We Got the Beat, Sunday Sweet Potatoes...

Nick Cave's Sound suits. His work has been inspiring me as I think about costumes for the street. How do I want to walk around? What noises do I make? Here is a video on him.
As my students at school make costumes, I am enjoying putting myself in the same project space. I watched several Nick Cave soundsuit videos on youtube last night that inspired me and I can't wait to talk about him with the class.



Happy Easter it's Sunday. I've been trying to take a break today and have spent the afternoon at my folks house. My mom made a yummy meal and then I settled into making my Parade Costumes. I don't think my mom quite realized what she had gotten into when she agreed to collaborate with me on the costume. I love it because when I was a little kid my mom made a lot of my clothes. I felt joy going to the fabric store and picking out fabrics for the dress in my mind. It was fashion plates come to life. There were winners and losers in my early designing days, the worst being a dress I remember that was made out of fruit material. Looking back at old pictures, I thought man I look like a fruit basket! Nonetheless its been nurturing today to work on the costume. I am the pattern -fabric cutter, as well as assistant seamstress/iron lady.


Hundreds of Updates!

Parade
~Looks like St. Cecilia's dance troupe will be dancing, I am super excited about this! Thanks Jason for getting them involved.
~Caroline will be walking as color guard.
~Jacqui will be in costume of some sort.
~Corey Escoto is going to make something hopefully as cool as his childhood earth costume.
~I have finished most of my art invites some 20 or more are going out Monday.
~Sleepy Kitty finished the incredible invites they made. Now just time to pass them out let me know if you need some.
~Firecracker Press will be in print made masks they made, they are also passing them out to the public and pre-parade.
~Lyndsey and I went to an art commandos meeting we got our first parade volunteer. My mom has also agreed to help with the route.

Here is an update on Cam's Circus Wagon. He worked all yesterday getting the skeleton built.

*@#$ Still looking for bands of some sort; Emily gave me a lead on Joia whom I will try to contact. I am thinking of send out a general letter to local high schools. Do you know a band -marching/jazz/mariachi? Help me out!

The fun thing is now I am starting to hear about the parade from other people. That's exciting.

We Got the Beat!
One project I am really excited about is Lyndsey and Celia's Foot Beat Brigade. They are forming a choir that will sing classics like the Lions Sleeps Tonight, Lean on Me, Whatever Gets you through the Night, and Cielito Lindo. If you have ever been in Celia's yuletide express I think it has some of that spirit. On our way to the Art Commandos meeting Lyndsey and I practiced some call and response sining (since I didn't know the words to all the songs). I was singing the songs the rest of the weekend. There is nothing like singing oldies with a bunch of friends !
There is a practice tomorrow 5-7 at Camp. I'll post the other dates later.

Chautauqua Art Lab
*=Just Confirmed

Sunday: Group Creativity, impromptu performance, and collective jam: Keith Sawyer Group Genius, New Music Circle, Ghosts I have Been.

Monday: How I Started my Space- local go getters and how they began. *Cranky Yellow, *Firecracker Press, *Open Lot, *Luminary Center, New Music Circle.

Tuesday: Tagging, Blogging, Virtual studios, Youtube as art space, ways to expand personal and collective practices that investigate notions of space, history, and public goods. Michelle and Eric Repice, Sarah Paulsen.

Wednesday: Artist Viewpoints on Innovations and Boundaries of Community Art Practice. Cindy Tower, Lyndsey Scott, *Keith Bucholdz, Peat Wollager.

Thursday: Musical Performance by *Kevin Butterfield of the Linemen; Video shorts/time based art that explore the use of collage, found/appropriated footage, or archives; including films by Ken Brown and Tom Bussmann, *Emily Foster, Mike * Pagano and Emi Hemeyer. Proceeds will benefit CAMP.

Many more to come as we confirm participants! Thanks to Emi Hemeyer for all the hard work.

Also this weekend went to Bruno David to see Brett Williams new animation as well as White Flag to see Gaylen Gerber. Brett is a pretty fantastic artist and down to earth person. His new animation was created with stop motion and then manipulated so that this process is unrecognizeable the end result was a series of graphic forms morphing and undulating in patterns reminiscent of a Rorschach ink blots and atari games. Maybe not atari games in the nostalgic sense but there are simple shapes with complex movements.



I was glad I went to White Flag when no one was there. The subtle space changes by Gaylen Gerber were very effective and even calming. A sensation I don't think I would have experienced at an opening. I was left wondering if he even needed the art on the walls. The guard said that at night it had the sensation of being an underwater disco.