Artists Unite Issue

Artists Unite’s founders included a dancer. So it’s poignant that now I have made my way from visual arts and music to promoting dance. (I’ve taken on marketing responsibilities at Dance New Amsterdam.) I’m impressed by how much good multimedia is present in the dance world, where movement is often integrated with video, sound, and sets that double as art objects. Case in point is a great show I previewed last night, the world premiere of The Map and The Machine, by everything smaller. One of the dancers doubles as visual artist, the show features several dramatic costumes that are actually part of the set decoration, and the video animations are integral to the dance. There’s video at the link above. Stop by this weekend.

The Odyssey Within: Fine Art by Artists Living in Italy and Greece and of Italian and Greek Origin

Scheduled to run from December 14th through January 3rd
Agora Gallery 530 West 25th Street, Chelsea, New York

We would be delighted if you would join us for the opening reception
Thursday night December 20, 2007 from 6-8pm

http://www.agora-gallery.com/ExhibitionAnnouncement/12_14_2007.aspx

Usually my e-mails open in a shroud of mist and one lone virtual peahen springs forth from the screen whispering, “Do you dare?” But why confuse with cheap apparitions? Why muddy a miracle? I am here to tell you your future—not sell you an enlargement swaddling cloth that promises to turn your sickly Charlie Brown Christmas man-tree into a glitzy fir complete with flashing lights. Don’t slide me immediately into your file marked bug-eyed turbaned charlatans. Please consider me the Mapquest of your destiny. First, I will need a reading, so extend your hands and place your palms firmly upon the bosom of this e-mail. Ahhh. Such firm yet spongy palms…finding their temporary home on me! Let them settle gently upon my face. Their dependable rubberiness recalls a miniature golf course in the Adirondacks. But let’s not let nostalgia interfere with the news of your demise. Ahhhh…your hands seem to be secreting their energy on me now and I believe if you were to stack them face up on a plate they could be mistakenly served as warm buttered toast. Oh how I wish your toasty hands would find their way into my icy sheets tonight, perhaps tumbling into an airless personal crevasse marked condemned by the medical community. You probably didn’t suspect that the
two meaty slabs hanging lifelessly at the end of your arms were perfect conduits for receiving signals from the future! That’s right. Press them on me and throw your head back. Let the jealous pebble-sniffers peek from the dark corners with their pathetic hopeful pinprick eyes. They may redouble their sniffing of pebbles, but they’ll never have what we have—an unashamed doughy sensuality. Let them hear the fierce cry of the elderly awakening in the night! They are right to be afraid. But your future cannot be rewritten. Your doom is at the doorstep, wiping its feet on the welcome mat and pushing its flyer through the mail slot. Where can you hide? There is only one sensible fortress for eluding your painful ending:

Come avoid the sting of disembowelment and the discomforting sensation of being mangled in a large machine at The Life in A Blender Holiday Show at Barbes (9th St and 6th Ave. in Brooklyn, one block from the F Train) Saturday, December 1 at 10 pm with a wondrous yuletide skit featuring Susan Mitchell, Henry Tenney, Doug Stone, and Brian Culver preceding the show.

Remember your future!

[Astonishing poster by Pete Friedrich]

via the Alliance for the Arts:

OPEN CALL FOR CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS INTERESTED IN LOCATING IN BAM CULTURAL DISTRICT

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership has announced an open call to all cultural organizations interested in locating in the BAM Cultural District. The partnership seeks to gather visual, performing, media and other arts organizations in the BAM Cultural District in the Fort Greene neighborhood of downtown Brooklyn. The invitation has been made in cooperation with the Department of Cultural Affairs and in consultation with the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Interested arts groups may schedule a meeting with the partnership to review proposals and ideas for projects, as well as space needs, estimated costs and organizational capacity.

The deadline for all inquiries regarding projects for consideration is 5 pm on Friday, December 14. For information and guidelines, visit the partnership’s Web site at www.dbpartnership.org/opencall.

In anticipation of Chanukah, not to mention the solstice, join us for
THE LIGHT FEST
Poetry, Fiction, Music

Donald Lev, poetry “the Jeremiah of Brighton Beach…dexterous verbal enchantments”–Bob Tramonte, Brooklyn Heights Press
Mitchell Levenberg, fiction ” a sharp… eye for the hazards that can intervene in the seemingly … innocuous situation” –Alfred Kazin
Evelyne Luest, piano “assured and colorful readings…spirited performance” –The Washington Post
Daniel Reading, flute “plays with a natural expressivity and lyricism” –Ruth Alperson, pianist and teacher
Amy Michelman, jazz vocalist “a true New York…sound …. Michelman’s voice was sweet, ethereal, almost haunting” –Japan Jazz Review

Donald Lev publishes the literary tabloid Home Planet News, which he and his late wife Enid Dame founded in 1979. The most recent of his fourteen books and chapbooks is Adventures at the Upstate: Poems on Film (2007); forthcoming from Outloudbooks is a volume of his selected poems. Lev has worked in the wire rooms of the Daily News and New York Times, run messages for The Village Voice, driven a taxi cab, and operated the Home Planet Bookshop on the Lower East Side. He played the poet in Robert Downey Sr.’s 1969 classic film Putney Swope, writing his own lines.He lives in High Falls, New York, with his cat Kit Smart.

Mitch Levenberg has published essays and short fiction in such journals as Fiction, The New Delta Review, Confluence, The Common Review, and The Saint Ann’s Review,. His collection of stories, Principles of Uncertainty and Other Constants–a cross between Woody Allen and Kafka–was published in 2006. The poet Paul Violi called Levenberg a “masterful storyteller. . . whose characters walk a fine line between the humorous and the pathetic.” He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, daughter, three dogs and his hamster Shecky.

Evelyne Luest,  a winner of  the Artists International Competition, has performed  in Europe, South America, Asia and the USA.  She has appeared as a soloist at Carnegie/Weill Hall, the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds (Italy), and on the St. Paul Sunday radio show. Her list of premieres includes compositions by Joan Tower, Jing Jing luo, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Ben Weber. As a chamber musician, she performs with the award-winning Contrasts Quartet. Her recent CD releases include solo and chamber works on CRI, Phoenix Records, North/South Recordings, and North Pacific Music. She lives at Hudson View Gardens with her husband Aaron Jay Kernis and their two children.

Daniel Reading has served as Principle Flute for the Mankato Symphony Orchestra. He regularly performs with the University of Southern California Contemporary Music Ensemble, with the Long Island Composer’s Alliance, and throughout the New York metropolitan area. He has been a regular performer on the Minnesota Valley Sommerfest series since 2000. Reading holds a Masters of Music from the San Francisco conservatory of Music and has taught master classes at Gustavus Adolphus College and Minnesota State University. A native of Minnesota, he lives in Hudson View Gardens.

Amy Michelman has performed at such clubs as The Village Gate, Birdland, and Smalls, performing with Lee Konitz, Vernel Fournier, Brad Meldau, Jason Lindner, Jimmy Lovelace, Avishai Cohen and Ahmad Jamal, for whose compositions she has set lyrics. In the early nineties, she  teamed with Gaku Takanashi, a bass guitarist and composer, to found the band D-vash, blending jazz, pop and percussion. As the lead singer, Michelman has been writing, producing, and performing original music for the past fifteen years. She has been featured vocalist on three CDs released in Europe and Japan. In addition, she has performed cantorial music and is recording the liturgical compositions of Rabbi Israel Goldfarb.She lives in Riverdale with husband Eli and daughters Noa and Livia.

Sunday Best Reading Series
Spoken-word performances by fiction writers, poets, and dramatists

The Lounge, Hudson View Gardens
Pinehurst Avenue and 183rd Street

December 2nd at 4:00 p.m.

Suggested donation of $12 includes one free drink and free snacks
Festive reception to meet the performers created by Sandra Noreen and sponsored by the curator

By subway from downtown: Take the A train to 181st Street. Be at the front of the train. Walk upstairs; take the elevator to Fort Washington Avenue. Cross the little park you’ll see (Bennett Park), bearing left around the great circle. When you’ve crossed the park, you’ll be on Pinehurst Avenue. Look left. You’ll see 183rd Street, which continues into Hudson View Gardens as a private road. To your right, you’ll see a sign that says “The Lounge.”

Ask about our program of special discounts for student and other groups.

Patricia Eakins, Curator

LAKE GEORGE ARTS PROJECT
1 Amherst Street
Lake George, NY 12845
(518) 668-2616
mail@lakegeorgearts.org
www.lakegeorgearts.org

November 15, 2007
Contact: Laura Von Rosk, Gallery Director

******* Press Release *******

Open call to Artists

The Lake George Arts Project Gallery Committee invites artists to submit exhibition proposals for the Courthouse Gallery 2009 exhibition season. Strong preference is given to work created within the past two years. Proposals for special exhibitions, installations, mixed media presentations, and performance art are welcome. The deadline for proposals is always January 31. For more information visit: http://www.lakegeorgearts.org/annual-call-.htm, or contact Lake George Arts Project, Gallery Committee, 1 Amherst Street, Lake George, NY 12845, (518) 668-2616, mail@lakegerogearts.org.

from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for any New York artist/performer:

NEW MCAF DEADLINE ADDED
Application Deadline:
Tuesday, January 22, 2008, 5:00pm

Download guidelines and application form

GUIDELINES

The Manhattan Community Arts Fund (MCAF) supports local arts organizations and artists that have little access to other government funding sources. MCAF seeks to provide small grants for arts projects and local artists serving the Manhattan community. The hope is that these funds will enable grant recipients to eventually leverage financial support from other sectors, and to prepare applicants for the process of obtaining public funds.

[Artists Unite gives Julia Douglass, one of the performers, five stars and two thumbs up!  Go see her.  It's early.]

SESAC’s WRITERS ON THE STORM SHOWCASE” An intimate showcase featuring SESAC’s best undiscovered writing talent” TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13th, 7-9 PM, ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL, 196 Allen Street between East Houston and Stanton, New York City 10002. Telephone: 212.477.4155
Free admission! (Tip jar will be passed for each performer)
Directions: Take the F or V train to 2nd Ave

Performances include:
7:00pm Julia Douglass www.juliadouglass.com: Julia Douglass has been writing songs and performing in New York City since 1991. Originally from Hopkins, MN she was a French Horn player in the Duluth Symphony. She has just released her third album, Poor People On TV produced by Steve Addabbo. Poor People On TV has been reviewed by music critic Jim Farber of The Daily News saying, “Good satirists deliver brutal observations with a wink. They’re ruthless as analysts, but blithe as storytellers. Julia Douglass navigates that balance expertly on her new CD, Poor People on TV. The disk finds this brainy New Yorker tipping society’s sacred cows with a sly delight” Time Out New York has described Douglass’ music by saying, “her songs are odd treasures,” and Billboard Magazine has reviewed them as “memorable melodies with lyrics that depict thoughtful, touching, amusing and above all, uncannily true pictures of contemporary American life.”

7:30pm Kailin Garrity www.kailingarrity.com Kailin Garrity was born the summer of 1985 in Madison, CT. She sang since she could speak and was on the stage at her first recital at the age of 11 where her dream of becoming professional singer was born. She got her first guitar at the age of twelve and began writing her own songs shortly after. She was inspired by musicians such as Bonnie Raitt, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow, Carole King and Faith Hill. She continued to sing and play at every school talent show and theatre production she could find. During the Winter of 2003, she went to South Carolina and recorded some of her songs for the first time in a studio with Rustly Milner and Timmy Lawter from the Marshall Tucker Band at the studio 151 in Spartanburg. After her second year of college, she was accepted as an intern at The Lodge music production and mastering company in New York City and moved there in the summer of 2006, quitting school. She played at many events all around the country such as New York Cities Madison Square Garden and Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. In January of 2007, she opened up for Michelle Branch and The Wreckers in Denver, CO. For the past year, Kailin has been playing at many legendary clubs in New York such as Paul Colby’s The Bitter End, The Red Lion and Kennys Castaways.

8:00pm Pal Shazar www.palshazar.com Pal Shazar was born, raised and punished in Los Angeles, California. She began writing songs in the late 70’s, inspired by artists Patti Smith, Television, and Iggy Pop. Together with partner Andrew Chinich she created the band Slow Children in the early eighties and began playing clubs in L.A and was later signed to Ensign Records. Later on, Pal developed her own record label, Shiffaroe Records, on which she released her first solo effort, Cowbeat Of My Heart. Her second solo CD, There’s A Wild Thing In The House, was released on Transatlantic in 1994 and featured duets with Jules Sear and Mike Scott. Over the course of the year Pal recorded three songs with the exceptional musician and dear friend Richard Stekol. Considering taking a break from her own writing Pal recorded several cover songs at friend/musician Bob Beland’s Wrong Way Studios with the view of eventual release. In the final analysis, Pal decided to compile recordings of her own songs for the next CD. With the release of her seventh solo work, Pal says, “it is so easy to go back and forth when deciding the fate of one’s work. Some of my paintings I sell, others I can’t part with.” Regarding the recording and subsequent releasing of a CD, my ex-partner from Slow Children, Andrew Chinich says, ‘Pally, it’s your duty.’ Thanks Andrew.”

8:30pm Jennie Arnau www.jenniearnau.com Jennie Arnau makes no apologies for her uniquely brazen brand of New York-nurtured grassroots rock. It’s a sly underground sound that’s born of urban grit and rowdy southern sensibilities and it perfectly suits this native South Carolina singer with the bluesy, bold and bittersweet voice. Arnau’s record Mt. Pleasant may be one of the most compelling indie record releases of the year. Arnau smartly embraces both the supple artistry of alt-country and the rougher-hewn edge of rock ‘n’ roll. One of the most extraordinary tracks on Mt. Pleasant, “You’re Not Alone,” was inspired by Arnau’s close friend who was battling a losing fight with cancer. The track is hardly a melancholic ballad; instead, it rocks with anthemic, upbeat Dixie Chicks-meets-Rhett Miller determination. Ultimately, however, it is the uniqueness of Arnau’s explosive voice that truly defines each song on this record. For a woman who grew up in the foothills of Appalachia, but who has thrived in New York’s downtown music scene since the late 90s, Arnau has long explored the curious dichotomy of her artistic temperament. But she sees Mt. Pleasant as the “coming of age” album she has long sought to record. “I’m really so proud of this album,” says Arnau. “It’s singer-songwriter based, but it has a real edge ” it’s country-oriented with jazz chording and rock rhythms. I really think it reflects the new face of southern rock.”

SESAC For your performing rights www.sesac.com

The Center for Latino Arts and Culture Celebrates 15 Years of Community Service Through the Arts: Proceeds of anniversary gala to establish student scholarship.

The Center for Latino Arts and Culture is celebrating 15 years of continuous service to Rutgers and communities across New Jersey with an anniversary gala and program, “Building on a Legacy of Community Service through the Arts.” The event will take place at the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick, NJ.

15th Anniversary Gala
Preliminary Program
Art Exhibition and Auction
Sponsorship and Ticket Information
Press Release

With a program entitled “Building on a Legacy of Community Service through the Arts” the Center for Latino Arts and Culture (CLAC) is celebrating 15 years of continuous service to Rutgers and communities across New Jersey. The event will take place at the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick Nov. 10, 2007, at 8 p.m.

The gala, which coincides with Latin Heritage Month celebrations at Rutgers, will serve as an important homecoming event for Latino alumni. Hon. Nina Mitchell Wells, New Jersey’s secretary of state, and Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick, the honorary chair of the gala, are among the speakers for the event.

The evening program will feature a pre-gala Art Exhibition and Reception, starting at 7 p.m., followed by a Dinner Program featuring live and recorded performances by outstanding Rutgers alumni, an Art Auction, and a Concert by Grammy Award winner Eddie Palmieri y La Perfecta II.

The proceeds of the Gala and the Auction will help establish a student scholarship for Rutgers minority students in the arts and cultural studies.

The program highlights the achievements of Rutgers alumni in the arts and honors funders, community leaders, faculty and artists for their leadership. This year’s honorees are Dr. Michael J. Bzdak, director of corporate contributions at Johnson & Johnson; Daniel H. Jara, president and CEO of the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey; Asela Rodríguez-Laguna, professor and chair of classical and modern languages at Rutgers-Newark; and New Brunswick artist Claudio Mir, a Mason Gross School of the Arts alumnus and a longtime collaborator in CLAC community-based programs.

Multiple sponsorship and advertising opportunities are available. For additional information, contact the CLAC at 732-932-1263 or email cafernan@rci.rutgers.edu

It was a very moving experience last night to attend the opening of Kay WalkingStick’s exhibition of new paintings at June Kelly Gallery. Normally, openings are the worst time to try to actually see the work on the walls, but even in the crowded space these powerful paintings demanded and held everyone’s attention.

These works exude an impressively imposing presence far beyond what one might expect from their relatively modest scale. Melding abstraction and representation successfully is an extremely difficult challenge, and WalkingStick is the rare artist who manages it. The harmonious diptychs include the geometric patterns characteristic of Native American designs (WalkingStick is a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), abstractions rooted in nature here in balanced composition with more representational interpretations of the landscape, which in turn seem rooted in abstraction.

The intellectual and historical underpinnings of her approach, including the themes of Chief Joseph and the Cherokees’ Trail of Tears, are intense in and of themselves. Yet they become like a surface mist on water that soon parts as Kay WalkingStick’s paintings plunge you into their even greater depths and layers of meaning. The paintings are of great beauty, which has everything to do with awe and wonder as opposed to being merely pretty and pleasing to the eye. They emanate ominousness and enormity. Her mountains have a force of being, a spiritual presence as evident and alive as any portrait ever painted. It is this spirituality of the land and the human connection to it, as well as the implications of rending that connection, that have so much impact.

Because it involves landscape, her work can be the easy basis of art historical comparisons. In the catalog essay, Cynthia Nadelman aptly refers to predecessors such as Marsden Hartley and Giotto. But WalkingStick has long ago developed beyond the referential, and established her own, very specific voice. As a colorist, she is both outstanding and unique. The richness of her handling of materials is clear evidence of an artist in confident, full command.

To quote the catalog, “We will never look at the western landscape – or, for that matter, at these distinctive designs – in the same way after seeing how she relates the one to the other.”

After a long career continuously pushing and upholding the meaning of personal excellence, Kay’s virtuosity is as monumental as the mountains and history her works convey.

Unfortunately, the reproductions accompanying this review come nowhere near the experience of seeing the work in person. The exhibition is on view at June Kelly Gallery, 591 Broadway between Houston and Prince, until December 8^th, 2007. If you would like to meet the artist, she is planning to be in the gallery Saturdays, November 17^th and 24^th between 3 and 5pm.

Kay Walkingstick has exhibited extensively across the US and Europe. She has been the recipient of many awards and honors such as the Joan Mitchell Award in Painting and a fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is in numerous public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For fear of appearing biased, I normally would not review shows at the gallery that also represents my own work. However, I have been an admirer of Kay’s work for many years before we became gallery-mates at June Kelly’s, and believe the merit of this show eclipses any excuse for keeping quiet about it.

[images from top: "The Road to Santa Fe" 2007, oil on wood panel, diptych, 24" x 48"; "Farewell to the Smokies," 2007, oil on wood panel, diptych, 36" x 72"; "Remember the Bitterroots" 2007, oil on wood panel, diptych, 36" x 72"; "Our Land", 2007, oil on wood panel, diptych, 32" x 64". All works copyright Kay WalkingStick, courtesy of June Kelly Gallery.]

Local Inwood artist Diana Schmertz is in a show for a new artists’ collective, including au courant artists like Swoon, opening Friday, November 16th. Younity — sounds good.

Dear Friends:

I will be having a room available in my studio to share. Even though you might have your own, if you know of anyone who needs to share, it will be available starting the 15th of November, rent is $350 a month and is due every 14th, this includes the utilities. This studio is good for a painter, for someone who works with paper, a ceramist,, since is fully equipped, or someone who does sculpture. The studio has a beautiful garden, which a lot of you know, so springs and summers are really nice. Anyway, if you need space or know of someone who does or will, please tell them. For those who do not know, I am in Astoria, one block from the Astoria Blvd Station.

My number is 917 345 8546 and my email is carosol99@hotmail.com

Thank you all,

Have a great Thanksgiving.

CAROLINA BERMUDEZ ALIAS CAROLA

A terrific concert by the NY Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall last night opened with the piece “Métaboles” by the composer Henri Dutilleux. The program notes offered up some meaningful perspectives on creativity.

“It seems to me very hubristic for an artist to want to define his aesthetic,” Dutilleux (now age 92) has said, “Building up a body of work is a long process, consisting mainly of trial and error and many years must pass before one achieves the distance, the detachment, the perspective which allows one to distinguish the broader lines of development.” [Ahem: MBA thesis show, anyone?]

Following the Dutilleux, was “Concerto for Two Pianos & Orchestra, H.292″ by Bohuslav Martinů. [With the "fiendishly difficult" piano parts performed by the wildly talented sisters Katia and Marielle Lebèque.] Once again, in the category of creative endurance, an amazing story emerged. The composer was indigent and even frequently homeless during his life, including most of a seventeen year stay in Paris. Then, on top of that, “During his American years Martinů managed to rebuild his reputation almost from scratch. Then a serious fall from a second-floor balcony in 1956 damaged his nervous system and his hearing. Until then, he had been amazingly prolific; even while he was living through the terror of enemy occupation and the frustration of trying to escape Europe, music seemed to fairly rush out of his pen.”

And lastly we came to Rachmaninoff’s “Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27.” It seems Sergei Rachmaninoff, a household name to anyone who has ever tuned in to a classical station, also took an early and brutal beating on his will to create:
“Sergei Rachmaninoff was very nearly undone by the violent and mean-spirited criticism that greeted the unveiling of his First Symphony in 1897 — so much so that for the next three years he did not write a note. He worried that he might not be suited to be a composer after all.” Back then, one reviewer likened his piece to the seven plagues upon Egypt recounted in the Bible! Only years of psychotherapy and hypnosis were able to slowly get him back on track.

So the moral of the story is: Don’t let anyone pigeon-hole you, not even yourself, be strong of spine and thick of hide, and persist against all odds (easier now that critics don’t tend to plunge and twist the sword so deeply). You may just be ahead of your time, as others have been before you.