tamara gonzales

lael marshall

laelmarshall.com

james fowler

 

roadsidescholar.com/lets-chat-james-fowler-abstract-art/

allison schulnik's 'mound'

Mound by Allison Schulnik from garaco taco on Vimeo.

she is also an awesome painter

seymour @
altarofglib.blogspot.com/2009/08/allison-schulnik.html
an
newamericanpaintings.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/piled-up-qa-with-allison-schulnik/

Bjork interviews Arvo Part

dana schutz

 self portrait

 

 I wanted the subject matter to look like it could be rearranged — a scene that could be reconstructed, or a picture that could disassemble or blow away. Something kind of jumpy and active, but not a mechanical, op-art thing.

 I was looking at a lot of Jasper Johns; he has some really weird spatial things going on. Magritte, too. Another person I was looking at a lot was Dubuffet especially his patterned drawings. And just for his palette, which is fantastic, Kees Van Dongen.

 I love the Amy Sillman show and the Charline Von Heyl show across the street. They are so different from each other. Amy’s is so physical it gets right up on you. Charline’s show is stop-and-go, like mental and painterly karate. I like the idea that a painting wants something from you, to be your friend or to kill you.

dana's quotes taken from
artinfo.com/news/story/34564/what-painting-wants-a-qa-with-dana-schutz/
check out this interview, also
bombsite.com/issues/95/articles/2799

parable of laramie

thedallasartsdistrict.org/events/the-laramie-project

 

twitter.com/ - !/BTWHSPVA

The Laramie Project, a play by Moises Kaufman is being performed by 20 actors from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts at the Brierly Experimental Theater in the Dallas Arts District. They portray over 70 characters, yet never leave the stage. These young chameleons make minimal costume adjustments as they morph from male to female and old to young. In severe wooden chairs, they sit, facing the audience. For over 2 hours, they are court and congregation. Center stage is a plywood rise that resembles a hill or pitcher’s mound.

Or, the Sermon on the Mount, from the first book of the New Testament, Matthew. Which also includes: the 8 Beatitudes and other teachings; and oh, yes, verse 5:9 – blessed are the peacemakers, as they will be called the Children of God.

Matthew Shepard, a young man of slight build – energetic, polite, generous, optimistic - attended the University of Wyoming. A cold, crisp October night, 1998, a little after midnight, looking at the “shimmering lights over Laramie, that he loved”, trying, one last time. Tied to a fence post in the foothills above the town, he had been beaten and tortured, and left to bleed through the night, and on into the day - he lay under a “sky blue sky that you just can’t paint”.

As the brutal killer Aaron McKinney confesses to the crime and the young actor snarls out his ignorant, hate-filled words - chills cross my body as I recall reading these very words over a decade ago. No remorse, no humanity. He and the other killer, Russell Henderson, are sent to prison, which ironically, must be the breeding ground for this inhuman behavior.

Having read so much about this story, I was concerned how the students, all underclassman, would grip the grisly brutal facts, interpret the play, and reach a depth of serious compassion. They are superb and believable. They fill their characters with life, passion, and dignity, and I had to remind myself that they are kids, still looking toward their senior years in high school.

One hanky grabbing moment (for me the most uplifting scene of the play) is the actor describing the homecoming parade in Laramie that fall –

“…at the end was a tag on parade of about 100 people carrying a banner for Matthew, …they did a u-turn and returned through the streets of Laramie, now though, multiplied five fold, …over 500 people had joined…”

and were showing their love for Matthew, along with optimism and hope for bringing about some enlightenment. Oh, did I mention, they killed Matthew “’cause” they “don’t like gays.”

This is a performance that stays with you. Bravo to all the actors, the crew, the faculty and staff, and the parents. We are proud of you, Booker T High School.