Back to the Boards?

Well, not me personally, but after last night's meeting about the first annual Portland Fringe Festival with members of the Portland Theatre Collaborative, I'm just about to direct an old Beyond the Proscenium Productions chestnut - Dancing with Desire: A Poetic Fandango with the Erotic and the Bawdy.  This compilation of erotic poetry, punctuated with sassy, dirty limericks, last played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1996.  In that production, I played the Older Woman and received the only fan letters I've ever had in my performing career.  The other characters were the Younger Woman and the Man, played by Samatha Ostermiller and Tim Dougherty.  Here's a photo of us at Luna's Cafe where we performed it as a fundraiser for the trip to the Fringe.

Yes, this was way back before I let my hair go prematurely salt and pepper.  It will be 20 years this July.  Time sure passes quickly when you're having fun!

Altered Flares

Power of Words © 2007

The title of today's blog comes from two things that are on my mind right now.  The huge solar flare that could cause problems with the electric grid system, never mind our individual electronic devices which I admit are very near and dear to my heart and the fact that I just got photos of the show that the above piece was juried into at Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis. 

Here's a link to the solar flare story which could be problematical but I haven't noticed anything untoward this morning with my experiences with electronic media.  Here's another link to the Belle Lettres show at AE.

MoPho Forever

The hubby and doggie and I are off on a little trip to the south to visit my Sista in Savannah.  On the way down, we're driving, we crossed this huge bridge and tunnel that crosses the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.  We had driven from southern New Jersey down the Delaware shore just to see this part of the country.  The following is a photo taken with my android cell phone using an app called PaperCam.

While I wouldn't put  this in a show, I do think it goes a step beyond your typical travel photo.  In such the same way that photography is considered a fine art, cell phone photography is as well.

Joe Nalven, one of the moderators for the DigitalFineArts Guild & Yahoo group,  wrote a blog for the San Diego paper about aesthetics and cell phone photography which you can find here

Another luminary in the Digital Art World, Harald Johnson, came up with a great new term for this style of art.... and I thought I'd  share his response from the Digital Fine Art Yahoo group:

"Good blog, Joe, and good conversation-starter here. And I agree with your
changing the branded term "iPhoneography," but I think "cellphoneography" misses
the mark as well. I take pictures with my iPodtouch and my iPad, all using the
same/similar apps, and neither of which is a cellphone. But they are all mobile
devices. Hence, the better term (IMHO): "mobileography". Or: "MoPho" for short.
And Mobileography just rolls off the tongue better, don't you think? And MoPho has all kinds of racy, off-color connotations that make it especially attractive to artists, buyers, and the press. Think Marketing! (!)"

I like the way you think Harald.... it's MoPho for me!

Knowing Your Rights

I've been meaning to post something in the past six months about the rights photographers have to take pictures of anything on public property.  This great photo blog I follow (A Photo Editor) has been running interesting articles over the past few months about that very subject.  I've kept saving those emails for reference and realize that if I don't post something about it now, I never will.  So click HERE for a silly video but good information from the ACLU.

Art to Acting

Doing a double again after getting back from a wonderful week on the west coast - niece's wedding and visit to family and friends in Sacramento.  Before I left, I auditioned for a few minor roles for Bluebird, a movie written and directed by Lance Edmands (originally from Kennebunk) which was being filmed north of Bangor, Maine.  I got a callback and read for them and then it was time to get on that jet plane.  While I was in San Francisco with my dear friend Kate Maney, I got a call that they really wanted me for a featured extra part. 

I've been doing films off and on since 1996 and I swore that I would never be an extra (or "the meat" as one director called us) again.  But I had to reconsider this time.  Edmands is an up and coming writer/director (Sundance award winner) and I was told they "really" wanted me and would be able to reimburse me for mileage (shoot site was 3.5 hours north of Portland). 

This is his first feature film and he's written a drama that deals with the relationships of people to the landscape and set it in his home state.  How could I not help a young artist realize one of his dreams.  As artists (no matter what genre we work in) I feel we have an obligation to help each other as much as we can.  I certainly did with giving young actors and directors opportunities when I was running my theatre company in Sacramento (Beyond the Proscenium Productions). 

Although the call time was like working in radio news again, I'm glad I did it.  This cast and crew had it going on.  No silly-shallying as I've experienced in other films, but a tight, professionally run ship captained by a young man I think is going to make quite a name for himself and for Maine as a movie-making destination..  

Now, back to visual art.  I'm finishing up a commission piece for Amie and Jamie and I still need to wire a digital collage on canvas for the Belles Lettres exhibit at Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis and get it to Fed Ex by week's end.  I'm so grateful that I can move from genre to genre and work with wonderful people!

It's called Winter Celebration and based on a photo taken outside my upstairs window before going up to my attic studio.  I love the look of snow on tree branches.  I'll leave this with you while I jet off to San Francisco for my niece's wedding and short visit with family & friends in Sacramento too.

Gung Hay Fat Choi

Happy Year Of The Dragon

Glistening with Probabilities

Almost sounds dirty doesn't it?  Maybe that's why the phrase came to me a week or so ago and apparently has been in my mind since.  Now a bright new year is opening before us and of course I have a few things in mind for this year.  I want to submit a piece to a Professional Women Photographers show in New York and go to the reception!  I intend to sell more art and find a Maine gallery to rep me.   I also intend to do a full staged reading of Orestes 3.0 at the Portland Fringe Fest.  I intend to finish the commissioned piece for Aime and Jamie before their new baby is born.  I  was surprised at how I blocked myself so many times working on that piece.  But I showed them four different versions of ways I could head and got some good feedback from them.

Another thing I did at the very beginning of the year was to enter a piece or work in a show at Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis.  I thought "Power of Words" would be a great piece for their Belles Lettres exhibition and apparent they thought so too, as it was juried in!  They will get the 3rd in a limited edition run of 25.  If you'd like your print on either canvas or paper, go to my sales site to get it.

Merry Christmas

This is a Christmas card I designed this year based on a couple of photos I took in Kennebunkport when I picked up my artwork from the Maine Women in the Arts show.  It will go on sale on the Fine Art America site after the first of the year. 

As a special treat for friends and family, I'd like to re-post a story written by a Sacramento friend, Donya Wicken....

Santa Borg

(c) by Donya Wicken

I was just about fed up with Christmas shopping, cooking and

decorating and was ready to cancel the whole thing and buy a

one-way ticket to the Bahamas when I heard a tortured wail

from upstairs.  I raced up to find  middle son Derek

glowering self righteously at littlest son Ryan who promptly

flung himself at me sobbing.  I examined him for signs of

damage and at the same time shot Derek  “the look”

demanding to know what he had done to provoke this storm of

anguish.

Finally Ryan calmed down enough to tell me himself.   “He

said Santa Claus is really Uncle Robert”  he choked out

and then collapsed again into helpless sobs.

“Derek,  why did you tell him that?”  I groaned in my now-look-what-you've-done voice.

“Well, it’s true isn’t it?  He’s old enough to know

the truth.  Anybody but a dumb little kid could have figured

it out for himself.  Uncle Robert  always wears such a dorky

fake beard and his ho ho hos are totally lame.”

Ryan wailed louder.

“Well, aren’t you going to tell him the truth?”

demanded Derek.

Before I could answer, a voice behind me spoke.  “I’ll

tell him the truth.  I’ll tell you both the truth. “  It

was oldest son Roger, sounding strangely like a super hero.

“I know the truth because I am in junior high school,”

he said.   “I am old enough to know things that dumb

little kids like you are too young to understand.”  He

stared straight at Derek as he spoke and I was secretly

pleased to see Derek cringe.

“All right then,” Derek challenged, “tell us the

truth. “

“Yeah Roger, tell us.”  Ryan looked hopefully at Roger.

“All right, you remember that Star Trek movie when the

Borg tried to assimilate Captain Picard?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

“Well which one was the real Borg?”

“Ha, that’s a dumb question,” Derek replied.

“There’s only one Borg.  All those Borg people are just

part of the collective.”

”Except Captain Picard,” Ryan interjected.  “He

wasn’t a real Borg.  But all the others were.”

“That’s right,” said Roger.  “And that’s how Santa

Claus is.”

Ryan’s eyes opened wide and he looked like he was going to

start to wail again.  “You mean Santa Claus is a Borg?”

“No dummy, “ Derek explained contemptuously.  “The

Borg are bad guys.  Santa Claus is a good guy. “

“That’s right, Derek, Santa Claus is a good guy.   But

he is like the Borg because he is a collective.  He is one

mind but he has many bodies all over the world.  That’s

how he can go to all those houses in one night.  And every

time somebody puts on a Santa Claus uniform he is

assimilated into the collective and becomes a Santa

Claus.”

“Wow.”  said Ryan.

“Oh yeah,”   Derek argued,  “what about when somebody

puts on a Santa suit because he’s a crook and he’s going

to rob somebody’s house?”

“Then it is not a uniform.  It’s just a disguise.  And

when somebody does that something bad will happen to him

because you can only wear the Santa Uniform to do good deeds

and make people happy.”

“So Derek was wrong.”  Ryan announced triumphantly.

“Uncle Robert isn’t Santa Claus.”

“No Ryan.  That’s not what I’m saying.  Uncle Robert

has been assimilated into the collective.   Uncle Robert

really is Santa Claus.”

Ryan gazed at Roger with unabashed adoration.  “Wow.”

“Isn’t that right, Derek?”  Roger demanded.

“Well,  if you tell it like that.  Yeah I guess so.  Is

that right, Mom?”

“It makes sense to me,”  I said.  “It makes a lot

more sense than most things this time of year.”

Roger walked downstairs with me.  Behind us we heard the

joyful sounds of a war being organized between the Evil Borg

Collective and the Good Santa Collective.  “That was

amazing, Roger," I said.  "You came up with a story that satisfied both

of your brothers.  How did you do it?”

“Don’t you remember, Mom?   The principal chose me to

play Santa Claus for the kids at the Head Start Christmas

party.  I’ve been assimilated.”

Happy Holidaze

Saw this in Kennebunkport a few weeks ago when I was there to pick up the work that didn't see at the Maine Women in the Arts show for Prelude to the Season there.  But the good news is that I did sell one piece - the digital woodcut Two Gulls.

 What with being  one of Santa's elves this time of year, I've gotten a bit behind in the blogging.  So the next few posts will be catch up ones in which I share the installation photos from the Windows show I was in at the E Street Gallery back in October and the Lumens show (which runs until Dec 27th).

In the meantime, one of my peeps in the Digital Art Guild Yahoo Group - Wayne Cosshall - is now publishing Digital ImageMaker International.  You can get a copy via PDF and read a wonderful article about Bonny Lhotka, whose work I have admired for many years.

Shop Local in Southern Maine

I'll be there show sitting on Friday, Dec 2nd from 1 to 4 pm... hope I see you there!

Gratitude

I'm very grateful to all the readers of this blog for sticking with me through thick and thin as I continue my journey as an artist who works in different media.  I've been all full of visual art matters for some time, so let's swing the set over to the theatre side for just a bit.  Enormous thanks to PlayLab at Snow Lion Rep here in Portland for including me in PlayLab and for the reading this past Monday night of Orestes 3.0, directed by Al D’Andrea with the following cast:

ELECTRA: April Singley
ORESTES: Michael Dix Thomas
HELEN: Brittany Cook
MENELAUS: John Kreutzberger
CASSANDRA: Kerry Ann Loomis
WOUNDED MAN (WILLIAM): Thomas Campbell
WOUNDED MAN (JOHN): Simon Skold
NURSE MEG: Brittany Cook
NURSE TISI: Jacquelyn Mansfield
NURSE ALECTO: Amanda Painter

Facing us from right to left:  April, Michael, Jacquelyn, Amanda, Brittany & John

 

 

Great thanks to all the members of PlayLab who attended and gave me great feedback.  I'm really looking forward to finishing this puppy by the end of December and getting a full reading of it later this spring. 

Here's wishing each an every one of you a great Thanksgiving and joy and abundance this holiday season.

Gonna Make you a Star

Scams are all around us on a daily basis, but for the artist it seems they appear in an email at least once a day.  Of course we are very vulnerable as we want to think that someone happened to stumble across our art and thinks it's just wonderful.  I almost got caught up in that this morning when I read this:

"Dear Ann,

My name is Peter Sullivan and I am a freelance curator working with Abraham Lubelski organizing a March group exhibition in New York. I am inviting you to participate and take advantage of a unique opportunity to not only exhibit but to also get a full years' worth of publicity/exposure on the web and in print. This offer is the best publicity package available anywhere in today's contemporary art world. The fee for this complete one-year publicity package (and New York exhibition) is $1,950. I am particularly excited and interested in your work Motel Variations: Biggest Little City  and I believe it would be an important addition to our program. By paying close attention to the intuitive works of each artist, we are hoping to construct an exhibition of works that truly speaks to our viewers and subscribers."

The fee was too steep for me at this point in time and it made me wonder if anyone else had ever gotten such a letter.  A little google search turned this up.  Thanks so much Helen Ansell for blogging about it and confirming my suspicions.