LET'S HAVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE RISK TAKERS

We have tickets this weekend to the Opera Carolina production of “Madam Butterfly.” Ordinarily, I would pass the ads right by. After all, who hasn’t seen “Butterfly” a million times? This staging is special - it’s the one designed by Japanese artist Jun Kaneko.

Kaneko was invited by Opera Omaha to design sets and costumes for its 2007 production of “Butterfly.” The show got rave reviews and tons of publicity in great part because of its artistic originality. The art museum exhibited Kaneko’s sculpture in conjunction with the opera, himself on hand for a lecture and special fund raising event.

The package was a winner – a total sensory immersion. Since then, the Omaha set has moved to stages in other cities and now it’s come to Charlotte. I can’t wait!

I don’t know much about opera in spite of years of piano lessons. Looney Tunes cartoon figures introduced great opera melodies to kids like me. But I totally believe that a city’s value is largely measured by its cultural health. And I don’t believe that vital cultural activity is achieved without risk taking and extreme commitment – even when it’s hard to justify.

“Go big or go home.” The sound bite sounds good but mighty hard to attach these days to non-essentials. Everybody knows that needs are great and somehow, my fellow Americans have turned into tightwads and toads just when it seems to me that the world is bursting with opportunity.

So the next time a start up opera company forms in Rochester, I hope the first thing they consider is asking our beloved painter Robert Marx to design sets and costumes…or Garth Fagan to set the entire trite opera to contemporary movement…or you get the idea. Go out on a limb.

No guts, no glory.

Romare Beardon at the Mint/Kathryn Clark Quilts

We visited the Mint Museum (downtown Charlotte) last Saturday. It was the last weekend to view the Romare Bearden retrospective and the joint was hopping! Kids, families, live jazz music – there was nothing HUSH about the place. Those of us who came to see the artwork were civility itself in spite of elbows gently prying bodies out of the way for better viewing.

Bearden was a native of Charlotte – an African American artist (1911-1988) – who migrated to Harlem and spent his life illustrating the sights, colors, and spirit of the black experience. And this was a BIG SHOW. Nearly 100 collages, paintings and works on paper were assembled from collections across the country and sprawled throughout the entire 4^th floor of the museum.

I love collage – I love quilts and mixed up materials - marriages of glass, metal, wood and the exuberance of pattern and texture. I’m also a sucker for pictorial narrative. Bearden was a master of all that so it came as an emotional stomach punch to see these works in person. They simply took my breath away and I stood in front of the collage on loan from Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Museum and wiped away tears.

Imagine! It was free – but priceless.

(The show will travel nationally. Don't miss it!)

Few of us live in an information free environment and if you do, you are not reading this blog. For the rest of us, the news is bad and for some of us (me, for instance) who follow real estate, it’s just crazy-bad! More than one theoretical pundit states that unless the foreclosure mess is cleared up, our country will continue to struggle against the quicksand of this horrible economy and if you think you are immune, think again! That rock under which you crawl is not saving you; every one of us is being touched by this depressing historical time.

Kathryn Clark is an urban designer/architect turned fiber artist who lives and works in San Francisco. I found photographs of her quilt series- “Foreclosures” - on a design web site that I follow. Her work is artistically beautiful – a wonderful balance of color, shape and texture – imaginatively clever and thematically relevant.

Not bad for a “mere quilt maker,” eh?

(Please find her at http://kathrynclark.blogspot.com/ You’ll be glad you made the effort.)

Another New Year Already?

2012 has slunk in under the doorframe and already looks tired.

“Well,” say I “sit down. Put your feet up. Rest awhile and think about how you want to spend the next 11 months, 27 days.”

I do not do long range planning well. I’m more the spontaneous type – slightly obsessive/compulsive but in a good way. That probably helps to explain why we’ve bought and sold seven houses in the past forty or so years and why even as I write this, the restlessness has descended and I’m looking around at real estate listings.

My beloved sweetly suggests I maybe should look for another outlet for my “creative spirit.” I’m positive he speaks from pure concern for me and not his dwindling retirement accounts. (?)

As I go through the search – inward and outward – I share with you these saved images from my laptop. The ostriches are my latest favorite wallpaper and the wall of windows is the potential “bonus room” in our Rochester townhouse - at least, in my dreams. One of my bff’s and I just finished the painting for my brother – a rip off of Cy Twombly – and the doll sculpture is a rip off of that talented Bliss lady.

May we all have a thoughtfully creative 2012.

Happy Holidays Everybody!

We piled into our 10 year old Volvo last night, picked up our friends the Gregory’s, and went off on our annual search for the Best Holiday Home Display. We’re tough critics. We’ve only awarded three perfect 10s in Rochester – one with a nearly life-sized Santa landing on the side yard in a helicopter and another with all the usual snowpeople, angels, and santas but also lighted palm trees, dancing dolphins and a garbage truck sized elephant. Obviously, tons of lights – all colors and some blinking – are basic requirements and music is always a nice touch.

This was our first nighttime excursion through the neighborhoods of our winter home here in North Carolina and I must tell you, it’s hard to get too excited about Christmas with temperatures still hovering around 60 and too many (ho-hum) displays of white lights on shrubs.

Then we found the open garage door at John Montalbano’s house.

From the driveway, you first notice the mid-range ear split buzz of model trains almost but not quite drowning out the Christmas music. Get closer….and closer….and THERE THEY ARE! Dozens of model trains race around tracks weaving through an idealist version of a village Christmas. Houses and storefronts glow. Nearly every tree is decked out with glittering lights while tiny people ice skate on ponds, sled down hills or wander the sidewalks. 0ne small boy perpetually makes snow angels. In the outdoor drive-in movie theater “White Christmas” - the real thing! - is playing to a few parked sedans.

John began this extravaganza seven years ago to cheer up his neighbor Grace. Grace is a double breast cancer survivor (The village includes “Grace Bridge. Really! Could her name be any more perfect for this entire concept?) A large bottle sits beside the garage door to accept donations to a Charlotte cancer research center.

John says he collects display parts mostly from garage sales and flea markets all year – everything carefully stored in plastic boxes until the first of November when he begins construction. His goal is to finish the installation by Thanksgiving when he hosts an unveiling party for his immediate neighbors. From then through December, the garage doors are open every evening for gawkers – any age – and John stands by to answer questions.

We clapped for John, for the trains, for the generosity of the holidays but we only gave John a score of 9.5. After all, there wasn’t an elephant in sight.

(For more info about Trains for a Cure, go to his web site: john@trainsforacure.org.)

PS More Photographs of Urban

Urban Ugly

I know these things about urban decay:

It doesn’t happen quickly but inches up on a city block by block.

What I call “visual ugliness,” someone else argues “part of business.”

Pride of Place depends on obsessive attention to detail.

Almost always, the people who are most attuned to visual cues – ARTISTS – are too busy or too self-absorbed to take on the Crisis of Ugly.

Finally, yes, there are grave problems of homelessness and hopelessness in ours and every other city, but Beauty and Stewardship of our Environment lifts across economic and social lines.

These are a few photos taken ONLY along East Avenue, our Grand Entrance to Downtown Rochester, terminating at the Liberty Pole, our city’s “living room,” with one or two along University’s Neighborhood of the Arts directly behind the George Eastman House, one of our cultural jewels.

As you see, I'm not a big fan of painted fiberglass objects: horses, animals, benches, et.al. At first, they are fun - for about one summer. They have a bad habit, however, of becoming permanent - decayed or not - and what was "fun" quickly morphs into bad streetside clutter. The worse part: people feel they've spent $$$ on public art. They have not. It's kitch. Please support artists! Buy the real stuff!

EXTREME MATERIALS II and MORE MAG

Yesterday I toured “Extreme Materials II” at Memorial Art Gallery. Putting words to intuition is my challenge and frankly, my intuition after this viewing was “ho hum, you really can’t go home again.” I remember writing a rave review of the first “Extreme,” a show that revealed a light-hearted soul. For the most part, the current show just tries too hard – and mostly fails.

There are the usual pieces trying to shock - a dress made out of condoms, a cake made out of tampons, a “drawing” made with blood. Sorry. Been there/seen that. The single piece that did move me was a pearl bonnet made from millions of corsage pins. Angela Ellsworth, its creator, grew up a Mormon, and WOW! Does this piece ever speak loud and clear about the restraints of women, particularly in that society.

Mostly, after reading the art review in City Newspaper, I really wanted to see Jennifer Angus’ installation “Creature Comforts.” This installation fills the entire Lockhart Gallery space with wall drawings (note: drawing medium: dead bugs.) The City reviewer wondered how people could voice such outrage over Otterness’ misstep (see previous blog entry) but casually accept this dead bug creation. Are puppies more important than bugs? Is there a hierarchy that dictates which killing is acceptable and why?

WELL!! This does illicit some soul searching! How do we feel about killing … anything?

I admit that without so much as a qualm, I swat flies, mosquitoes, and set traps for mice in my attic. These guys are fine in their own space but not in mine. I’ve recently given up eating meat products, not because of some enlightened political awareness of the cruelty being inflicted in this industry but because I’ve become convinced that my own health will improve with a “green diet.”

As for Jennifer Angus’ bugs, her effort leaves me dismally unmoved. I cannot call it art. Maybe it illustrates a certain craftsmanship like stenciling or beadwork or…something. Pinning bugs to a background is hardly new; Victorians did it all the time. Visit any natural museum to come away awed by the beauty and variety of insects.

So I’m back to the original question: because Angus’ installation is NOT art but simply arrangement and Otterness did his dirty deed in the name of ART (CAPITAL LETTERS), it seems to me that yes, there is a difference. Is this dishonest? Am I just moving the rules around? These thoughts flew around my brain at 3 o’clock this morning.

And then, PRESTO FIXO, ten minutes ago, an email came to me with these Otterness images of some of his current work and I know what it is about him that disturbs me most: I just don’t believe he regrets shooting that dog!

Call it whatever you want, meanness and torture in the name of art is still meanness and torture.