#American sculpturist

[theaskew]

Richard Serra (American 1938-2024), Band, 2006. Steel, Overall: 153 x 846 x 440 in. | 388.62 x 2148.84 x 1117.6 cm.; Plate thickness: 2 in. | 5.08 cm. (Source: LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

[uwmspeccoll]

Fashion Friday:   Sixty Drawings of Haute Couture

The is the final post by Intermedia Arts MFA student Christine Westrich who spent the the entire Spring 2022 semester mining the primary resources of Special Collections and the American Geographical Society Library as inspirations for creating new fashion designs. It has been a rich and engaging experience. Here are Christine’s culminating observations:

Haute couture never fails to impress on Anna Wintour's red carpet of the Met Gala. Just a few days ago, the Spring 2022 theme of Gilded Glamour posed a great atelier challenge:  to dress in themed opulence or to curb the nines in restraint of today's pandemic/war/climate calamities? 

A breeze through the runway photos show that Instagram won the day with celebrities donning nothing short of costume ecstasy with Billie Eilish's feathered décolleté by Gucci and Megan Thee Stallion's winged caplets by Moschino. Lizzo's wondrous caftan by Thom Browne brings thoughts to the late André Leon Talley, the lovely protege of Diana Vreeland and the man behind Vogue elegance.

These styles are orchestrated for their line, shape, and color. While ostentatious, they are cleverly choreographed for the camera. The monochromatic pinks of Valentino and unfussed Tom Ford silhouettes give homage to the sculpturist images of Robert Mapplethorpe who often chided his muse Patti Smith to deconstruct her flair so he could capture a timeless polaroid.

Whether the dress statement of Mayor Eric Adams to end gun violence in the wake of the NYC subway shootings, or Hillary Clinton's ode to Clara Barton and Harriet Tubman, clothing is a means to influence, to power, a means of manipulation as described by John Berger in 1972.

Over this Spring term, I completed sixty fashion drawings under my design moniker "chch", which arouse just such drama; the dominance and brawn of past civilizations inspired in illustrative gowns for our modern era. From Egyptian gods to Middle Age saints to pre-common-era princes, these designs challenged my thoughts on the exploitation of dress.

Daily, we face the decision of what to wear, considering how we may look walking to Colectivo, sitting on a work stool or looking back to an admirer. These choices reveal our inner playwright and expose us on life's stage of these non-quarantine days... coquettish, audacious, or perhaps hiding in plain sight.

And should such an extraordinary Met Gala invitation arrive on my doorstep, I would gladly construct one of my sixty costumes to wear and proudly compete in its outsider aesthetic against the pomp of a Milan fashion Maison. Of course, some days it feels best to give up on this visual communication problem of couture, of being under the lights—and in this case—I find my authentic self by joining society via the old-fashioned telephone.

A very special thanks to Senior Lecturer Kathleen Donnelly who provided me with expert costume construction know-how while emphasizing stage awareness and no-nonsense grit, both earned through years of theatre productions.  

Thank you to the UWM Head of Special Collections Max Yela for his impeccable fashion taste and to Special Collections Department Manger Alice Ladrick for her kindred conversation on all things Milwaukee.

View my previous ten posts on historical fashion research in Special Collections.

View more Special Collections' Fashion posts.

—Christine Westrich, MFA Graduate Student in Intermedia Arts

[jjba-fragmented-star]

New Reference Sheets for Chemaya and his stand, Dark Horse. I changed a lot of things in his backstory which are mostly the key events of his life. I will write his full backstory in the JoJo's Bizarre Fanon wiki which I will do with my other characters. So backstory, extras and Stand information under the cut.

Basic Information:

Name: Chemaya Alley

Birthname: Chimalley

Alias: Chem-Chem, Maya, Uncle Maya, Golden Eyed Gladiator, Immortal Shield

Namesake:

Chemaya(Shemaiah/Hebrew)= God Heard

Chimalley(Aztec)= Shield

Stand: Dark Horse/Chavel Noir(All the Dark Horses by the Trashcan Sinatras)

Nationality: Central American/French

Birthday: May 3

Zodiac/Chinese Zodiac: Taurus/Ox

Age: 2000(Actual Age)/27(Physical Appearance)

Gender: Male

Height: 7ft/2,13 cm

Weight: 96 kg

Blood Type: A+

Species: Pillar Dhampir(Pillar Man/Human Hybrid)

Occupation: Mentor, Artist's Model, Wanderer Formerly: Gladiator, Investigator, Treasure Hunter, Blacksmith

Personality:

Reliable, Pantient, Practical, Responsible, Mother Hen, Gentleman, Aloof, Stubborn, Less Talkative, Sensitive, Overcautious

Likes: His Family, Horses, Cooking, Spring season, Art, Sunrise, Traveling to different countries, Historical documentaries and books, Jasmine tea.

Dislikes: Stone Masks, Pillar Men(maybe some exceptions), Italy, Rude Behavior, his family and friends being hurt, Pomegranate fruit.

Relatives:

Unnamed Grandfather(Pillar Man)

Unnamed Grandmother(Human)

Izel(Pillar Dhampir/Father)

Fiora(Human/Mother)

Andreas McJohan Andrew Joestar(Adoptive Father)

Dimitra Iovianou/McJohan(Adoptive Mother)

Panajotis McJohan(Adoptive Younger Brother)

Elpida Zoheir/McJohan(Sister-in-law)

Zenobios McJohan(Nephew)

Leonidas McJohan(Great-Nephew)

Diogenes McJohan(Great-Great Nephew)

Hariklia 'Grace' McJohan/Bhraghad(Great-Great-Great Niece)

Ambrogio McJohan(Great-Great-Great Nephew)

Orestes Bhraghad(Great-Great-Great-Great Nephew)

Oswald Bhraghad(Great-Great-Great-Great Nephew)

Isaac McJohan(Great-Great-Great-Great Nephew)

Giorgia McJohan(Great-Great-Great-Great Niece)

Background Information:

Original Timeline

-Chimalley was born in France during the Roman Empire from the Pillar Dhampir Izel and the human woman Fiora. Izel was the child of Pillar Man who survived the massacre of his species by Kars and a human woman in Central America. Fiora was the daughter of merchants and had the ability to predict different possibilities in the future of a person based from their choices.

-He had a good relationship with his parents and a peaceful childhood but everything changed, when he was 17 he watched his parents dying infront of him him by Slave Traders and was captured to be used as a Gladiator for the Colosseum. After 7 years of being treated as an entertainment he decided to escape by freeing the other Gladiators from the Colosseum.

-He traveled across Europe, Africa and Asia to expand his knowledge in the different languages and cultures of each country and meeting new people while learning how to survive and new combat skills.

-He became one of the first stand users in the late 15th Century after being shot unexpectedly by one of the stand arrows from the man who created them and saw the potential of Chimalley to use him for his army of Stand Users. Chimalley during that time was confused, scared and wanted to be away from this man, his stand, Dark Horse, reacted to his thoughts and transported him by disappearing in a cloud of dark smoke somewhere safe.

-His pursuit for the Stone Masks started when he encounter a vampire drinking blood from a woman and a stone masks on the floor in the house of a noble man. Chimalley used for the first time his stand by trapping the vampire into binds of shadows and proceeding by drinking his blood. The woman lost a lot of blood but she was alive before the Pillar Dhampir leave with the stone mask and destroying it.

-In the 17th Century he traveled in Scotland and fell in love with the daughter of a Clan Chief, Eimhir McLeod. Their love didn't last long when a stand user threatened the McLeod chief to destroy his Clan if he didn't get Eimhir to marry him. This turned into a fight between Chimalley and the stand user which resulted the death of Eimhir and the McLeod Clan. After this event the Pillar Dhampir didn't fell in love ever again.

-During the 18th century he changes his name into Chemaya Alley and in the 19th century, the year 1883, he finds a lead to someone who has a stone mask in Greece. He arrived in the city of Argos of the Argolida prefecture in the Peloponnese peninsula, after stealing the mask and destroying it he meets a 13 years old child name Panajotis McJohan, who was a stand user like Chemaya, he traveled with his parents from Nafplio to Argos to do some errands. Panajotis took Chemaya to meets his parents and later was adopted by the McJohan family becoming the older brother of Pano.

-In 1888 before the events of Phantom Blood, He accompanied Panajotis to Liverpool, England, to discuss some important stuff with George Joestar I. They arrived in the Joestar Mansion where they met George's sons, Jonathan and Dio, Chemaya found Jonathan pleasant and kindhearted, while Dio gave a hostile aura and he knew something wasn't right with him. The conversation of Panajotis and George ended with angry shouts from the elder Joestar warning the young McJohan to never come close to his family ever again.

-After this event Panajotis and Chemaya started working as Investigators and Treasure Hunters to earn money for some years and later Panajotis works as a woodcrafter and marries Elpida Zoheir, an Egyptian woman from Alexandria. Chemaya will occasionally visiting or write letters and teach the the McJohan family about stands for the following years.

-In 1939, Chemaya goes to visit his family in Greece when he comes face to face with Wamuu, who was looking for the Red Stone of Aja. His fight with Wamuu was one of the toughest he ever had and he finished it by using Dark Horse to teleport Wamuu to another country.

-In 1987, he encounters again Dio in Cairo, Chemaya learned from him that he became vampire via a stone mask, took the body of his Adoptive Brother, Jonathan, gaining a stand via a stand arrow and wanted to rule. Chemaya became furious with Dio of the things he had done to Jonathan and his family and challenged the stupid brat into a stand fight. The Pillar Dhampir was ruthless with the Vampire and he didn't give him any chances to attack back but in the last moment Dio activated his stand ability and time stopped giving him the opportunity to run away from Chemaya. The hybrid was still angry with him but he didn't chase him because the brat wasn't his problem and wasn't worth of his time.

-In 2002 he was in Italy to buy something for his family when he came across Viktoria Erikson, a Hamon User and a SWF worker, who was chasing a occult who had a stone mask and wanted to become powerful, they where successful in defeating the occult and destroying the mask.

-In November of 2011, Chemaya died by being cut in half by a mysterious stand user.

Fragmented Star AU/EOH game Timeline:

In this universe Chemaya's past is the same as the one in the original universe but with some changes:

-In 1987 learned also from Dio that he has Jonathan's head as a trophy and in 1988 Chemaya breaks into the Mansion before the last battle to save it and putting Jonathan's head into the hotel the Crusaders where staying. Chemaya actually thought Jonathan was dead and his descendants would bury him but his was unconscious and the hamon kept him young and alive, his descendants saved his body from Dio and connected it with his head, the Pillar Dhampir without knowing he saved Jonathan's life.

-In 2002, Viktoria and Chemaya had a third person helping them in the defeat of the occult, his name was Michalis Zannos, a Greek stand user who worked as a singer in a famous restaurant in Italy to save money for his sick mother to go in a hospital.

-In 2011 he survived the killing blow from the enemy stand user by teleporting behind him and hitting him unconscious and bringing to the SPW foundation HQ.

-He is currently living in Nafplio, Greece with his three times Great Nephew and his wife.

EXTRA:

-Chemaya inherited from his mother the ability to see the difference possible futures of someone based on their choices and would advice them to choose the most sensible one.

-He is a Pillar Dhampir like his father, he is physically stronger than a vampire but weaker than a Pillar Man and unlike them he can walk during the day. Also he had a horn like the Pillar Men but he broke it when he became 16 so to blend with the other humans.

-The necklace he wears used to belong to his father.

-He is Demiromantic/Asexual

-The red mark in his jaw is made of paint and he has a tattoo on his left shoulder which resembles the Joestar Birthmark. Panajotis payed a tattooist to draw it in Chemaya's body because he considers him family.

-List of wounds from the 2nd Refsheet of Chemaya:

The wound when he broke his horn, he mostly covers it with a green headband, other times with a hat or a bandana.

He has burns in his right shoulder and left arm

Some cuts in his right arm after he fought with a big dangerous animal

Gun wounds in his left side of his chest and shoulder

Wound from a daggers in the left side of his chest

Wounds from whips during his time as a Gladiator

a wound in the center of his chest after being shot by the stand arrow

And a large cut which a reminder of his death in the original timeline on November of 2011. He remembered the previous timeline and the current one he lives.

-Chemaya has an artist eye and describe in detail any piece of art, the reason is because his Adoptive Brother, Panajotis worked as a woodcrafter later in his life and Chemaya is Artist's Model for his nephew Isaac and his mother, Kyriaki Callas/McJohan, who are both painters and a friend from Spain who is a Sculpturist.

-Chemaya every weekend cooks for his family his favorite recipes, one of them is a simple chicken soup because it reminds him of his mother who made it for him when he was a child.

STAND

Name: Dark Horse/Chavel Noir

Nickname: Noir

Namesake: All the Dark Horses(song by the Trashcan Sinatras)

Stand Type: Natural Non-Humanoid Stand, Phenomenal Stand

Stats:

Destructive Power: A

Speed: A

Range: B

Persistence: B

Precision: C

Development Potential: B

Appearance:

Dark Horse has the appearance of a giant humanoid horse made of black smoke, his has six purple eyes, his mane, tail, hands and hooves have the same colour which resembles a galaxy and has three purple cycles in his chest. He face can split up and form a mouth with fangs, he uses it mostly to eat or attack his opponents.

Abilities:

Smoke Manipulation: Dark Horse is made of black smoke, he can change and size and become solid and intangible. He can form smoky tentacles which can become sharp enough to cut opponents and in intangible form he can enter the victim's body and make them stop breathing. It can also form into gloves that covers the entire arms of his user to attack other stands in close combat.

Shadow Camouflage: The stand can become undetectable as along there is darkness or shadow. He can blend into the shadow of a person or animal and follow them.

Shadow Gates: He make gates out of dark smoke which resembles black holes to transport to different destinations in his user's will. Also they can act as dimensional storages to put personal stuff.

Corporeal Disguise: Dark Horse can take the form a regular brown and white Clydesdale Horse with black mane and tail which can be seen by non-stand user.

Weaknesses:

UV lights and when Dark Horse is in solid form his user can feel the attacks from his opponents.

[jazzviewswithcjshearn]

In depth gig review: ECM at 50: Jazz at Lincoln Center, Rose Theater, November 1, 2019

In 1969, the landscape of music was changing greatly-- Woodstock was a cultural force, the Beatles released Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the first Santana album ushered in  a sort of Latin, jazz-rock hybrid, and Americans were reacting strongly to the senselessness of the Vietnam war.  The culture was changing, Eastern religions became a fascination as were mind altering drugs  which helped Westerners gain new perspectives into the universe.  Jazz and improvised music as a whole were changing with the seismic shifts of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and Emergency by the Tony Williams Lifetime, which preceded the groundbreaking Davis recording by several months.  Jazz-rock, soulful Hammond organ based jazz, and free jazz had all carved their unique paths.  That same year, a new label out of Germany founded by a trained classical bassist named Manfred Eicher, who also had worked at Deutsche Grammophon made waves on the scene.  Edition of Contemporary Music, it's initials commonly mistaken for Eicher Creative Music, or European Classical Music, has arguably changed the face of boundary pushing music more than any other label over the past fifty years. ECM is known for a crystalline recording clarity, frequently found in classical music, a chamber music like focus, and a cinematic bent to albums, akin to film, one of Eicher's passions.

Contrary to popular belief, as journalist and ECM scholar John Kelman has noted, there is not really an “ECM sound”.   Critics of the label have frequently cited the heavy reverberant quality of many recordings as being distant and icy-- rather it would be more appropriate to say that while there are traits and a certain aesthetic that contributes to the label's recordings, there are plenty such as Jan Garbarek's Afric Pepperbird that have a very present immediacy with a fairly dry sound.  ECM helped establish through the recordings of Paul Bley, Chick Corea and especially Keith Jarrett, a new way of looking at solo piano, that has permanently changed the jazz landscape.  ECM brought attention to an entire generation of post Wes Montgomery guitar innovators: Ralph Towner, John Abercrombie, Terje Rypdal, a then relatively unknown prodigy from Lee's Summit Missouri with wild, shoulder length hair and a winning smile named Pat Metheny, sound sculpturist David Torn and Bill Frisell. The label also helped expand on an approach to ride cymbal playing that blended the intricacy of bebop, with a straight eighth note feel that allowed the rhythm to somehow swing and float simultaneously popularized by Norwegian Jon Christensen and Jack DeJohnette.  The label has also explored many cultures from Brazil, North Africa, and most recently Israel.  And last but not least, the label set a new precedent with album art the same way Blue Note, Impulse and CTI had.  Striking text only  or covers with evocative landscape photos with uniform fonts are art pieces in themselves. The sometimes startling 5 seconds of silence that begins each CD, demands that the listener pay close attention to the music within.

On November 1st at Jazz At Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, in the first of two days in New York City, ECM celebrated it's past, present and future.  The two and a half hour concert packed  a dizzying array of ECM and ECM associate artists that provided a concise snapshot of everything that has made the label enduring.  The evening's roster was studded with an impossible array of all stars and label newcomers: Egberto Gismonti, Ravi Coltrane, Larry Grenadier, Avishai Cohen, Enrico Rava, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Shai Maestro, Nik Bartsch, Andrew Cyrille, Anja Lechner, Wadada Leo Smith, Meredith Monk, Vijay Iyer and  Jack DeJohnette among others.  Unlike some retrospective concerts which are quick summations of hits the musicians, allowed between one and three selections in specific configurations, used the pieces as launching pads for exploration, keeping with the label ethos.  There were some notable absences, Pat Metheny, Terje Rypdal, Manfred Eicher himself who could not make the trip, the recently retired Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, and Gary Peacock to name but a few who had such a major impact, but those who were there, more than made up for it.  

Egberto Gismonti, non pareil Brazilian pianist and guitarist who has been a major figure in Brazilian music and guitar, opened the concert on piano and seemingly fit an entire history of Brazilian music styles in relative brevity. Recent label signee, saxophone veteran Joe Lovano, pianist Marilyn Crispell, and drummer Carmen Castaldi who appeared on Trio Fascination earlier this year, gave a spirited rendition of “The Smiling Dog” that found Lovano's breathy, woody, impassioned tenor phrases framed by Crispell's tone clusters and jabs, Castaldi's spattering cymbals, rim clatters, and painterly snare and tom strokes building to a slow burn.  The elongated interpretation added considerably more heat than the version that appeared on the recording.  Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith built upon their fascinating and excellent duo album A Cosmic Rhythm Within Each Stroke by engaging in an enthralling duet blurring the line between new music and improvisation.  Iyer probed with  a variety of textures from acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes, grounded eighth note pulses freeing the legendary trumpeter, hunkered over in a near squat, bell in microphone to roam with signature legato lines, and carefully considered asides.  Smith straightened from his bent position, and stood stock still with his horn, making the silence count as much as the notes, as Iyer continued to mine abstract shapes and textures, returning from Rhodes to piano.  Smith reached for a golden Harmon mute on the floor, and utilized some amusing wah wah trumpet effects that traveled back to the earliest history of jazz trumpet through a thoroughly post modern prism.  

Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan reprised Paul Motian's “It Happened A Long Time Ago”, Frisell's trademark neck bending of notes veered them off into space as his solo contained much thoughtful meditations.  Morgan's rich tone and backing brought to mind the sorely missed late Charlie Haden whose label contributions were immeasurable.  Wadada and legendary drummer Andrew Cyrille joined them on stage for two tracks from Cyrille's Declaration of Musical Independence, and besides Smith's sparkling trumpet, and an incredibly attuned Frisell, Cyrille showed exactly why he has been one of the most important figures in jazz with his unmistable ability to color and orchestrate on the drums as if the cymbals and drums were a large canvas.

Over the past few years, ECM has  had a huge Israeli contingent with important albums coming from Avishai Cohen, both in quartet and duo with pianist Yonathan Avishai.  Though the  duo just released the wonderful Playing The Room, the pair appeared as a quartet with bassist Barak Mori and drummer Ziv Ravitz, who replaced Nasheet Waits (playing later in the evening) for an aggressive, power packed “Shoot Me In The Leg”.  Cohen's composition  burst with the energy of New York jazz; it was the kind of performance that could only exist in the post Wynton Marsalis, Young Lions era.  Cohen played with whalloping energy and purpose, occasionally pointing the bell of his horn into the piano to add extra reverberation and resonant qualities.  Ravitz added further heat with well timed explosions.

As mentioned a bit earlier, ECM frequently draws the  line between new music and improvisation.  For those who may be curious reading this review unfamiliar with the term, new music refers to classical music composed by living, modern composers.  Though the pieces can be composed in styles such as romantic, baroque or classical styles, very often new music challenges listeners pushing at the boundaries of form, instrumentation or what music is.  Swiss pianist Nik Bartsch and his bands Ronin and Mobile specialize in a minimalist influenced form called ritual groove music.  Bartsch carries on a tradition of minimalism at ECM most famously espoused by Steve Reich and (to an extent) Meredith Monk,.  With Ronin or Mobile it is updated with grooves that attract newer listeners. There is a heavy African element to the intense, precise metronome like grooves, which change over time through the pianist's shouted verbal cues. Bartsch, coming to the stage dressed in all black, looking like a cross of a martial arts master with something out of The Matrix played a solo version for the first time of “Modul 5”. The concentrated performance  captured the essence of his main band, nothing was missing.  Craig Taborn also offered a spikier take on solo piano in the avant garde realm making for refreshing contrast.

Ravi Coltrane, Matthew Garrison and Jack DeJohnette took to the stage to close the concert's first half for a searing “Serpentine Fire”, the Earth, Wind and Fire classic the trio collective recorded on their 2016 In Movement. DeJohnette, who has been the most recorded drummer on ECM (first appearing with Keith Jarrett on Ruta And Daitya in 1971) has a synergy with Coltrane and Garrison that is magical.  They can  literally go anywhere with the level of trust and camaraderie, and they certain went everywhere on “Serpentine Fire”.  Garrison bolstered the lengthy rubato introduction with Hendrixian distorted bass, fuzzed out leads traipsing atop looped backgrounds set for himself.  DeJohnette, behind his slick camouflage finish Sonor kit, added a shower of well placed cymbal work, punctuating with loud crashes on his Sabian Encore model China, and crash cymbals.  His patented rumbling tom free falls adding a beautiful tension underneath Garrison and Coltrane's sopranino saxophone.  By the time the drummer entered into a groove, things moved from a slow burn to an ecstatic frenzy, DeJohnette engaging in his love of rock and funk with displaced brilliance, the tune brought Rose Theater to it's feet.

In the second half, Ethan Iverson and Mark Turner  explored more of their chamber duo camaraderie found on Temporary Kings with Iverson proudly displaying his ECM shirt to the audience at tune's end.  By far, as excellent as all the music was, the most touching of the music all evening was Meredith Monk's rendition of “Gotham Lullaby” first heard on her masterpiece Dolmen Music, her ECM debut from 1980. As a vocalist, performance artist, and new music composer, the soon to be 77 year old Monk is singular and has influenced a legion of vocalists who employ extended technique, including Bjork, and label mate Theo Bleckmann, a Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble alumnus that appeared on two recordings.  The poignancy of “Gotham Lullaby” was made all the more poignant when she dedicated the piece to the healing of the earth and when one considers the context of the piece. Understanding the context of Monk's pieces can greatly aid in appreciation and sparking the listeners imagination for their own mental images.  The piece was originally written in 1979 for a stage adaptation of Fear and Loathing adapted by long time collaborator, Ping Chong titled Fear and Loathing in Gotham.  Chong, one of the most important and influential figures in interdisciplinary performance, and one of the leaders in providing a forum for Asian American artists, based the non narrative play on a white officer tracking down an Asian serial killer.   Though Monk has since revised some of the wordless syllables that appeared on the original recording, the warmth of her rich alto range had lost none of it's emotive power.  Knowing the theme of the original play, her wild, intense, frightened ululations were even more chilling. Besides Anja Lechner, she represented the ECM New Series side of the label, focusing on groundbreaking works of classical and new music.  

Ravi Coltrane returned to the stage donning tenor saxophone with Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Andy Milne on piano, Drew Gress on bass and Mark Ferber on drums for “Iram Issala” from Alessi's Imaginary Friends.  This is a great quintet, and the rapport Alessi and Coltrane have dates to the latter's lone Blue Note recording Spirit Fiction in 2012 where the trumpeter appeared on several numbers.  Their soaring perfect fourth based line at the end of the piece was magisterial as they became one.  The piece shifted through several moods during the solos, and by the time they reached the unison phrase it was purely cathartic.  To finish the evening, Joe Lovano returned with Enrico Rava who had flown in from Italy with pianist Giovanni Guidi, and the group was completed by Dezron Douglas, one of New York's bass A listers, and Nasheet Waits on drums.  The band looked at “Interiors” and Lovano's “Fort Worth” heard on their dynamic new album Roma.  Waits, who replaced Gerald Cleaver for the concert was a marvel on the hard swinging Ornette Coleman inspired Lovano composition.  Rava brought a very interesting texture on flugelhorn, much different than Tom Harrell, who recorded an earlier version of the tune on Quartets: Live At The Village Vanguard  in 1996.  Rava and Lovano were quite playful in collective dialogue, and Waits unbreakable strength ride beat spurred them on.  Giovanni Guidi as he does on Roma revealed himself as an improviser of remarkable depth, as the two pieces tapped into a blusier, hard swinging side of his musical personality.  His Avec Les Temps from earlier this year showed a richer compositional voice and orchestrative acumen with tenor saxophone and guitar added to the ensemble.

With it's 50th Anniversary gala, ECM provided something of a rarity in the modern concert era.  Very rarely do people get to see so many of the label's legends and stars in such a carefully organized event. ECM had presented festival nights as did CTI and Blue Note in the 70's, but a label concert package today is not often found. The November 1 concert was truly special.  ECM showed just how enduring of a cultural institution it is, and how focused it is on bringing public attention to great musicians today.  The label modus operandi, though it has released some fantastic archival releases and presented long out of print titles in high resolution digital for streaming, is mainly concentrated on the present.  Manfred Eicher,  as label founder, producer and visionary keeps moving forward providing an embarrassment of consistently excellent music. The ECM at 50 celebration was a way to honor the past, and present of a juggernaut in recorded music.

[kevinkaverns]

Uncommon Friends

Built by sculpturist D.J. Wilkins in the year of 1985, "Uncommon Friends", located near downtown Fort Myers, this structure depicts Inventor Thomas Edison, car maker Henry Ford, and tire manufacturer Harvey Firestone all actual friends. This artwork depicts them on one of their regularly taken camping trips to the Everglades. Around the sculpture there is a round pond, with various creatures, such as frogs, spewing water, much like a fountain. Noting that the structure is huge, considering the statues depicting the three friends are rather life-like and life-sized, it can be hard to see considering it is around a five-minute walk away from downtown. Also worth mentioning is that around the structure, there is mostly green grass, as well as various trees, very much incorporating that natural aesthetic of Fort Myers. The Caloosahatchee River is also near by. On the structure's plaque, it calls all three of them "Fathers of the American Industrial 20th Century.” The purpose of such sculpture is to commemorate the friendship between Thomas, Henry, and Firestone, however, the sculpture itself has no explicit purpose other than depict their friendship. One may be able to interpret how their friendship helped shape how Fort Myers as a city developed later on, due to their wide arrange of knowledge, or it could also help depict how various people from widely different backgrounds (or in this case specialties) can come together. It may also be depicted with the Caloosahatchee River, saying how a few friendship can expand into something great and beautiful, very much how the river itself leads into the Gulf of Mexico.

[astoldbynia-blog1]

Mastery Journal: Blog Post-Adaptation

Upon learning that I would have to adapt “The Gift of Magi,” I was excited for the challenge after reading the original story again after many years. I saw a lot of potential for making the story more modern and wanted to bring African American characters who are middle and upper-middle class into my adaptation while keeping the moral of the story. 

My version, “First Christmas” is about Angelique and Tristan Hill, newlyweds who live across the country from each other due to their careers. Angelique is a Los Angeles-based sculpturist and Tristan is a chef turned restaurant owner in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. With Christmas right around the corner, they both want to give each other the perfect first Christmas gift. Angelique plans to pay for the remodel for her husband’s restaurant and is given an unexpected opportunity to sell her work to a museum in NY. Tristan has a live changing gift of his own. Could this be the perfect “first Christmas”? 

This script meshes with my goals as a writer because I love bringing to life black characters who are successful and disprove stereotypes. This is different from my previous writing experiences because I’ve never written a Christmas themed story or an adaptation before. I want to adapt some of my own short stories because I think it would be great practice for me as a writer in preparation to adapting my own novels in the future. I know this is frowned upon but is a challenge I am up for.

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash

[back-and-totheleft]

Save the planet

'The Putin Interviews' is the latest in a string of politically provocative observations that lean on a critical review of successive U.S governments – one where no side is safe. For his efforts he's been called both a traitor and a peacemaker, both lauded and rejected by a media landscape fine-tuned to reject all things Russia. Thus, the question is asked whether he is trying to affect a change in his home country, or simply chronicle the demise of the world's biggest superpower: "I'm not sure it's the demise. I think the concept of chronicling, yes. But how does America last? Or will it prosper and become even more ruthless? In our history books, we teach our young people that we won World War 2 and that D-Day is a climactic battle, so just right away from the origin myth of the history of the American people and Western people, we don't have it right. Very dangerous."

"I've tried to chronicle, correctly, because I learned a lot in my life. I believed all this stuff. I was an American conservative. Grew up East Coast privileged. My father was part of Wall Street, the Vietnam War service and all that, but my eyes were open by my time. How many wars do we have to live through to learn our lessons? I went to Salvador back in 1980 and I saw in Central America the same symptoms I saw in Vietnam when I was a younger man and had finally recognized what the Americans were up to. It's not easy.  We can retell and tell and tell, but people will not listen. We go back to war." [...]

Documentation is the other necessity to open people's eyes through storytelling and reality. "My [film] The Untold History of the United States was an honest attempt in 12 hours to get to the bottom of these myths that have grown up in my country. It took me five years to make that, and I had history professors (like Peter Kuznick) working with me. This was a serious effort to attack the myths that have grown up with America, starting with World War 2, they accelerated after that into the national security state, but we actually started the myth of communism, the myth of the worker state, and capitalism's self-preservative fear of worker revolt. Any worker revolt. The worker has been defeated."

In an interview Semi Permanent held with noted sculpturist Tom Sachs, he says that "all art in the name of politics is propaganda." Stone's work is about breaking the cycle between propaganda and the truth; a lifelong journey to dive deep into a global psyche to uncover what will tear us apart (or bring us together). And thus, Stone's goal is two-fold: One to document the reality of living in a volatile millennium that is equally advanced by technology and set back by conflict, and two, to inspire people to live better and create the future they want to live in.  

"This is all my battle, too. It's taking me a long time to get to this place where I see these things because we have so much distraction in our lives. I hope my life doesn't coincide with the end of the world. A lot of people have that ego trip where they think because they die, the world is dying, and I see that, too, but I hope that doesn't happen and I hope this new generation, my kids included, can have a wonderful prosperous life, which is what it should be and a good use of our resources. Save the planet. That's me. That's basically my films. There you go."

-Christopher Barker, "Oliver Stone Talks Storytelling, Putin and Assange," SemiPermanent, Sept 5 2017 [x]

[chelsiefeather]

Mike Pratt  + Q&A - 27th March

• Unconventional painter/sculpturist   • Experiments with materials, hands on • He creates ideas through “doing” • Influenced by pop art and American abstract painters

Q&A with Mike

“If I want to work on a bigger scale, how do I go about it/where do I start?” - Just start, do not overthink it and just enjoy. - Can start with an idea and change it where you see fit/ overlay work.

“Do you think art has a value if it doesn’t have a meaning or a message?” - As long as you enjoy making. - As long as you make something someone hasn’t done before.

With the above answer I disagreed. I feel as though you CAN make art work which HAS been done before as you can make it with different intentions which in turn, creates originality in itself. Also, I have found as an artist it is very very difficult and almost impossible to come up with a totally unique concept as most of it has already been done before. It is about using inspiration from others to create something new.

He continues… - “meaning” can be a red-herring. Many people give my work a meaning themselves which allows them to interpret the work the way they want.

“Why do you call your sculptures paintings?” - They are an arrangement of colour and objects and I work into the materials so it is responsive, a direct conversion much like artists do with paintings.

I found this response rather interesting as it made me question the relationship between painting and sculpture and other works for that matter. Does it really matter what they are called? All work is a response and an interpretation of something whether it be an idea or a physical outcome.

[cherryvines]

         Photography & Video Research

MARY ELLEN

Mary Ellen Mark was a photographer, more specially a photojournalist, born in 1940s Pennsylvania. She started her photographer career with a Box Brownie camera at just the age of nine, and throughout her high school she showed a particular skill in art such as drawing, which then developed into something more, and she took it to her university where she received a bra degree in painting and art history. She also later returned to university in 1964, for a masters degree in photojournalism.

Mark had a preference for photographing people who were ‘away from mainstream society, toward the more interesting, troubled fringes’, such as homeless and troubled children who would carry guns, or (on a famously known photography) would smoke cigarettes. Her photographs cross between cultures, and she made sure they hinted at emotions and feelings we all experience, in order to enable world wide empathy and relatability.

This is exactly what I like about her work, how it captures something so obscene or gritty that people would prefer to turn their nose up to and pretend wasn’t there. She captured such troubling images forever, that would forever stick out in peoples minds and perhaps open their eyes a bit more. It brings more to photography than for something to just ‘look pretty’ or ‘appealing’ by everyday standards, and to once again make people more aware.

BRASSAI

Brass was a 1899 Hungarian born photographer, sculptor, writer and filmmaker. He moved to different countries in a few periods throughout his life and artistic career, going from Berlin to work as a journalist and to study at the Berlin-Charlottenburg Academy of Fine Arts, before finally landing and staying in Paris, France to live among gathering of young Hungarian artists. At first, the young brassai was completely disinterested in photography, until the work of his acquaintance Andre Kertesz inspired him to pick up the hobby himself, and also as he found it a way of journaling and recording his walks through the streets of Paris.  These photos would become a beautiful collection of black and white, hazy photos of the night sky and the beautiful French streets and parks.

He would also capture beautiful, emotional photos that helped give France the romanticized image it has, of artists and prostitutes and passion frolicking alike.

These are my favorite photos of him. His documentation of such stunning and passionate moments through a hazy lens really stand out to me, it’s almost as if I can feel exactly the emotion and vibe of the moment that he captured. Such as the tender embrace or kiss that the lovers in his photos hold, or the energetic warmth of friends together at a bar. These are the kind of things I would like to capture in my own photos.

ANDY WARHOL - Empire

Andy Warhol, who became initially known for large significance in the pop art movement, developed an artistic film known by the name ‘Empire’. As the title suggests, the movie was about the Empire State building, showing only the building in frame for eight consecutive hours and five minutes. instead of the usual narrative or characters we see in films, this ones only feature and change was the sun setting. Warhol shot the movie at only 16 frames per second, so that the noting of the sky changing was almost unnoticeable, with the only mark for the passage of time being the lights of a nearby building flickering. Andy Warhol conceived this whole film for the point of literally watching time pass, and noted that the longrwinding unwatchability of the film was an important part of why it was created, hence why the pop artist never allowed cinemas to show abridged, shortened versions of the film on their screens.

I personally find this idea kinda silly, and it reminds me of Marcel Duchamps involvements in the anti-art movement such as the production of his ‘fountain’. Both Fountain and Empire go against what is traditionally viewed as art, and what should be considered art at all. Both are uneaesthetically pleasing, and feel like they have no effort put into them at all.

TACITA DEAN - JG

In 1970, American land sculpturist Robert smithson, created the spiral jetty, a spiraling coil coming out of the shore of the Great Salt Lake created entirely out of mud, salt crystals, and basalt rocks. The land art is constantly changing with the fluctuating levels of the lake, making it sometimes visible and other times not. Although Smithson himself documented the construction of the sculpture, a modern artist upon hearing that the Spiral Jetty was ascending and would be visible, set out on a mission and followed in his footsteps. The artist was Tacit Dean, who set out with her camera and began to document her experience of her search for the fabled Spiral Jetty. She captured shots of the nature, seaside and salt crystals landscapes she came across. Although her search ended unfruitful, she returned home with a beautiful documentation that she built into a film.

Using techniques such as overlapping shots over others in the form of shapes, putting various different films in the setting of a video reel, or splitting the screen in two, Dean created a wondrous collage of landscapes and settings, sunsets would clash with the rising of the sun across the salt seas, films of creatures would sit alongside the marbled stone. The way she placed the shots together totaled in such a simple, but beautiful way. It brings a feeling of calm, and dreaminess, and I particularly like the large inclusion of natural themes, which is something I’d love to bring into my own video.