Come See What I've Been Up To

 I hear some actors use a technique called method acting   to really immerse themselves in the thoughts and emotions of their characters.  I thought I'd give it a shot and see if it translates into the art and characters I'm creating.  Come out Saturday and be the judge!

PSST .... here's a sneak peek :)

Finally, A New Post!

The Groundhog predicted an early spring, but no signs of it yet in Nashville! We're still having winter weather advisory's and all kinds of unpleasant weather. It's been weighing on me a lot lately, just sapping my energy away. Due to that fact, I wasn't feeling super social during this past Saturday night's Art Crawl so I just did a quick run through. My favorite parts were Julie Lee's solo show at DPC, and Suspension at Twist- a show by Jamie Raybin and Ryan Hogan. In Suspension, one piece read, "There is a specific form of perfectionism where you can't make decisions, can't commit to anything, for fear of being wrong." It struck a major chord with me. I think about it and realize this kind of perfectionism inhibits areas of my life that are very important to me.

On the topic of perfectionism and fear, I watched Black Swan a couple weeks ago. Upon walking out of the theater I honestly didn't know if I liked it. Unfortunately, I had already heard a lot about the plot, so some of the suspense was missing for me. Here I am though, weeks later, thinking of it. After letting it sink in (I think I needed to because it was absolutely dizzying) I am appreciating it more and more. And the costume design by Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, doesn't hurt!

Consuming Catastrophe part 2

In thinking about my last post about the recent show, Consuming Catastrophe, I realized there should be more pictures. So here they are; a quick photo journey.

Consuming Catastrophe

I really enjoyed this past month's event in Downtown Presbyterian at Art Crawl; unfortunately it was up one night only. Read the press release below to get the gist of it:

Press Release:
Downtown Presbyterian Children’s Summer Arts Program

If popular caricature is at all correct and church is the place where young people are
taken to learn to hate and fear their own bodies, Downtown Presbyterian Church is going
against the grain. Led by children’s education director, Sarah Dark and with the help of
area artists J. Todd Greene, Richard Feaster, David Carlson, Mandy Rogers-Horton, and
DPC’s own Beth Gilmore, Jake Larson, and Aaron Doenges, the children of the church
are working to transform the downstairs chapel into an installation of the human body.
The show’s title? Consuming Catastrophe: The Comedy of the Heart; A Play in Ate
Parts.
Guided by the conviction that a child’s relationship with God is healthily
underway long before adults start arming them with readymade answers, Dark
customarily begins their Sunday morning classes together with a story, followed by
questions. Take Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed, for instance. “The smallest of all
seeds becomes a tree so great that many birds can make their home in it,” Dark explains.”
I asked the children, ‘How is the kingdom of heaven like a mustard seed?’” What did they
come up with?
It is growing.
It is a home for us.
It is something small that is becoming great.
“I wondered aloud how the seed knew what to grow into.”

It is very powerful.
It is what it was made for.
“I asked where the children find this kind of power.”
In the trees around us.
In the seasons changing.
In our bodies.
It was the phrase, “In our bodies” that connected Todd Greene’s vision of a
human body machine with this year’s Summer Art’s Program director Dave Carlson’s
hope for a kinetic installation. Dark explains: “After spending a few weeks on what
art might be for and how specific artists create art that is interactive and moving, it
was time to put all of our ideas together.” Reporting back to the children, she had an
announcement: “Kids, we’re going to turn the chapel into a human body that you can
walk through. Oh, and you are the mustard seeds.”
It’s Dark’s hope that the children’s creation will serve as a visual aid, for young
and old alike, in better discerning God’s redeeming work not as something that happens
in spite of our bodies but within and among them and for better imagining the breadth
and outlandish scope of God’s love. She envisions the installation as “an interactive
space that will take us deeper into the poetry of this weirdly elusive but ever-expanding
kingdom...Participants will cross the threshold of the mouth and enter a bioactive
landscape, journeying through the esophagus of darkness, beneath the soul of the
stomach, into the forest of intestines, accompanied by the music of the heart, exiting
into the quiet of a blossoming tree so inclusive that life lives forever in it.” Ideally, this
culminating event of DPC’s summer arts program will somehow, in Dark’s phrase, “put
skin and bones on the mystery of the kingdom of God.”
The show opens on September 4th in DPC’s chapel at 6:00. Food and drink will be
available as a part of the Artluck’s 1st Saturday Art Crawl.

What Could We Do to Make a Difference in 2010?

The Contributor, Nashville's homeless newspaper, is starting the new year right; they are holding a benefit party during art crawl.

Sound Art

about SoundCrawl:Nashville Picture a Saturday night in Nashville when all the galleries are open. Beautiful people, drinks in hand, drift from one gallery to another to experience the best the city has to offer in visual art.

Now imagine that at various points along the way something new has been added, an opportunity to experience a new kind of art, art that you HEAR....sound art.

So in between the experience of the visual arts, artists and guests alike gather to listen to....a rhythmic beat of water drops....or a dizzying immersion of the sound of coins moving through space...synthetic audio wrapping around, tickling the ear drums of the city.

That evening is coming to Nashville on October 3, from 6-9pm, with SoundCrawl:Nashville.

For the first time ever, Nashville will introduce a sound art festival in conjunction with the city's monthly Art Crawl. On October 3 Nashvillians will be among the first in the nation to experience a festival of this type, an international festival bringing new compositions from all over the world.

Where better to introduce this than Music City.



about the ArtCrawl: (from www.artatthearcade.com):Every first Saturday of the month, the historic Arcade in downtown Nashville comes to life with over one thousand visitors. Multiple galleries open their doors to avid art lovers as well as anyone else that is just curious to see what the Gallery Crawl is all about. Art at the Arcade is a collective organization that hosts an assortment of contemporary artists from throughout the world to Nashville.



about SoundArt: What is Sound Art? Between 1930 and 1965, composer Edgard Varèse gave a series of lectures that have since been collected and titled “The Liberation of Sound.” In these lectures, Varese was trying to understand – and explain – his own approach to sonic expression. He, along with Pierre Schaeffer and others, began to explore the organization of sonic materials – sounds from the ambient world, evolving electronic technology, and the traditional instruments used for centuries– in any and every combination into cohesive works of audio art on phonograph (and then tape, and now computer).

The only definition that seemed to fit his music was simply: “organized sound.”

This definition has been given several labels through the years: musique concrète (in the French, Varèse and Schaeffer’s native tongue), electroacoustic music, sound collage, sound music, sound art, etc., etc. Some of these labels focus on very specific types of audio used. Some do not. Each one, however, is all encompassing of sound. Any sound. That has been organized in some way.

It’s a pretty broad definition.

The cultural and mechanical forces that influenced Varèse and Schaeffer have only become more powerful in the intervening years. With the advent of the computer and audio software, the production possibilities of sound organization – something that this town knows a bit about - seem endless. This power has brought with it technological ubiquity – computers are everywhere – and with ubiquity has come the commonplace, and with the commonplace comes the ability to focus not only on the medium (the technology used) but also on the expression (the art of the sounds used). And has changed the art of sound as we know it.

So what is sound art?

Sound \'saund\: the sensation perceived by the sense of hearing

Art \'ärt\: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects

Sound Art \'saund ' ärt\: The conscious use of skill and creative imagination in producing aesthetic sensations perceived by the sense of hearing.

Sound. Collage. Expression. Audio. Organization. Consciousness. Creativity. Music. Art.



about the Directors: Kyle J. Baker and Aaron Hoke Doenges


Kyle J. Baker is a composer and creator in Nashville, Tennessee. While thoughtful and quick-witted in person, Kyle's raw, rhythmic and cacaphonic music turns the classical idiom on its ear. When not orchestrating cacaphony Kyle dreams up new experiences drawing on his background in theatre and interest in disruptive innovation. His music can be found at kylejbaker.com; his ideas can be found at thinkingcreator.net.








Aaron Hoke Doenges is an electroacoustic composer based in Nashville, Tennessee. While influences ranging from J.S. Bach and Arnold Schoenberg to John Cage, Edgard Varese', Jonty Harrison, Radiohead and Sigur Ros are present in Doenges’ approach to music, he blends his unique electroacoustic style through a collage of aural pictures. He explores through listening, writing and musical experimentation, searching the world around him for thoughts, sounds and melodies that can be pieced together in ways to provoke attention, thought and perhaps dialog. Music and other info can be found at www.aaronhokedoenges.com.

Art After Hours

Have you heard about tomorrow night? Art After Hours? It sounds like the perfect summer evening event. You could even start off with an icy treat like my current obsession, the snocone (pineapple upside down cake in the pic). Here's the scoop thanks to Alan LeQuire's email:

Please Join Us

Thursday, June 4th

5-7pm

for the launching of Nashville's first Citywide Art Crawl.





The Nashville Association of Art Dealers (NAAD) presents a new opprotunity for art lovers and patrons to explore Nashville's diverse and growing art scene. "Art After Hours" - Nashville's first monthly, city-wide art crawl - seeks to elevate awareness and support for the visual arts in Nashville. On the first Thursday of each month participating galleries will remain open late from 5:00pm to 7:00pm, inviting the public to come and enjoy art after work.
Participating galleries in the first Art After Hours include:
Bennett Galleries, Cumberland Gallery, Estel Gallery, Finer Things Gallery, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Gallery One, HA Gallery at Hanging Around, LeQuire Gallery, Local Color Gallery, Midtown Gallery, Richland Fine Art, Rymer Gallery, The Arts Company, Tinney Contemporary and
Zeitgeist Gallery.

Go to www.nashvilleartdealers.net for a gallery map.