VOL 06 ISSUE
12 
November 6, 2007
BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE
VOL 06 ISSUE
12 BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE |
| ARTFUL VIOLINS: SYMPHONY TAPS ARTISTS FOR FUNDS | ||||
 THE 21st
CENTURY MOVEMENT most discernable in art so far is the exploitation of artists,
who have multiplied like flies. Inspired by and unsatisfied with the funds
raised for them by the Wild Salmon on Parade event this summer, the Anchorage Symphony
League and the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra joined forces with Artique Ltd and the Violin
Shop to provide 21 artists with unvarnished student violins to decorate so that they can
auction them at a gala auction February 16 at the Hotel Captain Cook. Artists
received a $500 stipend. The results were introduced at the Artique gallery this
month and may be seen there over the next few months. Violins by Fran Reed, Sandra
Harrington, Michele Suchland, and Susan Lindsey, watercolors by Yaso Eguchi can be seen in
the photo at right. |
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SUNFLOWER, RED:INTERPRETED
Gallerista Susan Pennewell Ellis organized the group from the Artique
stable and participated herself, as seen in the photograph at left of her Sunflower
embellishments. Duke Russell's Red Violin, shown behind it, was the
simplest approach, using a faux finish to commemorate the story told in a movie by the
same name. A Midori violin and one signed by Marvin Hamlisch are also involved in
the auction. The sensuous curves and receptive surfaces inspired many to treat the
violins like panels, with Byron Birdsall's St. Cecelia an outstanding example,
not shown. Others applied a variety of precious metals, some even involving the
bows for the violins, with Debby Dubac's Dragonfly violin being a prominent
example, seen from the back in the index image for this issue. Cammie Walker's artglass
encrusted version is dazzling under lights in a glass cabinet, with the bow fully
involved, not shown.. Only a few of the participating artists are musicians, and few have any other connection to the Symphony. The student violins have friction tuners with fine-tuning tailpieces and are accompanied by cases and stands, and the natural instinct for string musicians would be to fiddle around with them. Not all can be used to make music, however. Fran Reed's violinist husband Dick mentioned that the sound peg inside had gone missing when she wrapped the body with snapper skin, rendering it nonfunctional. Of course the fish skin and fins would flay the chin and cheeks and ravage the horse hair. Even so, the temptation to check these violins for performance will be strong for those most attracted to them. |
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CUTE NUDES:LAVALLEE HOMERS
Barely had the works been received and exhibited before an offer was
made for the sky-blue violin by Barbara LaVallee shown at left next to a Bear by Alvin
Amuson. LaVallee had fashioned some three-dimensional nudes to complement the
painted ones on the body, frolicking along the neck. Cheery yet non-functional, this
one might have been the most fun to play. It will not be offered at the banquet auction
planned for February, since it was bought in for $10,000 by an eager enthusiast.
"Quite a nice donation to the Symphony", said Ellis, noting that others
could also pre-empt other bidders at that price if they so desired. Now that the visual art community has been so generous in support of the Symphony, it is only natural to wonder if the Symphony will also stand in support of the visual arts one day as well. |
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FROM THE FIRE:
KOREA CERAMIC The Anchorage Museum at the Rasmuson Center is hosting a
show of contemporary fired clay curated by Chung-Hyun Cho, a professor at the Ewha Woman's
University in Seoul. Extending it's circum-polar mission statement to include the
Pacific Rim is natural for AMRC, and inu artifacts are also being displayed this
month. South Korea is a densely populated society eager to be considered a top tier
civilization, and the national percent for art law was established in 1988. Called the Art Decoration Law,
it covers public and commercial buildings so there is a thriving market and corporations
often comply with the law by building and stocking contemporary art museums.
The effort to stand out among dense competition has yielded some very intriquing work,
such as Min Gi Hi's Venus the Brave, shown at left. The modest gesture and
modern coiffure combine to accentuate the spirally rampant breasts. Other work was
practical and fanciful, like the stein next to Venus. DESCENTS:LEE'S ANGELS The decidedly impractical forms of Lee Myung Soon's Descent of Angels I & II, shown at left, stood proudly expressing their creator's intent. The complex stuctures beguile the light with a doughy insouciance. The lightly browned glaze is understated and natural, and the forms could be deep fat fried and sold at the fair by the armloads, if only the Angels agree. The exhibition is touring with the support of multiple generous patrons, including the Korean Culture & Arts Foundation (KCAF). |
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SKELLY DOG:DIA DE LOS
MUERTOS The Day of the Dead is commonly referred to by
Norte-Americanos as the Mexican Halloween, although the indigenes revere the bones of
their ancestors and take picnics to please them in the graveyards, and gringo's go door to
door cadging candy and pretending to be bad. Angela Ramirez, a detail of whose Skelly
Dog altare is shown at left, combined with Indra Arragas, Mariano Gonzales and others
recently to commemorate the day with a public event in the black gallery at the OUT NORTH
theatre November 2nd. The altars are constructed gaily to honor the dead and
gone, and the emotions are sincere, even raw in the case of recent bereavements. Cherishing the actual skulls of dead ancestors and involving the children helps accustom them to their own mortality, Arragas explained. The presentations are not morbid so much as attitude adjusting. Rather than scaring the children, it let's them see that being flesh and bones is a good thing, something much better than just being bones. HEY MISTER:YOU DROPPED THIS The forearm seen under the paw of Skelly Dog was clamped protectively and the young hombre in the picture at left got it away from him no trouble and seems to be trying to get it back to Ramirez' Skully Skelly. The lad's madre gave him a little explanation, and Ramirez put the severed limb back in it's intended place on the altare. She confessed to having obsessed on skulls for the past two months, providing a number of paper-maché basic head-bones to fellow artists to decorate, which were also included among the strings of lights, glitter, cut paper laces, photos, flowers, bowls of food, videos, and other mementos of the deceased. The exhibit was an event, and dissassembled the same day. On view this month at the OUT NORTH Gallery are a number of Buzz Schwall's marionettes, some of whom look suspiciously familiar, others are just plain buggy. |
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FAITH:
ENDURING JOHNSON The International Gallery of Contemporary Art is
hosting the black and white photographs of Matt Johnson this month, among which
Reflections II is shown at left. Johnson spends time around Kachemak Bay in his new
boat and has been capturing quite a few studies of waves. A meditation in sinuous
forms and distinctions of grey, these are viewfinder images that impart to the viewer
something of the sensation of being there. In Fog, not shown, the delicacy
of the transition from liquid to atmosphere is symphonically grey. This photo alone
is worth a visit to the gallery to view Johnson's work; it certainly can't be reproduced
with any fidelity. With the assistance of an assiduously pursued Rasmuson Foundation grant, Johnson recently made the switch from film to digital, and from darkroom to archival printer. Although he retains his preference for black and white, it is achieved with a photoshop filter and fine-tuned with threshhold controls rather than through chemical emulsions. Johnson is happy with the new technology, not least because he is able to work at home among his family rather than inside the darkroom alone. FAMILY: DIPTYCHS Johnson's wife Maureen and their children appear in several of the pictures standing in for the universal human values that underpin his non-dogmatic Faith. The combination of photos shown at left came as close to a statement as Johnson felt necessary, titling it Hope, Faith, Love. A simple message, it reverbrates throughout the various images presented, combining the exuberance of a child on a swingset with the eternal verities of the tidal zone. There are several group photograph exhibits available to enthusiasts this fall including the Rarefied Light exhibit at IGCA last month, the Alaska Photographic Center Members Show at the Carr Gottstein Gallery on the APU campus this month. The Kenai Peninsula Photographers Guild Open Exhibition is on view at the Kenai Visitors & Cultural Center this month. There are many examples of the use of the new technology to reassemble reality through judicious menu selection. Johnson's approach is old school, sharing what he sees through the view-finder in an effort to draw a deeper understanding from it. Collectors may be perplexed by his apparent decision neither to sign, date, or number the digital prints. Perhaps Johnson is confident his is a signature style of looking at the world through a lens. |
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- ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES- 11/28/07 deadline KETCHIKAN CITY DOCK seeks concept proposals for artifying some benches, light poles, and dock pilings. Budget $75,000. RFP online. Contact Erin Reeves 907-617-2353 11/30/07 deadline ALASKA STATE MUSEUM Solo Exhibition Review and image bank seeks applicants. Contact Alaska State Museum 395 Whittier Street, Juneau AK 99801 11/30/07 deadline MOA Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation grants to non-profit organizations promoting art in Anchorage. Budget max 15 %. Applications online. Contact Susan Olson 743-0334 aacfATgci.net 12/01/07 deadline RASMUSON FOUNDATION ARTS EDUCATORS $3000 for art teachers to reconnect with their art. Applications online. 12/01/07 deadline ASCA Small Grant categories. Applications online. 12/31/07 deadline ROSWELL (NM) MUSEUM AND ART CENTER announces RFQ for sculpture commemorating Robert Goddard, rocket scientist. Budget $172,500. Details online. Contact Laurie Rufe, director 1/01/08 deadline AMRC 32nd ALL-ALASKA JURIED EXHIBITION accepting submissions. Cash prizes, juror TBA. Contact Dave Nicholls at Anchorage Museum at the Rasmuson Center. 1/23/08 deadline NOME YOUTH FACILITY requests concept proposals for jail interior. Budget $75,000. RFP online. Contact Andrea Noble 907-269-6605 andrea_nobleATalaska.gov 3/1/08 deadline RASMUSON FOUNDATION GRANT PROGRAM $12,000 Fellowships Media, multidiscipline/new genre, music composition and visual artists may apply. $25,000 Distinguished artist and $5000 artist project grant applications also due. Alaska residents only. Information online. ASCA Art In Public Places with over $19 million dollars in commissions required by AK Statute 35.27 from the last three years' capital projects budgets alone. Print out ArtSceneAK's select list from this link.
SELLING ART WITHOUT GALLERIES: TOWARD MAKING A LIVING FROM YOUR ART by Daniel Grant The separation between the haves and have nots needs lateral thinking and Grant has been writing business advice for working artists as opposed to celebrity artists. His work is a service to independence. ArtSceneAK recommends his recent article "How Educated Must An Artist Be?" about PHD art professors in a recent issue of The Chronicle. NEXT: TURKEY NOMINATIONS SHORTCUTS: Aggravated again?! Ecstatic?! Let us know you love us or hate us. Help correct attribution errors that you suspect. Tell us about your upcoming event or artist opportunity. Let us know about your website. Form makes it easy to try your hand at pumping or dumping.
cf also ART IN ALASKA
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PRAYER:TERZIS
PROPELLER HEADS At the
International, Jane Terzis exhibits 32 drawings in the vein of I Have The Capacity For
Confusion, shown at right with its accompanying used bar of soap. Begun as a response
to the events of 9/11/01, the series of pencil drawings find their inspiration in 50's era
family photographs. Terzis then fits the same face (her own psychic self-portrait) on to
each character's body, including the Flying Nun style ear horns that push the collection
even further into the surreal. There have been more than 50 traits for which various drawings have had the Capacity For, and the most patently political in its statement is I Have The Capacity For Denial, not shown, marked with a W so that it was certain that the US President was being referenced. Terzis notion of donating the used soaps to a homeless shelter shows a capacity for misunderstanding what the homeless appreciate. Scrub up with second hand soaps in the BACK ISSUE Index.
Thank you and Welcome to new subscribers in Anchorage and Homer and Welcome Back to renewing subscribers in Ester and elsewhere. From Ravensberg, Germany, an opportunity to buy spaces on a banner: "be a part of famous art, Artists from all over the world will have the possibility of participating in this web unique charity art project and presenting their painting-photos at the same time. Gradually the 50.000 contributions of the artists will be like a world mosaic." --- Mirko Siakkou-Flodin From Sweden: "Thank you for the photo of your painting (The Wild Hunt). Very light and powerful work, fresh spring wind from childhood of humanity. Yes, I remember too my happy experiences at the Florence Biennale and recognize their unique approach of showing the real arts. But in nowadays is strange situation – it is extremely difficult to find sponsors for such shows. People see around only strange ugly performances, propaganda of strange pessimistic ideas, etc. It looks like aggression against humanity. It calls an art, and organizers of those shows have sponsors. Of course people don’t visit those shows, people become indifferent to art at all. And what can I do as an artist in this situation? " --- Serjey From Spain: "Saludos Cordiales Amigos, Amigas ... y demas seres. Hoy os presento Teletransportación4: Una forma de viajar. Para cuando hayas leído estas líneas el viaje hace mucho tiempo que empezó: Los viajeros de la tele transportación somos tan pesados con las fotos, como los viajeros del motor – máquina, que luego nos enseñan a todo el que se cruza con ellos los sitios que han visitado. para que veamos que su excursión ha sido preciosa e inolvidable." --- Natxo Zenborain From NYC announcing: "an art installation in which Angel Orensanz raises the issue of the environment from a critical perspective. It portrays the utopia of the garden as a horizon of beauty and moral uplifting and its built-in danger of mirage and delusion. This installation was scheduled to coincide with the recent debates on the world climate change. Now the Parks Department of the City of New York has extended its presentation to the end of March 2008, due to the enthusiasm of the people. The work is on view at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at the corner of 47th St. and Second Avenue; and can be seen 24 hours, day and night." --- Al Orenzanz Jocelyn Young sends word that Elizabeth Busch has installed her % for Art commission at the Nicholas Begich Middle School in Anchorage AK. Larry Lubow invites participation in the 2nd Art & Design Online Invitational. "Prosperity and Peace Through Arts" is the title of a paper by International Children's Art Foundation director Ashfaq Ishak Hal Gage's Pool Ice photo exhibit at ArtWorks on the Kenai Spur Road in Soldotna this month. From New Jersey: "Don't worry about the Museum. It is hard to see outward from the center, that is why artists live on the edge, in the margin of communities. To be prophetic you can't also be immersed in the daily concerns and hierarchies. This is the reason that I loved the Biennial--where we gathered so many people who were working each with their own passion to share their magic, and experience their global community; giving faith that the struggle has value." --- MS Help us test the public mood by submitting your nominations for Favorite Artist, Gallery, etc in the ArtSceneAK Reader's Choice 2007 survey online. Otherwise Publisher Donald R Ricker may be the only nominee in all ten categories!
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text & photos © 2007 Donald R Ricker; artist's works pictured ©2007 to artists credited.
ArtSceneAK is published by Donald R Ricker and sponsored by
, a partial listing of links to Museums,
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