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FUEGO
Saturday, November 14th, $6
Shelly Blake-Plock (gtr, voice), Joel Grip (dblbass), John Dierker (reeds), Dan Breen (bass), Lyle Kissack (drums), Rose Hammer (reeds), Nathan Bell (banjo), Savanna Leigh (voice), Paul Neidhardt (percussion) ++ Hans Koch & Jack Wright (reeds)
The 10-tet: "a ridiculously great ad hoc free music ten-piece ensemble based around thumping sounds and sleep walking"
The Duo: Jack Wright, alto and soprano saxophone, and Hans Koch, bass clarinet, first met in Chicago in 2001 and recorded a duo that whetted their appetites to do it again. Alas, this has not been possible until now on this small tour, with a little assistance from the Swiss government. And they will continue their playing in March in Switzerland.
Hans Koch was born in 1948 and lives in Biel Switzerland. He quit his career as a recognized classical clarinetist to become one of the most innovative improvising reed-players in Europe. He has been working with everyone from Cecil Taylor to Fred Frith since the eighties. As a composer he has shaped the sound of Koch-Schütz-Studer since the beginning as well as working for radio-plays and film. Since the nineties he has been working with electronics as an extension of the saxes/clarinets as well as with sampling/sequencing/Laptop. As a reed-player he is always working on his very own vocabulary and sound, which makes him a very unique voice on the actual scene. He will be playing bass clarinet on this tour.
Sexagenarian but noticeably immature, Jack Wright is renowned for his impersonations of ducks, pigs, and other blowhards. He will be attempting to play the saxophone exclusively with his feet and anus. He learned that technique whilst employed at (subsequently fired from) the Phila. zoo to entertain monkeys and encourage them to copulate. Before that, he was a boring Vegas lounge act, garnering the most applause when he pretended to hang himself with his sax strap, and one time it was almost not a joke. Occasionally he remembers the proper use of the instrument and its ideological purpose of propping up the universe. He lives in Easton but comes to Philly in order to fall off ladders at his Spring Garden House.
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Thursday is gonna be nuts... three art openings I gotta make it to. Who wants to party hop?
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THURSDAY 11/19: My sculpture "Portrait of the Artist: Monster in a Closet" (AKA driftwood lady legs) has been accepted into the student show. Juried by Caroline Lathan-Stiefel The reception is this Thursday, there will be an open bar, it's free, and there will most likely be after parties. Come!
Annual Student Juried Exhibition
Center for the Arts Gallery
Friday, November 20 – Saturday, December 12
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 19, 7:30 – 9 p.m.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Closed for Thanksgiving Break: Wednesday, November 25 – Saturday, November 28
The annual undergraduate juried exhibition features student works that represent the art + design programs, including painting, sculpture, graphic design, illustration, crafts, metalworking/jewelry, ceramics, digital art and design, photography and printmaking.
Admission is free.
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THURSDAY 11/19: Opening Reception for Vince Valerio's show at The Storage Space, featuring my sculpture "The New American Totem" 7:30. Free!
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THURSDAY 11/19: Opening reception for "Ambiguous Bodies," curated by Laura Amussen. This is gonna be a great show!
"The human body can be interpreted in diverse ways. In the exhibition Ambiguous Bodies, 10 artists employ the idea of ambiguity, dismantling notions of the classical and the ideal form, while simultaneously broadening the scope of the human form to include differences of beauty, race, sexuality, and gender."
Fill a wax cup with Bondo, and add a dash of fiberglass resin to make it thinner. Knead the Bondo's tube of red catalyst till it's no longer watery, then squeeze some into your cup and mix thoroughly. The chemicals will not begin to react until you add catalyst. The Bondo should be light pink- if it's too light, add more. If it's too dark, it'll kick really fast and you'll have very little pot time.
Paint the Bondo mix all around the mold, avoiding air bubbles. Push the Bond to the lip of the mold, but be careful to keep the sides clean. When it starts to kick, the chemicals heat up. Let it set for 30mins, or till it's dry to the touch. Wash all tools in acetone. Cut up fiberglass matte into squares of different sizes, and have them ready and on hand. Wear gloves and sleeves... Fiberglass will make you itch all day if the fibers get in your skin.
Et voila, I've got a body! It's lightweight, weatherproof, and super strong. It needs sanding, patching, and painting still, but I'm over the hump.
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Special thanks to Willa Fan, who curated the show my paintings are currently hanging in. Though it's not a big show, it's garnered me some publicity- my site traffic is up 65%, and that doesn't hurt! Go check it out!
~Upcoming Events~
10/15/09- Moaning Pipe Cabaret this Thursday 6:30-8. I'll be playing music! Ukazoo Books on Dulaney Valley Road, Towson. No cover, free coffee!
10/16/09- Glassblowing this Friday 6-11 @ McFadden Glass Art on Eastern Ave Baltimore. I'll be blowing glass! Live glassblowing demos, drink specials, no cover, free parking.
10/17-09- Glitterama this Saturday @ Creative Alliance, shows at 7 and 1o. $12 for all the burlesque you can handle! The King of Kitsch, your well-greased host, Greggy Glitterati, brings you both the beauteous and the nutty in an evening of wonderment. The luscious Lena Grove of Gilded Lily. The titillating boylesque of Paco Fish. The socially-conscious puppetry of Sibelius and The Cause Company. Comedic burlesque babe, Ms. Shortstax. The death-defying trapeze of Nicollete Le Fay. Ms Malibu, the fiery mistress of Tiny Hats! The Living Balloons of the immaculate Poptarts! And laying the beats beneath the bumps, DJ Wachsentush!
Hope to see you there!
So, I tore the foamcore off the sides of my set plaster, used a rasp on the surface to make it nice and level so it sits soundly, and carefully flipped it over to reveal the clay beneath. Then it's time to dig all that hard work out of the mold... destroying the model is pretty fun though. My feet are in the image below, for a sense of scale.
Once the clay is all gone, I spent a while cleaning the inside of the mold with water and a paintbrush. Any residue left inside will end up on the casting, so I want it as clean as possible. I discovered a crap load of little airbubbles in the plaster... this is gonna be a pain later. That means that for every little hole in the plaster there will be a little bubbly wart on my casting that I'll have to grind down. Ah well, better luck next time. My splatter coat was probably a little too thick.
Once it's good and clean, I left it in the oven at 250*F for about 5 hours to dry it out. The thicker the mold, the longer the bake time. It probably could have used 7 hours. The plaster needs to be bone dry before moving on to the next step- it should be ready by Monday night.
The Sculpture 1 class is learning how to cast in fiberglass, and I'll be using this mold to teach them via demo on Tuesday morning. I'll try to get pictures of the actual casting process, but if I can't, there are a few here.
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Tomorrow I'm hanging a show on campus in Registration to benefit their ongoing Diversity themed art show.
My work will be up from 10/9-10/16
if you're around and want to see it. I had to write up a quick artist statement for the labels:
I am a sculptor, and I’ve been creating art and art objects my whole life. I’ve been trained in formal painting since high school, and have over the past few years begun to explore space in three dimensions. Now I try to combine drawing and sculpture by creating textures on the surface of my work reminiscent of painting, particularly in the stroke of Jackson Pollock.
My painting is highly process oriented and expressionistic; I am interested in the juxtaposition between action and reaction, or rather, cause and consequence. These abstract paintings are created in under an hour with no prior planning, which is why many of these works are painted on found materials such as cardboard and wood. There are no sketches, no pre-existing concepts, only the intention to express myself as quickly and as clearly as I can in a visual medium. There is no better way to describe the way I was feeling in a specific moment; these abstractions are my captured emotions.
In my sculpture, I am interested in investigating identity. I come from mixed cultural backgrounds and it's hard to find my own personal identity in any particular culture, especially in this American "melting pot." By blending the visual identities of multiple other cultures with America’s trite modern aesthetic in my art, I hope to create a facade of personal identity that is cultural, sexual, and religious. This mix of ideas creates a realistic combination of identity and hopefully offers the viewer a glimpse into someone else's world.
