1A Arts Lead - Centreville Spy

Looking at the Masters: Alyson Shotz

July 13, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

Born in 1964 in Glendale, Arizona, Alyson Shotz is the daughter of a United States Air Force pilot and a teacher. Shotz studied geology and physics, but turned to art, earning a BFA in 1987 from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in 1991 from the University of Washington in Seattle. She moved to New York to begin her career in art. Her work has been influenced by science. She began using photography as her medium, capturing the motion of an object with a series of photographs and putting them together in prints and videos. From 1996, her work has included three-dimensional pieces made of materials such as mirrors, optical lenses, and piano wire. She explores natural phenomena such as space, light, gravity, and patterns found in nature that are invisible to the human eye, and she makes them visible. By 1999, her works received wide notice and approval.

“Mirror Fence” (2002-2014) (138’ x 36”x 4”) (Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY) was made of Starphire glass mirror and aluminum. Starphire glass transmits 5% more visual light than ordinary glass, and it eliminates distortion and altered colors. Sections of the picket fence appear and disappear as visitors walk by, the color changing from day to night and season to season.

“Mirror Fence” was in the company of such well-known sculptures by David Smith, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, Alexander Calder, and Maya Lin. Storm King is an outdoor museum opened in 1960 that contains works by some of the most acclaimed artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

Wave Equation” (2010)

In “Wave Equation” (2010) (120”x144”x117”) (stainless steel wire, silvered glass beads, aluminum) (Nasher Sculpture Center, Indianapolis, IN) Shotz draws on her knowledge of physics: “There are things that I see happen when I’m working with a material that tells me something about gravity, space, force. I’m interested in showing that idea through the artwork.”

Shotz’s sculptures are fascinating; they are large and continually changing. Visitors respond to their beauty and energy, and that is enough. However, appreciation of the ideas that influenced their creation requires some explanation. A wave “is a disturbance that travels through space and matter transferring energy from one place to another. When studying waves, it’s important to remember that they transfer energy, not matter.” (Physics for Kids, duckster.com) “Wave Equation” is constructed of two sets of four aluminum ellipses, connected by shiny piano wire. Cylindrical, mirrored glass beads are attached intermittently to the piano wire. The movement that is generated depicts the rise and fall of gravitational forces. Writer Rebecca Cater describes her observation of “Wave Equation”: “In my 360-degree tour of the sculpture, it is as if the wires are in fact broken, held together by a space of emptiness. Take one more step, and the illusion vanishes.” (DMagazine, November 23, 2010)

“Wave Equation” (detail of bottom)

“Standing Wave” (2010)

“Standing Wave” (2010) (25’ long) is composed of thousands of acrylic dichroic strips that are fastened with tape side-by-side at stepped intervals to the gallery wall. The dichroic acrylic is clear; the surface reacts, reflects, and transmits rays of color depending on the conditions of the gallery and the passage of viewers. The result is an undulating wave of colors.

Dichroic acrylic is made by vaporizing quartz crystals and metallic oxides with an electron beam in a vacuum chamber. The resultant particles condense on the surface of the acrylic sheet, forming a crystal structure. Dichroic comes from Greek meaning “two-colored.” The earliest known example comes from 4th Century Rome in the “Lycurgus Cup” which appears red under normal light, but when a flash photo is taken, the cup is green. In the 1990’s NASA developed dichroic glass for use as mirrors and re-entry tiles on space shuttles. Since then, the ever-changing color of dichroic glass and acrylic have played a major part in jewelry making.

“Entanglement” (2022)

Shotz continues to explore natural phenomena in “Entanglement” (2022) (206”x207”x206”) (165 feet in length) (stainless steel and paint). The sculpture was commissioned by the Billi Tisch Center for the Integrated Sciences at Skidmore College in New York. The 750-pound sculpture is suspended from the ceiling of the atrium of the building. What are entanglements? Shotz explains that “entangled structures are fundamental to DNA proteins, turbulent plasmas, fluid dynamics, and the quantum-mechanical foundations of nature itself. When two particles become entangled, they remain connected even when separated by vast distances. I like to imagine this sculpture as the pathway between two connected particles in space.”

According to Shotz, “Entanglement” explores the idea that a shape can be defined by space rather than mass. There is more space in this sculpture than steel. It also asks, ‘How does perception define the experience of space?’ If you look at the sculpture from only one point of view, it might be difficult to understand, you have to move around it to experience it fully. As your point of view changes and the light changes, the shape itself changes. These concerns flow through all of my work.” In motion, the color will change from gold to green to blue.

The stainless-steel structure was made by MX3D, a process invented by a company in Amsterdam, Netherlands. A robot printed the work in two-to three-foot-long sections by dropping a single drop of molten steel at a time. Paint was applied after the steel frame was completed. The sections were then welded together and installed in the atrium of the Tisch center.

“The Robes of Justitia” (2022)

“The Robes of Justitia” (2022) was commissioned for the ceiling of the Fred D. Thompson Federal Courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee. Justitia was the Roman goddess of justice introduced to the pantheon by emperor Augustus, who reigned from 27 BCE to 14 CE. She was one of the four virtues, often depicted blindfolded and holding scales and a sword. She is the prototype for America’s Lady Justice. Shotz chose to represent her with folds of a classical Roman tunic. The ceiling installation is composed of eight panels containing very small glass mosaic tiles. Each panel is 25 feet wide and 13.5 feet tall. The domed ceiling is 50 feet in diameter. Shotz describes the effect she wanted to create: “In this mosaic the folds of her robe sweep around the central oculus like the wind and space that surrounds us–a metaphor of the protection of justice and the work of the law as it is supposed to be enacted in this country.”

Shotz’s “The Robes of Justitia” was one of the winners of the Honor Award, presented in 2022 by the U.S. General Services Administration for highest achievement in art. The award is presented annually to recognize excellent design in a federal building.

“Density of Air” (2023)

In May 2023, the Academy Art Museum in Easton added “Density of Air” (2023) (144”x59.5”) to the permanent collection. The sculpture consists of thousands of small stainless-steel discs. The work references the mixture of gases and air that expand and compress, but are invisible to the human eye. Stotz stated, “There are things that I see happen when I’m working with a material that tells me something about gravity, space, and force. I’m interested in showing that idea through the artwork.”

“Density of Air” (detail)

Shotz’s work can be found in museums and collections world-wide. Closer to home, her work is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and the Phillips Collection. She continues to explore multiple mediums and new technological break-throughs to advance her knowledge and the viewer’s experience of the unseen but very present phenomena of nature that surround us.

Beverly Hall Smith was a professor of art history for 40 years. Since retiring with her husband Kurt to Chestertown in 2014, she has taught art history classes at WC-ALL. She is also an artist whose work is sometimes in exhibitions at Chestertown RiverArts and she paints sets for the Garfield Center for the Arts.

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Looking at the Masters: Cai Guo-Qiang

July 6, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou, China. His father ran a book store. Cai was able to read widely, including books that would be forbidden under Mao’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1967). Then Cai had to help his father burn books. He received a BFA (1985) in set design from the Shanghai Drama Institute. He began making gunpowder drawings in1984. Why gunpowder? Quanzhou was located across the straits that separated mainland China from Taiwan. Cai recalled, “I grew up with gunpowder. They (Chinese Nationalist) were always bombing us and we them. It was a part of my life.” Fireworks also were and are a part of every Chinese festival.

Primeval Fireball (1991)

Primeval Fireball (1991) (exhibition in Tokyo) includes several gunpowder drawings from The Projects for Projects series exhibit. Each piece is titled and falls into Cai’s category of Projects for Extraterrestrials. Cai perfected the technique of spreading paper on the floor, sprinkling gunpowder as desired, placing a second sheet of paper on top to control the fire, and igniting it. Over time, he developed great control over the process and added colored gunpowder that was used in fireworks.

“Project to Extend the Great Wall of China by 10,000 Meter” (1993)

“Project to Extend the Great Wall of China by 10,000 Meters” (1993) is No. 10, and it is the first large work from Cai’s Project for Extraterrestrials. Charges were placed across 6.2 miles of the Gobi Desert at the western end of the Great Wall. Small charges were placed 1.86 miles apart, and larger charges .62 miles apart. At dusk on February 27, 1993, the first charge was ignited and the remaining fired in sequence over a period of fifteen minutes. Forty thousand residents and tourists witnessed the performance.

“Transient Rainbow” (2002)

“Transient Rainbow” (2002), a performance on the East River on June 29, 2002, in New York City was sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art. One thousand, three-inch, multi-colored peony fireworks were fitted with computer chips. They were set off at 9:30 PM. The “Transient Rainbow” lasted 15 seconds.

“Footprints of History” (2008)

“Footprints of History” (2008) was Cai’s spectacular firework display over the Bird Cage Stadium at the Beijing Olympics. Twenty-nine footsteps were set off in sequence. They extended 9 ½ miles from Tiananmen Square to the Olympic Stadium and lasted 63 seconds.

“Fallen Blossoms” (2009)

In 2009 the Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibited of Cai’s gunpowder drawings to honor Anne d’Harnoncourt, the director of the museum who died unexpectedly in June 2008. The exhibition opened on December 11, 2009, with “Fallen Blossoms” (2009) (60’ x 85’), an explosion in front of the façade of the Museum. It was intended as a gift to the City and was witnessed by a large audience. The blossom was made of fuses placed on a metal net attached to a scaffold. The title was taken from a Chinese proverb that references the great loss experienced when a life is cut short. Anne d’Harnonocourt was sixty-four years old when she died.

“Fallen Blossoms” (second image)

Cai has received many awards and honors, among them the Praemium Imperiale (2012) that recognizes lifetime achievement in the arts, a category not covered by the Nobel Prize. He also received the first United States Department of State Medal of Arts for commitment to international cultural exchange. Although Cai lives in New York City, his works are commissioned internationally. His works deal with such human issues as climate change, the pandemic, increased national conflicts, and materialism.

“Remembrance” (2014)

“Remembrance” (2014) is the fireworks component of a larger Cai exhibition titled The Ninth Wave, held at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai. It is China’s first contemporary art museum, opened in 2012. The $64 million cost of the Museum, was paid for the by Shanghai government. The Power Station is located on the Huangpu River, and “Remembrance” was performed from a long barge.

“Black Wave” (2023)

“Black Wave” (2023) is the first phase of When the Sky Blossoms with Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) (2023). It was performed on Yotsukura Beach in Iwaki City, Japan, to recognize and remember the destruction caused by the earthquake and tsunami that took place there in 2011. The first sequence titled “Black Wave” was to recall and remember the pain of the past.

Memorial Monument” (2023)

“Memorial Monument” (2023), the second phase, recognizes the loss suffered during the earthquake and tsunami, the COVID pandemic, and wars.

“When the Sky Blossoms with Sakura” (2023) was the third phase of the performance that filled the sky with beautiful pink blossoms. The cherry blossom is the unofficial flower of Japan, and the Cherry Blossom Festival is an annual event in Japan. Cherry blossoms are symbols of spring and renewal of life; the festival it is a time for family and friends, for joy, and for renewed vitality. Cherry blossoms last only two weeks. Their arrival is time for great joy and reflection.

The entire performance lasted thirty minutes. Forty thousand choreographed fireworks were launched from the water. The display was 1312 feet wide and 427 feet high. On the day of the event, June 26, 2023, Cai commented on the significance of the work: “Thank you to the beautiful sea and sky of Yotsukura, and the rare cooperation and companionship of the sound of the wind and waves in this worrisome June…Mankind today is facing various challenges such as coexisting with the pandemic, economic decline, deglobalization, and increased national and cultural conflicts. Through the sakura in the sky, I was expressing the story of the friendship between the people of Iwaki and me, which transcends politics and history, and I hope that the artwork will inspire the world with faith and hope.”

Cherry Trees, Iwaki Manbon Sakura Project (2015)

Cai lived in Iwaki, Japan from 1986 to 1994, and he had many friends. His first major performance in Japan in 1994 was in this Iwaki location. The Sakura blooming in the sky echoes the initiative in 2015 by Cai and his friends, who called themselves “10,000” (the many or infinite), to create the Project to Plant Ten Thousand Cherry Blossom Trees.

“From gunpowder, from its very essence, you can see so much of the power of the universe—how we came to be. You can express these grand ideas about the cosmos. But at the same time, we live in the world where explosions Kill people, and then you have this other immediate context for the work.”

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Good News: Baltimore Symphony’s Return Homecoming to the Shore

July 4, 2023 by Steve Parks 1 Comment

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as part of its Music for Maryland summer touring season, returns to Chesapeake College’s Todd Performing Arts Center for the first time since 2016.

The Music for Maryland series opens July 8 with a concert at Harford Community College’s APG Federal Credit Union Arena, then makes its first Eastern Shore appearance at Elkton High School auditorium on July 21 with a program leading off with Mozart’s “Magic Flute” Overture.

The Chesapeake College concert, the first since Marin Alsop, now the BSO music director emeritus, conducted the orchestra in its 100th anniversary season with a program of the classic of classics, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”), and the Oboe Concerto by Christopher Rouse, then still a living composer. (He died in 2019.)

For nearly two decades to that time, the BSO had played at Chesapeake College every year until interrupted by scheduling cutbacks, in part due to lengthy contract negotiations with its musicians, the emergence of the Delmarva’s own Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and later by COVID restrictions.

This makes the July 29th Wye Mills 29 concert an on-the-road return homecoming for the BSO. Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser conducts a repertoire beginning with Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance, Op. 72, No. 7 in C major, followed by the third movement of belatedly celebrated African-American composer Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1, followed by Tchaikovsky’s Waltz from “Eugene Onegin,” Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances, Piazzolla’s “Summer” from “Four Seasons in Buenos Aires” and capped by the rousing fourth movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.

The Music for Maryland BSO tour covers nine of the state’s 23 counties representing every geographic region from the Shore to St. Mary’s in southern Maryland on Aug. 5, with the finale in mountainous Garrett County on Aug. 6.

By the way, tickets are a Pay-What-You-Wish bargain or a suggested $10 donation. The concert starts at 730 PM.

bsomusic.org/events

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Looking at the Masters: Giuseppe De Nittis

June 29, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

America’s Kentucky Derby on May 6, Preakness on May 25, and Belmont Stakes on June10 have been run for the year 2023. England’s Royal Ascot was run from June 20 through June 24. One other world class European horse race in 2023, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, will run during the first week of October at Longchamps race course in Paris. Longchamps, Paris’s most prestigious course, was built in 1857 on top of the ruins of an abbey that was destroyed during the French Revolution. Emperor Napoleon III and his wife Eugenie attended the first race at Longchamps on Sunday, April 27, 1857.

The Races at Longchamps from the Grandstand” (1883)

Both artists Manet and Degas painted the races at Longchamps, concentrating on the horses and the track. The Italian artist Giuseppe De Nittis (1846-1884) was more interested in the crowds of people who attended races. In “The Races at Longchamps from the Grandstand” (1883) (39”x48’’) De Nittis devoted two-thirds of the canvas to a view of the race from the top of the grandstand down to the track. He created several diagonals in the composition: people seated in the grandstand, people standing on the ground by the rails, a stretch of dirt track with horses working out, and the crowd behind the rail on the opposite side of the track. The diagonals are enclosed by the dark roof over the grandstand.

Gentlemen in top hats and dark suits escort women wearing black dresses and a variety of black hats. Here and there he injects a dash of orange and red, picking up the color of the horses, and the orange fall foliage in the distance. De Nittis uses a light-yellow color to shine light on the manicured ground where some yellow chairs have been provided for the crowd. The track and the crowd standing beyond the rail are composed of a combination of yellows and orange-browns. Pops of white appear in shirt collars, pale skin, jockey silks, two tents, a white tower, and a few houses in the distance. White clouds complete the color palette.

De Nittis was born in Barletta, a port city on the Adriatic on the west coast of Italy. He began art lessons at an early age in Naples, where he was admitted to the Realis Institution de Bella Art. He was expelled in1863 because he had opinions and spoke his mind. He said, “I became my own sole master.” He moved to Paris in 1868 where he became friends with Manet and Degas.

“In the Shade of the Trees on the Racecourse” (1874)

Degas invited De Nittis to show his work with the Impressionists in their first exhibition in 1874. He was the only Italian artist invited. De Nittis is frequently listed with the Impressionists. However, he employed only some of the Impressionists’ style while maintaining a strong traditional realist style. De Nittis’s “In the Shade of the Trees on the Racecourse” (1874) illustrates these two styles. Like the Impressionists he was a plein-air painter. While Impressionists decided to use only the colors of the rainbow, De Nittis continued to employ black, and he did not use the colors of the rainbow to create shadows. The elegant top hat and suit are highlighted with grays, as is the shadow on the white collar. The lady’s lovely blue and white striped dress does not contain any orange or yellow to create highlights; the traditional white and gray are used. However, the dapples of sunlight visible through the trees and the leaves, are mere splotches of paint.

Like the Impressionists, De Nittis painted outdoors and used a shorter brush stroke to paint objects in the distance. Most like the Impressionists, De Nittis was interested in painting scenes of modern life: racetracks, strollers on boulevards or boating on rivers, and the bourgeois middle-class enjoying life’s pleasures. This painting is also called “The Flirtation,” a delightful scene of people enjoying a sunny day, prancing horses, and fashionably dressed ladies strolling under parasols. De Nittis’s paintings were in great demand. His work sold well, causing some criticism by both French and Italian artists who called his work commercial and superficial.

“Return from the Races” (1875)

“Return from the Races” (1875) (23’’x45’’) (Philadelphia Museum of Art) depicts the bourgeoise sitting at outdoor tables and chairs, under the shade of leafy trees on a sunny afternoon. Horse-drawn carriages pass by on the way home from the race. Continuing to employ many black and white images, De Nittis included a wider palette of yellow, pink, tan, bright green, and light greens. The bark and fall foliage of the trees, more loosely and colorfully painted, stand out against a light blue sky with puffy white clouds. The shadows at the bottom of the clouds are an Impressionistic light purple. The more distant group of people is suggested by dabs and dots of paint. This work is part realism and part Impressionism.

“Lady Walking her Dog” (1878)

“Lady Walking her Dog” (1878), also titled “The Return from the Races,” singles out one of the fashionably dressed ladies De Nittis often depicted. She is beautiful and self-assured. Her outfit consists of a black hat that smartly but suggestively veils her face. The collar of her coat flares out in in three tiers, and her sheer black scarf is tied in a bow. Five pairs of shiny black buttons close her belted coat. Light gray leather gloves complete her outfit. This is a fashion statement. Also making a statement is the large golden-brown mastiff that she holds by the collar with her right hand, and the small whip she holds in her left hand. The people and the city in the background to the left and right of her head, serve only to highlight her face, not calling attention to themselves. This De Nittis painting was exhibited at the 1878 World Expo in Paris.

De Nittis was immensely popular and sociable in his time. Among the several exhibitions he participated in was the 1876 Universal Exposition, where he exhibited 20 paintings and won a gold medal. That year he also was made a member of the French Legion of Honor. He frequently traveled between Paris and London where he continued to chronicle the middle-class in front of the two cities’ signature sights. He and his wife Leontine held one of Paris’s most lively salons at their home. The walls were covered with paintings by Corot, Degas, Manet, Monet, and Japanese woodcuts. Guests included such famous writers as Alexander Dumas, Guy de Maupassant, Oscar Wilde, Emil Zola, Edmond Goncourt, who wrote the Dictionary of Art History, and luminaries such as Princess Matilda Bonaparte. Meals were cooked by De Nittis, who was proud both of his art and his cooking.

De Nittis postage stamp (1984)

De Nittis died in Paris at age 38 from a stroke. A major retrospective of his work was held at The Galerie Bernheim Jeune in Paris in 1886. His work was featured at the Venice Biennale in 1901, 1914, and 1928. The Italian government issued the De Nittis postage stamp (1984) featuring the third section of his triptych “Le Course al Bois De Boulogne” (Longchamps) as a part of the Italian art series. The Impressionist artists such as Monet, Renoir, and Degas remain well-known, but De Nittis’s name has fallen by the wayside. The exhibition Small wonder: the forgotten art of Giuseppe de Nittis in New York in 1995 brought attention to his work.

The exhibition titled An Italian Impressionist in Paris: Giuseppe de Nittis, from November to February 2023, at The Phillips collection in Washington, D.C., continues to bring him well-deserved recognition.

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Looking at the Masters: Honeysuckle and Woodpeckers

June 22, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

Honeysuckle is the birth flower for the month of June. In Native American cultures the woodpecker is the spirit animal for the period of June 21 through July 21. As Europe began to explore the world beyond its borders, interest developed in the plants and animals in far off lands. The Renaissance saw the development of zoos and botanical gardens along with the sciences of zoology and biology. Artists, both women and men, were called upon to draw detailed images for publication in catalogs. Many of these artists are not well known, but their images are remarkable.

Honeysuckle (1935)

“Honeysuckle” (6”x7’’) (1935) is a colored woodcut by the English artist Mabel Allington Royds (1874-1941). It is the flower for people born in the month of June, and it represents sweetness, happiness, affection, and love. Like many women artists, Royds was popular in her time, but she did not make it into the art history lexicon. Her talents were recognized early, and she was awarded at the age of fifteen a scholarship to the Royal Academy in London. She instead chose to enroll in the equally prestigious Slade School of Art in London. Later she traveled to Paris to train with noted printmaker and painter Walter Sickert. She taught art at Havergal College in Toronto, then she relocated to Scotland in1911 to teach at the Edinburgh College of Art. At that time, she began to make color woodcuts in the style of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. Royds married in1913, and she traveled extensively with her husband in India. Her first popular woodcuts were of people and places in India.

Royds and her husband returned to Edinburgh, and they continued to teach at the College of Art. From 1933 until 1938, she changed her subject matter to flowers. She developed her own technique, using powdered color in a readymade medium, rather than rice flour paste to support the color, as used by the Japanese. “Honeysuckle” illustrates the intense color achieved by this method. Two fully-opened honeysuckle blossoms show the unique features of the blossom. For hundreds of years, children and adults have pulled one of the yellow trumpet-shaped flowers from the center and sucked a drop of the sugary sweet nectar. The flowers have a sweet aroma that is attractive to people, bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies. The bright green leaves are paired, creating the symbol of affection and love. Honeysuckle was often found in wedding bouquets to represent happiness.

Madame Charlotte de la Tour’s The Language of Flowers (1819) was the first popular book to collect information about the symbolism of flowers from different time periods and cultures. There are two flowers for each month; June’s other flower is the rose. Numerous well-known artists have painted roses, a topic for future discussion. The Language of Flowers tells the history of honeysuckle going back to China where it was valued for its sweet nectar and beautiful flower as well as for its medicinal uses for a wide variety of ailments. It is an edible flower, and its sweet nectar is used in perfumes. In 4th Century Ireland, Druids carved a series of parallel lines on upright stones and tree trunks as a symbol of honeysuckle. The symbol was to commemorate a person, and meant one should follow one’s own path. It was intended to attract the sweetness of life. In Victorian England, planting honeysuckle by the entrance door brought good luck and stopped evil from entering.

“Honeysuckle” (1883)

‘Honeysuckle” (1883) (wallpaper) was one of the first designs by May Morris during her early years working for her father William Morris in his still famous Morris & Co. in England. “Honeysuckle” was one of her most successful, long-lasting, and well-selling patterns. Like the plant that grows well on trellises, the brown branches intertwine across the surface of the pattern. Light and dark green leaves appear in pairs. Morris designed the wallpaper using the most common honeysuckle vine. Each blossom lives about three days, and turns from white to yellow. The twining of the branches and flowers as they climb and cling to posts and walls symbolizes nurturing, protection, loyalty, and formation of strong bonds.

“Ivory-billed Woodpecker” (1731)

John James Audubon is the name that one thinks of when illustrations of American birds are discussed. However, “Ivory-billed Woodpecker” (1731) (etching) by Mark Catesby (1683-1749) of London is one of 220 etchings of the birds, mammals, plants, and others from his trips to America and the Bahamas in 1712 and 1722. Catesby’s etching clearly depicts the distinct characteristics of the ivory-billed woodpecker: black feathers, a notable long ivory beak, yellow eyes, a crest of red feathers on the male, a pattern of white feathers on its head, white feathers trailing down its back into the tail, and remarkable large talons made for climbing trees. Catesby has included acorns; nuts and berries are food for woodpeckers. However, his accuracy fails here, as frequently happened, when he randomly picked foliage from his many drawings of birds, plants, and other animals.

“Red-headed Woodpecker” (1840-44)

John James Audubon (1785-1851) depicts in “Red-headed Woodpecker” (1840-44) (10”x6.5’’) (lithograph) some of the characteristics of woodpeckers that are significant to their symbolism. They are committed, kind, and nurturing. Woodpeckers mate for life, and both the male and female create the nest, taking turns to peck a hole in the tree. They are considered creative because of the way they create their nest. They do not go back to the nest once it is used, leaving it for other birds to use. Other characteristics are their tenacity in making the nest, their intuition in finding insects for food hidden in trees, and their ability to balance on the bark or trees.

Their pecking, like drumming, is thought to be communication between humans and the spirit world. The brilliant red feathers of the male crest are used by shaman in their rituals. Their pecking indicates their ability to be good communicators and thus good listeners. To hear pecking is considered an awakening, an opportunity is knocking, a call to find a new path, to keep moving forward, or to seize the moment. In ancient Rome the woodpecker was sacred to Mars, the god of war, and was associated with augury. Native Americans and other cultures, such as the Chinese, consider seeing a woodpecker very good luck.

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Looking at the Masters: Keith Haring

June 15, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

Keith Allen Haring (1958-1990) was born in Reading and raised in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. He was the son of an engineer and amateur cartoonist. Growing up with Disney cartoons and Dr. Seuss, Haring loved cartoons and began drawing them at an early age. After graduating from high school, he began to study commercial art, but he decided it was not for him. He moved to the Lower East Side of New York City in 1978 to attend the School of Visual Arts. The New York art scene was flourishing. He joined this thriving art community and became friends with artists such as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Keith Haring in a New York subway station (1980-1985)

His first drawings were on the matte black spaces between advertisements in the New York City subway stations. He said they were “a perfect place to draw.” From 1980 to 1985, using white chalk, he made over 5000 drawings. He developed several personal iconic images. A significant icon was “Radiant Baby.” Four babies crawl across the bottom of the drawing, and in the center of the heart-shaped head of an androgenous dancing figure is a “radiant baby.” The baby radiates lines of positive energy. For Haring, the baby was “the purest and most positive experience of human existence.”

The radiant heart and dancing figure were influenced by the booming New York club scene, particularly Danceteria (1979-1986), where performers such as Madonna, Billy Idol, and Cyndi Lauper got their start. Positive energy lines radiate from everything and represent freedom, spontaneity, and joy. Haring stated, “I am becoming much more aware of movement. The importance of movement is intensified when a painting becomes a performance. The performance (the act of painting) becomes as important as the resulting painting.” His subway art was a performance of sorts because people often stopped and asked him questions: “I was always totally amazed that the people I would meet while I was doing them were really, really concerned with what they meant. The first thing anyone asked me, no matter how old, no matter who they were, was what does it mean?” Haring almost never titled his work.

“Keith Haring Drawings, Tony Shafrazi Gallery” (1982)

By 1982, Haring’s hundreds of subway drawings were a major attraction, and he began to make a series of posters to support various messages. For Haring, “Art is nothing if you don’t reach every segment of the people.” Tony Shafrazi, a major art gallery owner in Soho, gave Haring a solo exhibition in 1982. “Keith Haring Drawings, Tony Shafrazi Gallery” was the cover design for the exhibition in Soho. Four crawling babies occupy the center of the poster and are accompanied by a cross in a circle, referencing the various Jesus movements of the 1970’s and 80’s, like the Campus Crusade for Christ and American cult leader Jim Jones whose followers committed mass suicide in Guyana in 1978.

In the lower section of the drawing, barking dogs, are another of Haring’s iconic images. Dogs are generally thought of as “man’s best friend” and are trusted companions. In Haring’s world, discrimination, racism, drugs, AIDS (1981), and Three-Mile Island (1979) became causes for his social activism. Barking dogs were meant to act as warnings to viewers to stop and think of abuses of power present in society. At the top of the drawing, two robust figures lift a radiating third figure into the air. Caution and hope are depicted in the same work.

In 1982, Haring became the first of twelve artists to show his work on the computer-animated billboard in Times Square, New York.

“International Youth Year” (1985)

The United Nations commissioned Haring to design an image to commemorate International Youth Year. His poster of the same name (1985) (11”x 8.5” lithograph) (edition of 1000) contains a brilliant blue figure radiating energy and holding up a globe, another Haring iconic image to represent world peace and unity. This frequently employed image represented his belief in the need for collaboration and positivity in a world faced with numerous global issues.

“Free South Africa” (1985)

“Free South Africa” (1985) (32”x40” lithograph) addresses one of the many critical issues Haring supported with his art. He distributed more than 20,000 posters in New York City in1986 to awaken consciousness about apartheid. In his journal he wrote, “Control is evil. All stories of white men’s ‘expansion’ and ‘colonization’ and ‘domination’ are filled with horrific details of the abuse of power and the misuse of people.”

“Crack is Wack” (1986)

“Crack is Wack” (1986) was Haring’s first major outdoor mural. After trying to help his friend Benny get off crack cocaine, and Benny’s subsequent death, Haring painted this large mural on the wall of an abandoned handball court in Harlem. The large mural features the skull, ribcage, and arms and legs of a skeleton holding on to a burning zero-dollar bill. The crack pipe and the raging and dying figures deliver a strong anti-drug message.

Haring was arrested and faced jail and a fine when The Washington Post, The New York Post, and local people wrote to support the anti-crack image. As a result, Haring was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and paid a $100 fine. The mural was vandalized and had to be painted over. However, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation offered Haring eight sights for repainting the mural. He chose the original location.

Haring voluntarily created from 1982 until 1989 over 50 public works of art many for hospitals, day care centers, and schools. He opened in Soho in1986 Pop Shop, a boutique to sell posters, prints, t-shirts, buttons, magnets, and more. Pop Shop made his art accessible to everyone. Haring said, “I could earn more money if I just painted a few things and jacked up the price. My shop is an extension of what I was doing in the subway stations, breaking down the barriers between high and low art.”

“Ignorance=Fear, Silence=Death” (1989)

As a gay man, he tackled the AIDS epidemic that started in 1981. “Ignorance=Fear, Silence=Death” (1989) is one of many images Haring developed to awaken America to the AIDS crisis. The figures stamp their feet and cover their eyes, ears, and mouth, representing the three monkeys See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil. The images first appeared in a carving on a Japanese temple during the Muromachi period (1336-1573), and it has been in common use world-wide. Haring’s other AIDS related images depict loving couples and promote safe sex.

Haring formed the Keith Haring Foundation in 1989 to perpetuate his “artistic and philanthropic legacy through the preservation and circulation of his artwork and archives by providing grants to children in need and those affected by HIV/AIDS.” (Keith Haring Foundation web-site)

“The Last Rainforest” (1989) (detail)

“The Last Rainforest” (1989) (detail) was one of Haring’s last three paintings. Haring traveled to Brazil frequently with Kenny Scharf and his Brazilian wife. His interest in saving the rainforest was intense. He planned an exhibition of 100 paintings to help create awareness of this environmental disaster. “The Last Rainforest” (72”x 96”) is a dense painting containing multiple colliding figures. Haring iconic images are included with burning, impaled, or roasting figures. Monsters, serpents, smoking guns, and stabbing knives, are woven together with branches of trees.

“The Last Rainforest” (detail) illustrates the density and intensity of the entire painting. In the chaos, there is one peaceful detail: Radiant Baby. This time, the baby sits in the lotus position of the meditating Buddha. Radiant Baby evolved in Haring’s work, coming to represent a warning about nuclear proliferation and the meltdown of nuclear reactors such as those of Three-Mile Island (1979) and Chernobyl (1986). Haring’s warnings were significant in all his work. In this instance Radiant Baby can be interpreted as Haring, knowing he has only a little time left, and has found peace in the chaos of the world. He painted only three of the 100 canvases, working on them as he was dying.

“Tuttomondo” (1989)

“Tuttomondo” (1989) (translation “All the World”) (591 square feet) was painted on the wall of the Church of Sant’ Antonio Abate in Pisa, Italy. In New York, Haring met graduate student Piergiorgio Castellani, who asked Haring to come to Pisa to paint the mural. The mural was painted in one week in mid-June 1989. Its theme is peace and harmony. The mural contains 30 Haring iconic figures, including red and yellow flying angels and dancing and loving people. In the center are a blue figure with a television for a head, another of Haring’s iconic figures, a red mother with a blue baby, and a red barking dog. At the top, a blue dolphin, another iconic figure, rides on the back of a purple figure. The popular image links humans with nature. Blue scissors cut in half the red serpent of evil. Haring stands at the base of the wall.

Haring describes the week-long experience: “Every day there would be more and more people.” Haring later recalled, “When I put my last stroke on the wall, it all seems incredibly Felliniesque. It all seems utterly unreal–beyond anything I had ever experienced before.” This was Haring’s last wall mural.

Keith Haring died from complications of AIDS on February 16, 1990. His memorial service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was attended by over 1000 people.

“I don’t think art is propaganda; it should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.” (Keith Haring)

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Spy Review: Chamber Music Festival’s All-Star Opener by Steve Parks

June 10, 2023 by Steve Parks Leave a Comment

A legendary string quartet known for playing beautiful music together showed that they play just as well with others as the 38th annual Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival opened with a resounding bang, featuring not only chamber gems from the 18th and 19th centuries but also a jazz-like nugget written by a composer born in 1983.

Orion String Quartet, having announced that the upcoming 2023-24 season will be its last, was the guest-star attraction for the “Festival Opening Extravaganza!” The chamber festival’s co-artistic directors, violist Catherine Cho and cellist Marcy Rosen, were joined by Orion’s violinist brothers Daniel and Todd Phillips, violist Steven Tanenbom and cellist Timothy Eddy to perform Brahms’ String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Opus 36 for a dramatic opening night finale.

Orion’s foursome, which has essentially been the “house band” of the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center since 1997, will perform its farewell concert next April at CMS’s Alice Tully Hall home base. Named for the eponymous constellation – Orion has performed practically all the worthy chamber music repertoire since its debut in 1987, including Bartok’s modern String Quartet No. 6 which they will play Sunday on the Ebenezer Theater stage.

The evening got off to a comfortably familiar start with Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, K. 478. Commissioned to write three piano quartets, the last two were canceled because the first was poorly received as it was considered too difficult to play and, perhaps, too challenging for listeners. Now, more than two centuries later, it is considered the first great piano quartet by any composer.

The first movement opens with a booming G-minor clarion call that quickly gives way to a gentle theme in a closely related key – B-flat. This signals a harmonic flux throughout the piece, managed with nimble skill by pianist Robert McDonald. His piano-led change of pace in the second-movement Adante introduces an introspective response by violinist Randall Goosby and violist Natalie Loughran with a tinge of regret in soft undertones by cellist Rosen. But the party mood resumes in the closing Rondo with conversational interplay between cello and violin/viola counterparts.

Next, for something completely different: “Cities of Air” for Flute and String Quartet by 40-year-old Paul Wiancko who also plays cello for Kronos Quartet, known for innovative musical choices. Commissioned by New Mexico’s Music from Angel Fire, the 10-minute piece had to wait a year or so for its debut, due to COVID shutdowns of live performances of everything from ballet to baseball. Tara Helen O’Connor’s flute sings like a bird in the opening notes that settle into more grounded string accompaniment before breaking out into a musical riot of each instrument seemingly on its own – violinists Goosby and Orion’s Daniel Phillips, violist Loughran and cellist Rosen – before concluding with a dreamy disposition while letting out the air, literally, of the flute.

Post-intermission was the Brahms sextet, which famously includes a reference only a musician or music scholar is likely to notice. A woman named Agathe, to whom Johannes was briefly engaged, has her name partially spelled out in consecutive notes, A-G-A-H-E.

The sonata-form first movement with a haunting sound emitted by first violist Tenenbom builds to crisis proportions by the other strings before yielding to the elegant main theme introduced by first violinist Daniel Phillips and repeated by first cellist Eddy. Emotional turmoil marks the second movement with violins (notably that of Todd Phillips) and violas (Cho’s) cry out separately as Rosen’s cello marks the time with minute-hand plucking.

The third-movement Adagio suggests a trance-like state of mind interrupted by an assertive cello duet. A contrapuntal exchange among the violin and viola pairs swells to an inspired melodic resolution of sheer beauty by Orion Quartet and two of the festival’s finest. While still emoting drama tempered by a soothing refrain, the final movement begins and ends with satisfying optimism, as does the evening.

Judging from opening night, this festival – themed as “Cultural Crossings” – is a musical must.

Steve Parks is a retired New York arts critic now living in Easton.

Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival

Six concerts through June 17, with a free open rehearsal,10 a.m. June 14, at the Ebenezer Theater, 17 S. Washington St., Easton. chesapeakemusic.org

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Shore Lit June Notes and Musings by Kerry Folan

June 3, 2023 by Kerry Folan Leave a Comment

On Saturday June 17, the town of Easton will host the second annual Delmarva Pride Festival, and I’m thrilled to announce that Shore Lit will be participating with a Pride Pop-Up Bookshop celebrating queer stories for everyone.

We’re partnering with our friends at The Ivy, the cherished Baltimore bookstore, whose brilliant booksellers have put together a stellar collection of titles with queer and trans themes for you to browse and shop. There is truly something for everyone: romance, sci-fi, memoir, children’s, YA, poetry, literary fiction… you name it.

We’re especially excited that award-winning author and illustrator Elizabeth Lilly will be joining us in the afternoon to chat and sign books! Elizabeth’s work for children deals with the difficulty of understanding and loving yourself: Geraldine is about a lonely giraffe navigating life in a human school, while Let Me Fix You a Plate is about the food and love in her dual Colombian and American cultures. Elizabeth finds pride and joy in her identity as a lesbian, bi-racial, Colombian Latina, and she’s put together a curated capsule featuring some of her own favorite inspiring YA and picture books. Stop by and say hi!

What Else I’m Reading

Book-ban attempts aimed at LGBTQ+ content are soaring: seven out of the American Library Association’s top thirteen most challenged books feature queer stories. Shore Lit stands in defense of literary freedom with PEN America and the ALA, who remind us that banning books is “an attack on every person’s constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore.”

Free people read freely, y’all. So this month I’m making a point to read some of these frequently banned titles (descriptions pulled from the internet):

Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe. ALA Alex Award winner and Stonewall-Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor Book. “Started as a way to explain to the author’s family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity–what it means and how to think about it–for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.”

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. New York Times bestseller. “In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores their childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia.”

Flamer by Mike Curato. Lambda Literary Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature. “It’s the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone’s going through changes―but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. Award-winning author and artist Mike Curato draws on his own experiences in his debut graphic novel.”

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison. ALA Alex Award winner. “For Mike Muñoz, life has been a whole lot of waiting for something to happen. Not too many years out of high school and still doing menial work–and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew–he’s smart enough to know that he’s got to be the one to shake things up if he’s ever going to change his life.”

This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson. Guardian Best Book of the Year. Garden State Teen Book Award Winner. “There’s a long-running joke that after ‘coming out’, a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person should receive a membership card and instruction manual. This book is that instruction manual. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it’s like to grow up LGBT also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums.”

What Else I’m Looking Forward To on the Shore This Month:

Film: Sky Hopinka @ Academy Art Museum, Easton

6:00 Tuesday, June 6

Free

The Native filmmaker and MacArthur Genius will present several of his experimental shorts, followed by a Q&A with Salisbury University professor Dr. Ryan Conrath.

Theater: Alice in Wonderland @ Dorchester Center for the Arts, Cambridge

June 8–11

$15 adults; $10 students, Free for children under 5

Produced and performed entirely by local students, Groove Theater’s Student Lab production of Lewis Carrol’s classic is a family-friendly romp through Wonderland.

Lecture & Concert: Maryland Spirituals Initiative Gospel Concert @ The Avalon Theater, Easton

6:00 Saturday, June 17

$10

This unique Juneteenth celebration will feature artist Ruth Starr Rose’s illustrated collection of African American spirituals, which was lost for nearly a century and just recently rediscovered, with lectures from the Water’s Edge Museum scholars and a gospel choir performance.

Book Fair: Chesapeake Children’s Book Festival @ Talbot County Free Library, Easton

10:00-2:00 Saturday, June 24

Free

More than 20 children’s book authors and illustrators will be at the library to kick off the 2023 Summer Reading Program. The best part: any kiddo who signs up gets a voucher good for one free book from the attending author of their choice.

Shore Lit aims to enhance cultural offerings on the Eastern Shore with free community author events. This newsletter is written by Shore Lit Founder and Director Kerry Folan.

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Looking the the Masters: Calder Circus by Beverly Hall Smith

June 1, 2023 by Beverly Hall Smith Leave a Comment

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania into a family of artists.. His grandfather and father were known for their public sculpture commissions, and his mother was a portrait artist. Alexander, better known as Sandy, started making small sculptures of mixed materials by1902. The first one was an elephant. By age ten, Sandy had a small workshop. However, his parents having experienced the artist life, wanted Sandy to choose another line of work. Sandy graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey with a degree in mechanical engineering. The following inscription was written in his yearbook: “Sandy is evidently always happy, or perhaps up to some joke, for his face is always wrapped up in that same mischievous, juvenile grin. This is certainly the index to the man’s character in this case, for he is one of the best natured fellows there is.”

“Calder Circus” (1926-1931)

Calder held several jobs as a hydraulic engineer, draughtsman, mechanic, and timekeeper at a logging camp. From the camp he wrote home to request paint and brushes to paint the mountain scenery. He started his art studies in 1923 at the Art Students League in New York City. He frequently visited Coney Island, the circus, and the Bronx and Central Park zoos. He began the creation of the “Calder Circus” (1926-1931). Over the next several years the “circus” grew to over 70 miniatures of performers, almost 100 accessories, 30 musical instruments, records, and noisemakers. Eventually the work filled five suitcases. The figures were made of wire, wood, metal, cloth, yarn, cardboard, leather, cloth, string, rubber tubing, corks, buttons, rhinestones, pipe cleaners, bottle caps, and other found objects.

Calder moved back and forth from Paris to New York from 1926 until 1933. He performed the show over 70 times. In Paris his audience included critics, collectors, and artists from the theatre, and literature, including the Parisienne avant-garde, Miro, Duchamp, Cocteau, and Leger. Paris audience members sat on bleachers made from champagne crates, and they ate peanuts. They were given noisemakers to sound when Calder gave the signal. In New York his audience included members of high society. Calder announced the acts in French or English, choreographed all the movement, gave voice to the performers and animals, played music, and created sound effects. The shows were so well received they often lasted for two hours.

At the lower right-side corner of the display is the “Little Clown Trumpeter.” In a performance, Calder would place a balloon in the clowns mouth and then blow through the hose until the balloon burst and knocked over the bearded lady that was placed in front of him. The figures in the middle are a cowboy wearing wooly chaps, a bull made of wire and corks, a cowboy on horseback wearing a red bandana and holding his black hat, and a woman waving an American flag. A street lamp, and a dachshund fill in the left front corner. At the rear, three trapeze artists hold onto the high wire that Calder would vibrate to animate them. In case one should fall, a net was suspended beneath.

“Clown, Camel, Kangaroo”

The clown (10.5’’x7’75’’x5’75’’) is dressed in a long brown coat with arms made of Yarn. Calder would strip off the clown’s clothes in layers until he was dressed in coveralls, and revealed to be a thin wire figure. The camel is a cloth sculpture sewn together and wired for stability (6.5’’x5’75’’x4’25’’). The kangaroo is made from shaped pieces of metal nailed to a wooden base on a wheel. When the kangaroo is pulled by an attached cord its legs appear to move, similar to a child’s pull toy. As a result of the success of his inventions, Calder went to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1927, to meet with a children’s toy manufacturer. They signed a contract for his Action Toys: a hopping kangaroo, a skating bear, and a goldfish that appeared to swim, opening and closing its gills when pulled.

“Monsieur Loyal and Lion Cage”

Standing in the center ring, ringmaster Monsieur Loyal in top hat and tails points to the lion in cage. Out of the cage for a performance, the lion completed a few tricks and then sat on a pedestal. The lion then dropped a few chestnuts as if popping, which were quickly removed. Calder planned to add scent to the performance, but he found musk perfume too expensive and abandoned the idea.

“Elephant and Rider”

Other attractions at the Calder Circus included a sword swallower, Sultan of Senegambia, who threw spears and axes, a belly dancer who gyrated, a horse and chariot, cows, seals, a tightrope act, dogs, and other acts from the circus and the side show. The rider on the elephant appears to an English Kings Guard wearing a bearskin hat and bright red tunic. The elephant has a tube running through its body. In a performance the tube/trunk hung down as if the elephant were drinking water, but when Calder blew into the tube the trunk raised up and spewed out small pieces of paper to give the effect of spaying water.

“Rigoulot, the Strong”

Calder included well-known circus performers in his show. May Wirth, a famous bareback rider from the Barnum and Bailey circus, performed in the center ring. “Rigoulot the Strong” was a popular performer. When Calder loosened the cord, Rigoulot bent forward and picked up the barbell with his wire-hook hands. When the cord was tightened, the figure returned to the upright position and groaned. The figure then proceeded to lift the barbell backward and over his head.

During the run of the “Calder Circus” from1926 to 1931, Calder added a new dimension to the show with a series of figures constructed of wire only (1929). After meeting Piet Mondrian in 1930 and after being introduced to totally abstract art, he wrote a letter to Mondrian stating it was “the shock that converted me. It was like the baby being slapped to make its lungs start working.” It was then that Calder began to work as he said, “Just as one can compose colors, or forms, so one can compose motions.” He began creating his “Mobiles” in 1931.

Calder gave the last performance of the Calder Circus in 1961, for the filming of Le Cirque de Calder by Carlos Vilardebo. The Whitney Museum in New York City raise $1.25 million in 1932 to the purchase the Circus. The work continues on display at the Whitney.

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With a Little Help from the Avalon, Easton Elementary Turns into Living History Museum

May 26, 2023 by Henley Moore Leave a Comment

Easton Elementary School in Easton has brought history to life with a remarkable living history museum in its cafeteria. Spearheaded by fourth-grade teacher Joanna Morris, with the assistance of the Avalon Foundation, students immerse themselves in their chosen historical figures, conducting their own research and biographies of their favorite GOAT.

The Spy spent a few moments with Joanna, her crew of dedicated volunteers, and a cast of famous heros.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the Avalon Foundation please go here.

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