As time passed the idea of the painting changed in my mind just as a story might change consciously or unconsciously as it is told over the course of years. Whatever the difference between my idea and my subsequent viewing of the show is almost irrelevant. The little reproduction and its idea had served its purpose to create a spark. Maybe I am only able to say that now that my curiosity has finally been satisfied. That being said I urge anyone interested in fresh, luscious and juicy figure painting to see the show while it is still up, who knows when you might get the chance again? The show has a wealth of information about the artist and her life in art and Mr. Cohen deserves kudos for mounting the show. Curiously, the image that is now caught in my head is Lee Friedlander’s portrait of Sandra Fisher drawing in her skirt and heels. It might be a crush.
An American Abroad: Sandra Fisher and her School of London Friends
March 30-May 13, 2006
Gallery open every day 10-6pm
New York Studio School
8 west 8th St NYC
212 673 6466
www.nyss.org/fisher/
Kerry Law is a painter living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
image: Sandra Fisher David Cohen Reading 1992, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, Collection of Max Kitaj (c) Estate of Sandra Fisher
EXPANSE - curated by Alexandra Rutsch Brock
Avy Claire, Ivy Dachman, Dana DeVito, Wennie Huang, Millar Kelley, Patricia Spergel and Sunny Spillane
Artists’ reception 5-9pm, Saturday April 29th
On view through July 21, 2006 by appointment
Studio 12N - 19 west 36 street, btw 5 and 6 aves
12th floor
212-947-0898
A friendly reminder to check our sidebars. The Events and Opportunities sections on the left are regularly updated. An example of what you’ll find over there is a posting with details about our next gallery crawl, happening this Sunday, April 30th.
Drop us an e-mail at editor@artistsunite-ny.org if you have an event or opportunity for posting.
This brief essay is the third in a series addressing the emergence of meaning, by James Leonard.
(Please note: the following material is © copyright James Leonard 2006 and may not be used in any way without permission from author)
“Poetry is news that remains news; self-updating information.” Tom Sherman, a conceptual artist, theorist, and friend, once said that to me in casual conversation. At the time, he was my undergraduate advisor and mentor. It was about three years before the internet boom and the emergence of overnight dot-com billionaires. We were in his office, both engaged in an enthusiastic dialogue about art in the information age. Most of that conversation has receded into the zeitgeist of pre-boom jargon and hype. But that notion of “self-updating information” remains with me. Though Tom had named poetry in particular, I know from the context of our conversation, he was speaking about poetic meaning in art in general.
About once a year, I find myself pondering that simple sentence: “Poetry is news that remains news; self-updating information.” It never seems to get old.
More in the vein of ‘art meets science,’ there’s an article in today’s NY Times on an upcoming exhibition of drawings, the largest ever, by famous Dr. Freud, at the NY Academy of Medicine (opening May 11, 2006).
“In the latter part of the 19th century, German researchers considered drawing to be instrumental to scientific discovery, both as a way to capture the microscopic detail of nerve cells, for example, and to illustrate theories of how the brain might work, said Lynn Gamwell, the curator of the exhibit and the director of the Art Museum at the State University of New York at Binghamton. “Einstein once said that when he thought about science, he thought visually, he thought in pictures, and this appears to be the case with Freud,” said Dr. Gamwell, a professor of science history.”
It strikes me as interesting how drawing, which requires a certain kind of abstract thinking and hand-eye-mind coordination, was such a critical tool in the scientific process, and I wonder what has been altered or lost by the ascendance of technology and our reliance on it. Same goes for the changes in language and the written arts with the almost complete demise of writing words on paper. Something is gained, but something is also undoubtedly lost, and is it sharpness of mind and acuity of vision that are sacrificed in the process of progress?
Local Musicians are being sought for the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum Backporch Concert Series for Summer 2006. This annual series will include six free concerts, two per month from June through August. The goal of the program is to promote the musicians of the community and encourage the neighborhood to enjoy their community treasure, Dyckman Farmhouse Museum and Park.
We are hoping to offer a wide range of music, reflecting the many cultural traditions of the neighborhood as well as the wide range of talent of our residents. Only local musicians (Inwood and Washington Heights) will be invited to perform.
For more information please visit our website — www.dyckmanfarmhouse.org — or email us at info@dyckmanfarmhouse.org
Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
4881 Broadway at West 204th Street
New York, NY 10034
212.304.9422
www.dyckmanfarmhouse.org
The HDTS Mission:
The High Desert Test Sites are a series of experimental art sites located along a stretch of desert communities including Pioneer town, Yucca Valley, Joshua tree, 29 Palms and Wonder Valley. These sites provide alternative space for experimental works by both emerging and established artists.
The Experiment:
1. To challenge traditional conventions of ownership, property and patronage. Most projects will ultimately belong to no one, and they are intended to melt back into the landscape as new ones emerge.
2. To “insert†art directly into a life, a landscape or a community where it will sink or swim based on a different set of criteria than those of art world institutions and galleries.
3. To encourage art that remains in the context for which it was created – similar to the intentions early site-specific art, before “site specific†became something that could be retailored for any location. Works that will be born live and die in the same spot.
4. To initiate an organism in it’s own right - one is bigger, richer, and less organized than the vision of any single artist, curator or architect.
5. To create a “center†outside of any preexisting centers. Inspired by groups like the Modern Institute in Glasgow, or Forcefield in Providence RI, which aren’t, based so much on the cache of living in an existing cultural capital so much as their ability to make a center around themselves in whatever location they happen to be in.
6. To find common ground between contemporary art and localized art issues.
7 . To run on a zero budget. The High Desert Test Sites receives no funding – nor does it seek any. The organizers and artists themselves pay for all expenses. As a result of the zero budget policy there is a necessity to find new ways to convey meaning and create experiences through the most economical means. The most successful works are often casual, experimental and somewhat offhand.
8. To contribute to a community in which art can truly make a difference. HDTS exists in a series of communities that edge one of the largest suburban sprawls in the nation. Most of the artists who settle in this area are from larger cities, but want to live in a place where they can control and shape the development their own community. For the time being there is still a feeling in the air that if we join together we can still hold back the salmon stucco housing tracts and big box retail centers. Well maybe.