Life is Short. Eat Dessert First.

Email news flash:  "Sharkey's is out.  The Soda Fountain is in."  This breaking development set the tone for this month's bike to lunch with the Isles Yacht Club organized by Bruce and Dorrit Tompkins.

Jim and Claudia Morrow

Anyone who knows Bruce knows how much he likes his ice cream.  One year during Pedal and Play, he enjoyed ice cream at three (or was it four?) stops.  (He says he was just supporting the community.)  And so it came as no surprise to me when the traditional lunch locale for a bike ride in Venice was changed from Sharkey's on the Pier to The Soda Fountain. (In addition to a narrow front room with an old fashioned counter and booths, the Soda Fountain has a back room with just enough tables to accommodate the 20 or so riders on our outing.) What did surprise me, though, was the enthusiasm with which most of the group embraced Bruce's willingness to forego a traditional lunch in favor of sundaes and floats.  (I have to admit to going with a BLT.)  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Like a boy scout, Bruce is always prepared.

The day started off with my friend Wendi, who was visiting from New York, and I meeting the group at Shamrock Park in Venice.  We picked up the Venetian Waterway Trail, a multi-use recreational trail that runs for five miles on each side of the Intracoastal Highway. With Bruce as our tour guide we headed along the trail -- with a stop to appreciate the "watch for falling baseballs" sign -- and made our way across the Circus Bridge towards downtown Venice.

Circus mural by artist Frances Smith (2007)

Why, I asked myself, was the bridge called the Circus Bridge?  I didn't have to wonder for long as we soon came upon a mural and some pavers celebrating the time that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was in Venice.  Little did I know that Venice was the Circus' winter home for more than 30 years.  Each year the circus held its world premiere in Venice, with performers Gunther Gebel-Williams (animal trainer extraordinaire), Michu (the smallest human on Earth) and the Living Unicorn making their American debuts there.  The bridge was christened with its name in 2005 by the Venice City Council in recognition of the parade of animals and circus equipment that made the journey from the train station to the arena over the years.

Me, Wendi and Dorrit at Sharkey's dolphin

As the day progressed, we periodically stopped to get interactive with some of the "Sea Venice" fiberglass sculptures of dolphins and turtles.  The consummate New Yorker, Wendi was reluctant to leave her bike helmet with our bikes when we left them to do some exploring.  The helmet came in handy as she used it to adorn several of the painted dolphins and turtles along the way, including this one at Sharkey's. (Coincidentally, when we were out on the pier, two real dolphins made an appearance.)

Wendi and I rounded our day off with some time at Nokomis beach.  As I sat on the sand with goose bumps on my arms (the temperature had dropped precipitously below 75 degrees), Wendi got in some water time.  Another successful outing, Southwest Florida style.

   

On the Catwalk

Miss St. Johns 1976 with sister Suzanne

Here's the frightening thing:  As I was thinking about my blog about modeling in Friday's fashion show at the Isles Yacht Club, several experiences from my past came back to haunt me.  My sister sent me a post card that reads, "Getting over the whole hideous thing by blogging about it", so I'm going to go with the Miss (never Ms.) St. John's pageant.

St. Johns was the Catholic school where I attended junior high.  There were probably 30 kids per class, and the pool for the annual pageant was the girls in 7th-9th grades.  So we're not talking a huge competition.  And yet -- inexplicably -- I didn't win the pageant until my third attempt.  (For the record, there was no swimsuit competition.)

My continued participation is sufficient cause in and of itself for embarrassment.  But what I most remember is the line of lunch room tables that were cobbled together to use as a runway.  I have never been accused of being light on my feet, and I can still remember clomping down that runway in platform shoes.  (Too bad I didn't save them since they are probably now back in style.)

Fast forward to the present day, and the Islettes Fashion Show at the Yacht Club.  I somehow got roped into participating one Saturday morning bike to breakfast.  I obviously hadn't had enough caffeine yet to come up with a polite way to decline.  Claudia Morrow, the organizer, knew me well enough to say, "We're asking Dorrit too."  So, I said, "If Dorrit will do it, so will I."   Sisterhood!

When I arrived at the Yacht Club, I was confused by the fact that the parking lot was filled to the brim.  "Hmm," I wondered.  "What event is going on?"  I honestly had no idea that the fashion show was such a big deal.  There were over 150 ladies in the audience, most of whom were dressed to the nines.  (Some ladies were even wearing hats!)

Wearing Joseph Ribkoff

 After a lovely lunch, the ten models trooped off to the Board room to change into our first of three outfits.  The clothes were provided by Nichole's Collections at Fishermen's Village. It was fun to get a chance to experiment with a different look than what's in my closet.  (One of the outfits even came home with me!)

I was the lead-off model, and basically raced down the runway, making a few turns along the way that I remembered from my days as a "teen board" model at Gayfers Department Store.  (I told you I had a few stories to choose from!)   I was down the runway and back and ready to take the two steps down to terra firma when I realized that Nichole was still talking about my outfit.  Oops!  I turned and faced the crowd, smiling gamely as I gave her time to finish her commentary.  (The other models learned from that to walk a bit more slowly.)

Dorrit was a natural

The rest of the show was a bit of a blur.  We had dressers to help us with our quick changes, and it turned out to be helpful to have someone to zip up our backs and clasp our necklaces for us.  (Thankfully, they were not hovering when we were mid-way between outfits!)

It was a fun afternoon, and I understand that approximately $4,000 was raised for the IYC Compass Fund (which is used to finance purchases outside the regular budget).  In addition, everyone who attended gets a discount for the next week at Nichole's and the sister stores of Palms on the Pier and Ruby Slippers.  If you see a lot of women around town who look a bit sharper than usual, you'll know where they've been shopping!

Re-Imagining O'Keeffe & Steiglitz at Ice House Gallery

Our Georgia by Alfstad&

I need to trust my instincts more often.  Sometimes I hear about a show or an exhibit that piques my interest, but I can't get myself motivated to get out the door, especially if a drive to Sarasota is required.  And so, two week-ends ago, I missed the opportunity to see actress Jenny Aldrich doing her impersonation of Georgia O'Keeffe.  The event took place at the show "Re-imagining Georgia O'Keeffe & Alfred Stieglitz: 2014" at the new Ice House Gallery in Sarasota.

Sculptural stripe series 

With or without Aldrich's performance, the show sounded fascinating.  The concept was for artists from around the world to "re-imagine" the works of O'Keeffe and Stieglitz using media as varied as ink jet paintings, digital design, installations, silkscreens, and dance.  The show had a limited run -- only from February 8th-16th  -- so when Dorrit and I (along with Dorrit's long-time friend Lindy) ended up in Sarasota last Sunday, we stopped in to check it out.

From the Airbrush Portrait series by Roberto Carlos Trevino

Before we were even inside the doors, I knew we had discovered something special.  In the alcove above the desk was a photograph entitled "Icons of the Old West" that pictured O'Keeffe and John Wayne.  (You might have even guessed the pairing if you put your head to it and thought outside the box, which is what this show was all about.)  The "artist" was listed as Alfstad&.  When I asked the owner what that meant, he said the work was a collaborative effort created by artists brought together by an organization headed by Sam Alfstad.  Hence, the "Alfstad&" brand.   The mission of the Sarasota-based Alfstad& includes "to reimagine how to make and market art, to appropriate ideas and imagery, to create a dialogue between the past and the future, and to expand the boundaries of creativity in the 21st century."  If "Re-Imagining O'Keeffe and Stieglitz" is representative of their work, count me in!

From Nathan Wilson's Multiverse

The show was filled with creative and exciting art.  The first room included a Virtual O'Keeffe and Stieglitz section created by Nathan Wilson.  The actual work is entitled "Multiverse" and is an installation piece of aggregated commentary about O'Keeffe and Stieglitz that Wilson culled from social media sources.  (Be careful what you post out there -- it might end up in someone's art work!)   Each little piece within the installation was a gem, and the whole was truly bigger than its parts.  I could have spent an hour enjoying just this portion of the show.

From there I was on to the Letters Installation.  Over the course of their 31 year relationship, O'Keeffe and Stieglitz exchanged more than 25,000 pages of correspondence.  The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale houses the letters (along with photographs, paintings, and drawings by the couple).  The book entitled "My Faraway One: Volume One" (which reproduced 650 of their early letters) actually provided the inspiration for this show.

Lindy and Dorrit

The Letters Installation is a room blanketed with pages from their correspondence.  The room is divided into two areas:  O'Keeffe's side was styled after her home in Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, while Stieglitz' side replicated the feel of Oaklawn, his family estate on Lake George, New York.  Etched onto one of the walls was a quote from one of O'Keeffe's letters that read, "We seem to be one no matter if we are miles apart."

Cameron and Dorrit with Skull Candy Masculine 
and Skull Candy Feminine

My jaw literally dropped when I rounded a corner and saw the astonishingly beautiful photographs created by Betsy Cameron.  The works were inspired by O'Keefe's large flower paintings.  As a bonus, the artist was there with her tripod and camera.  (I suspect she was there to photograph a dance performance by Fuzion Dance Artists that we weren't able to stay for.)

Magic Dust by Betsy Cameron

Embarrassingly, I couldn't think of any insightful questions for her.  I already knew the inspiration for the works.  She patiently waited to answer whatever queries I came up with.  How did she create her works?  She started with a picture of a flower and spent weeks developing the image in Photoshop.  How did she get involved in the show? Sam Alfstad is her ex-husband and, notwithstanding their divorce, is a big fan of her flower photographs.   Is she known for her pictures of flora and fauna?  Nope.  Cameron made her career hand painting her photographs of children.  In fact, her work entitled "Two Children" is the best-selling poster in the world. (I learned this last bit when I googled her work, not from Cameron.) With that, we exchanged cards, and I was back into the show.

"New York Night" by Alfstad&

The "Frame Series" included this striking work by Alfstad& entitled "New York Night."  This work, like the others in the series, appropriates one of Stieglitz' famous photographs and then "adapts Stieglitz' vision to the chopped and mixed aesthetics of today's hip hop world."  Just to give you a sense of how many people were involved in the creation of this single work, the wall card credits Ben Nathan for design, Austin Kowal for serigraph, and Dari Goggans for the frame. The work was created using an Epson Ultrchrome HDR inkjet with synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas.  Now that's a mouthful!

I can't remember when I've been to an exhibit so truly exciting.  "Re-imagining" the work of O'Keeffe and Stieglitz resulted in a show that was fresh and vibrant and provided participating artists (working alone or with others) the opportunity to honor these two great artists in their own way.  I asked several people if the show was going elsewhere, and nobody seemed to know.  It would surely be a shame if more people don't get a chance to enjoy this exhibit.  One thing is for sure:  I will listen in the future to that little voice in my head.    

Hang and Gubal Concert by Matt Venuti

Matt Venuti on the hang

It's not often that you get the chance to attend a concert featuring two instruments that were "birthed" in the 21st century.  I'm not talking about household items such as brooms and garbage cans being repurposed to create music like in Stomp.  Nor am I talking about hearing an instrument in an unexpected context, as will happen next week when Robert Bonfiglio and his harmonica join the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra.  I'm talking two instruments that first appeared on earth in the last 15 years -- the hang and the gubal.

When I opened this month's newsletter from the Yoga Sanctuary, I noticed that the studio was hosting a concert by Matt Venuti.  I clicked through to the video and listened to Venuti sing a lovely song while playing the hang.  In the midst of a busy season, a night of quiet music in an intimate setting sounded like just what the doctor ordered.

Hang at rest

The hang (pronounced "hung") is an instrument in the "idiophone class" (which, I have just learned, means that the sound is made through vibrations rather than through the use of strings or membranes).   It is similar to a drum, but the instrument's Swiss creators prefer to think of the instrument as being in a class of its own.  Each hang is hand crafted from two sheets of steel.  The top piece (referred to as the "ding") is hammered until the tone that the maker wants has been coaxed from the metal.  The trick then is to finish the rest of the instrument while retaining that tonality.  The bottom piece (the "gu") is smooth and has a rolled hole in the center. Because each instrument is made by hand, each has its own unique sound.  Venuti brought two of the UFO-looking instruments along for his concert, and I could hear a slight difference in their tenor.

Playing the hang involves a combination of caressing and beating on the instrument with your hands.  To "tune" the instrument, Venuti spun it around on his lap until his hands landed in the right place as he played. The hang can also be played standing on its side. To me, the sound is somewhat similar to that of a steel drum, but the context was so different from, say, listening to John Patti perform with Jim Morris that the analogy doesn't seem quite right.  (Click here to listen to the title track of Venuti's CD entitled "Rise.")

Venuti also played a few songs on his prototype of the gubal.  (The instrument is not being launched until May, and Venuti is the proud owner of the only gubal in the United States.)  The gubal looks even more like a spaceship than the hang, as it has a cylindrical piece that extends from the bottom that could serve as a cabin. The gubal has a rolled hole in the top of the instrument, and it has a deeper resonance than the hang.

In past years, Venuti's concerts were purely instrumental.  On this tour, he has added lyrics to his compositions.  He calls them sounds of life, loss, love, and surrender.  Venuti's wife passed away five years ago, and his language flows from his efforts to come to terms with that loss.  While the words don't specifically reference his wife, having that background added poignancy to songs with titles like "A Place to Breathe."   The lyrics were uniformly beautiful, and definitely enhanced the evening.

I left the concert feeling pensive rather than relaxed.  We live in an uncertain world.  The question is not whether we will suffer losses and difficulties, but how we will deal with those circumstances when they occur.   Venuti's music suggests approaching life with an open mind and an open heart.   Easier said than done, but it's a goal worth aspiring to.   

And the Winners Are.....

First Federal Gallery at the Visual Arts Center was standing room only last Thursday night as the winners in the National Art Exhibition were announced.  The winners had been told the week before that their works had been awarded a prize, but they had not been informed exactly what that prize was. With 16 prizes in all, carrying cash awards ranging from $100 for a Judge's Recognition Award to $2000 for Best of Show, the artists were particularly eager to find out the results.  It was a fun night, with lots of "oohs" and "aahs" from the audience as pictures of the winning works were flashed onto the big screen. 

"Her Favorite Hat" by Hodges Soileau

Best of Show was awarded to "Her Favorite Hat" by Hodges Soileau. Juror Carl Samson provided commentary about each of the winning works, and he said of Hodges' painting:  "Enchanted with this one.  Extraordinarily subtle technique.    Lovely design.  Beautiful drawing.  Varied texture handled extremely well."   In last year's National Faces and Figures exhibition, Hodges won second prize for his work "The Red Pillow."  Interestingly, when I showed Hodges where his painting had been hung -- right outside the door to the administrative offices -- he said, "That's where my painting was last year."  For the record, the hanging committee is not privy to prize winners when they figure out the difficult task of how to display the show. 

"Hesitant" by Dominic Avant

Second Prize was awarded to Dominic Avant for "Hesitant."    The juror said of this work:  "Expert handling of dappled sunlight.   Figures are well drawn and articulated.  Trees are wonderfully designed and specific.  Overall light effect is spot on."   Avant is also a fixture in the winners' circle at the VAC.  He was awarded third prize in last year's Faces and Figures show for "Listen," a painting of his older son whispering into the ear of a horse.  This year's work shows both of his sons venturing into the water.  Dominic shared that his older son is about at the age where he wants to get out of the modeling business.  With the success he is having using him as a model, he might want to up his allowance!

"The Turban" by Sharon Hutson

Third Prize went to a newcomer to the scene -- Sharon Hutson for "The Turban."  The show was only the second that Sharon has entered, and she was thrilled.  Sharon shared that she generally has used family members, who are of Danish descent, as the models for her work.  She wanted to try something different, and ended up with this Middle Eastern gentleman and his amazing textiles.  The juror said of this work:  A sensuous feast of color, pattern, and subtle handling.  Nice breadth of treatment with great "wall power."

I will end the way the evening started.  The Visual Arts Center is keen to promote the ways that various art forms work in tandem.  Dorothy Brooks is a local poet whose work includes the book "A Fine Dusting of Brightness."  We asked Dorothy if she would pen a poem after she viewed the show.  Her reading of "Other Voices" kicked off the reception.  I'm sure that you will enjoy it as much as we did.  

(Overheard at opening: “I imagine every painting

has a story.”)

OTHER VOICES by Dorothy Brooks

Come. Enter the deep, deep silence

of this space. Be still. Listen.

You who spend your days

in shadow, unable to truly see

a rose or morning dew, who hear

always the noise outside: televisions,

cell phones, the constant chatter—

step into this silence

around the edges of the picture frames.

Let it surround you. Dwell in it.

Soon you will begin to hear

other voices calling to you:

The solitary artist in her studio,

the painter in his loft,

they are speaking, oh, so quietly.

Can you hear a whisper,

a cry, perhaps a song?

They are speaking, not in words

but in color, in line, in texture.

Speaking of love and loss,

of loneliness, of joy. Giving you

waves breaking on rocks,

a path through the woods,

water lilies. Saying,

come out of the shadow.

Come into the silence.

The artist is speaking:

Here is your world.

                      

                      

Every Picture Tells a Story, Don't It?

Juror Carl Samson in the midst of it

Did you get the Rod Stewart reference?  If you didn't, you were probably wondering what had happened to my grammar skills!   As I have been enjoying the works in the National Art Exhibition, I've realized that there is in fact a story behind every single painting in the show.  For some works, it might be a reminiscence of a favorite place or the mood of the artist at the time the painting was done.  For other works, though, a quite explicit story is being told. 

Ron Sanders' "Book and Cover"

Ron Sanders is one of the Visual Arts Center's many talented instructors. So it wasn't too hard to catch up with him to find out what story his work "Book and Cover" tells.

Sanders is currently working on a series of paintings entitled "Artists and Their Art."   Sanders says that he is enjoying creating the series because it enables him to work conceptually and figuratively at the same time.  The series is all about contrasts, with the contrast in "Book and Cover" being between the highly contemporary looking artist and both the traditional forms of art from which she takes her inspiration and her own painting style.  As you look around the room, you see portraits of Poussin, Velazquez, and Sargent.  There is a landscape done by a Hudson River school artist.  And there are numerous studies in human anatomy, a must for any figurative artist.

The books at the artist's feet are traditional academic books, including Victorian era drawing books and R.H. Ives Gammell's "Twilight of Painting."  (In an odd coincidence, Gammell was juror Carl Samson's instructor, and the title of Samson's own series of works--"Twilight in the Battle of Painting"--is a tip of his hat to that book.  Sanders had completed this work well before he knew that Samson would be the juror for the show.)  

Sanders works from life, and he found the models pictured in this work on a website called Model Mayhem.  The artist has bright pink bangs in real life, but Sanders felt that would be a bit too much for this work.  (He did a break-out painting of the model's face, including her "real" hair color, that sold for $7,000 to a California collector.)    The tattoos are not the model's own.  Sanders was at Disney with his kids, and a young woman's tattooed arm caught his attention.  She permitted him to photograph her tats, and they are shown here.  (As a rule, Sanders is quite faithful in his replication and "confessed" that the tattoos actually were on the woman's right arm.)  On a painting note, Sanders pointed out how the values in the work are arranged so that the viewer's eye is led to the artist as the focal point. 

Ron Sanders'"Descending Grace"

The model for the painting within the painting inspired a second break-out work in the show entitled "Descending Grace."  The staircase that is pictured in both works belongs to someone Sanders knows, so again it was taken from real life.

To see more of Ron's work, including the close-up of the model in "Book and Cover" and other works from the Artists and Their Art series, click here.  (You might recognize Ron's fabulous work entitled "Mirror, Mirror" that was displayed in last year's National Faces and Figures show at the VAC.)  You will also find a list of prizes bestowed upon Ron's work, including the People's Choice Award in the 23rd Annual 2013 NOAPS 'Best of America' Exhibition for "Book and Cover."  

"Book and Cover" is just one of the 128 works on display at the VAC during the 2014 National Art Exhibition.  Admission to the VAC is always free.  Don't miss the opportunity to come and see some great art!