Diving Belle

WHAT AN AWESOME SHOW!!

"March to the Scaffold" by Diving Belle

Despite a brief false start... There's nothing like a full house standing ovation. I wish the video ran a little bit longer. Best audience ever! They didn't even mind my tonsillitis ravaged voice.

Artscape 2009

"The Fortress of Ten Thousand Beautiful Things"
By Alzaruba

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The exterior of the installation, in MICA's Fox Building for Artscape 2009. Plastic bags, featuring two doors with burned children's shoes.

Detail of the doors

The artist, Alzaruba, inside the installation staring up into the vortex he created.

View of the ceiling from the ground. Two stories high. The projector constantly changes color and reflects aquatic patterns onto the ground and floating bags. There was a futon within the Fortress, so guests could lay down and enjoy the colors and wind.

My friends and I loved it! We hung out inside the Fortress for quite a while, staring up at the lights.

Me, wearing one of Alzaruba's Fire Dancer costumes.

Later on that night, at Northscape, I performed in one of these costumes along with several other dancers, hula hoopers, and fire eaters to the live music of Telesma.

Boylesque extrodinare Paco Fish was there too!

Paco's hosting a caberet this Saturday, called "Vive La Decadence!" It's at the Lof/t theatre inside Load of Fun, and will feature all sorts of variety! $10 for all the girls in pasties you can handle. Check it out!

"While it may seem zat Monsieur Paco has been off galavanting about ze globe wizout reason or rhyme, he has actually been seducing (to perform) some incredible new acts zat Baltimore has never seen in a Vive La Decadence before! Plucked down from ze heavens, both LITTLE LUNA and JESUS H. CHRIST will perform! Up and down and zrough and finally out of ze Pyranees, M' Paco has fetched for you LA MALICIA PAJARITA! And from his own beloved heart and home, ze too beautiful to handle, MOURNA HANDFUL!"

...

Photos courtesy Kristen Tull, Noah Belt, and Paco Fish

Artscape!

ARTSCAPE IS THIS WEEKEND!

and it's making me freaking busy.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Artscape, it is America's largest free arts festival, and Baltimore is lucky enough to host it every year. The festival shuts some six city blocks down for three days, and about 100,000 people attend. Seven stages persistently blasting the crowd with live music and performances. Cake is playing this year along side Chinese acrobats and stilt-walkers. There will be music, theatre, food, beer, carnival type stuff, DIY art projects, vendors, art dealers, crafty things, and whatever else you can imagine.

The best part? IT'S ALL FREE!!

>> PLAN YOUR VISIT <<

The best way to do Artscape, in my experience, is to take the lightrail. Park at Falls Road or Timonium, where there's alot of parking, and get a day pass. Ride down to Mt. Royal and have fun!

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So, where can you find me this year?

I'm working with Alzaruba on his Sondheim semi-finalist installation, "The Fortress of Ten Thousand Beautiful Things." It's a three-story wind tunnel made of mostly plastic and mylar. Last night we finished constructing the floor frames, tonight we install and dress them. When completed, it'll look something like this (only totally different):

Interior of Alzaruba's installation at the Whole Gallery's "Off The Wall"

You'll find it in the Fox Building on MICA's campus. The opening is Thursday 6-8, and the installation will be open all weekend.

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Also, I'll be participating in Northscape on Saturday night.

>> CHECK IT OUT <<

It'll take place at Station North Arts on the corner of North Avenue and Charles Street. From Artscape, just cross the bridge past the Charles Street Stage, and you're there! No driving required. I believe it'll be in the empty lot next to Joe Squared and Hour Haus, across from Load of Fun. There will be lots of music and booze to enjoy! Plus, all the galleries around there are having events too.

Six performance areas will feature music acts, fire dancers, clowns, jugglers, stilt walkers, contortionists, visual artists and more. All the performers have donated their time in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. There will also be a misting tent to help beat the summer heat along with food and beer vendors who will also be donating a significant part of their proceeds to help the cause.

Performers on the large stage will include: Soul Cannon, Kathy McCleod, Caleb and Saleem, Reina Williams, The Bellevederes, Loop and Lil, Charlie Sayles, Karter Jaymes, Nerftones, Leisure Icon, Mobtelevision, Greggy Glitterati’s Varity Cavalcade, Claire Hux, Telesma, Yeveto, DJ, Knowledge, Segway and Alzaruba.

Speaking of Alzaruba... I'll be wearing one of his dance costumes for Northscape, and I'll be dancing in it with Telesma at 8:45 Saturday night. It'll look something like this:

If anyone has any questions about Artscape, Northscape, the Sondheim installation or anything else, feel free to email me at

SavannaLeighArt@gmail.com

I'll be down there all three days. Hope to see you!!

2009: A Mental Odyssey

I finally got a chance to sit and watch Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssesy" at home alone in the dark. What a trip. I'd love to see this on the big screen, with rumbling surround sound... Naturally, I was left dazed and confused as the credits slithered by. I immediately dove into the internet for help with my interpretation of this film; I'll need to see it many more times over before I can begin to really grasp at an opinion, but this short video is a good start!

In fine arts, I've always been drawn to works that force involvement upon the audience. What could be more moving than pushing past the voyaristic barrier of art-viewing and into the realm of art-making? Duchamp understood the power of this concept with his final work "Étant Donnés," installed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He simply presents his audience with a door. Many people never venture close enough to investigate- they see a door, they shrug, and move on. There are a few, however, who step up and lay their hands upon it, finding a peep hole which reveals an entire world beyond the border of that door. What's in the peep hole? Everyone reacts differently. Shock, revulsion, laughter, curiosity... What you see is really up to you.

This is what Kubrick was getting at (according to Rob Ager, anyway). Kubrick literally makes the audience participate in the film, presenting them with a monolith and a soundtrack. I'm sure many people watch that final sequence, shrug, and walk away. I'm glad I tried to look beyond that. I let the credits roll till the end, and noticed that there is an additional ten minutes or so of film time that is simply silence on a black screen. Kubrick leaves his audience still staring at that monolith! That monolith of film industry, of subtext, of diverse readings, of anything really.

Clever.

sugar skull

Low relief ceramic. I don't think I ever posted a finished picture of this piece. I've got plans to build a nice framing shelf for it with some sort of dark wood, so it'll hang on the wall pretty as a picture.

Speaking of pictures, my digital camera is still broken. I can only get by for so long with Photobooth... *le sigh*