Flowers for Algernon from the 8th graders
Wedge in My World
I want to be smart
I have nuthing more
Dumbness is my curse
Intelligence was my stregth
The operashun was a success
I became smart
But with a price
Genius put a wedge in my life
Inkblots change me
Every blot is a mark of
My ignorance
I don’t care if it hurts
But the pain is great
I am alone
Algernon and I are pressured
To be examples of innovation
We are detorating
I must go away
Life is amazed now
I am now
LOST
BY: IRIS
"SOME LIKE IT HOT" at HistoryMiami
“We’re proud to be the first Miami museum to present the work of these incredible local artists and the street art movement, both pieces of South Florida’s history,” says Stuart Chase, Museum Director and Chief Operating Officer. “Aside from a few pieces sitting in private collections, art of this kind has been conspicuously absent from museums in Miami until now.”
Curated by Brandon Opalka, HistoryMiami presents “Some Like it Hot,” an exhibition highlighting Miami graffiti artists and muralists. Recently, street art has experienced a surge of popularity in Miami and has moved into the realm of fine art.
The work displays the vast variety and the scope of local street art, inspired by the city of Miami and its diverse, complex, and rich cultural landscape.
Artists like Abstrk, Astre 74, Atomik, Bhakti Baxter, Brandon Opalka, Erin Odea, George Sanchez-Calderon, Gustavo Oviedo, Hox, Jeffrey Noble, Luis Berros, Pucho, Tatiana Suarez, and Victor Muniz interpret their city and present who they are as artists within that context.
Post title...
SSC
DORIT CHRYSLER INTERVIEW
When did you discover the Theremin and what made you gravitate toward it?
About ten years ago a friend had a theremin for repair at his house, he demonstrated it to me and I was intrigued!
Rather than the austere approach some theremin players have, you seem to utilise it in a professional yet playful way , sometimes paying homage to sci-fi kitsch, a style more akin to its famous usage in 1950's sci-fi movies, where do you draw you inspiration from for your style?
I appreciate the emotional expressiveness a theremin brings to the
table, I like its humour too, it's drama and its eeriness, mostly the
unique way of laying several layers on top of it, when it creates a
weaving effect that taps into the subconscious.
But yes, I grew up being a huge star trek fan, so I could easily relate to the theremin from its sci-fi angle, it just doesn't stop there, for me the theremin is a serious instrument, even when also used in a light and playful way - different styles, bring it on!
Does Léon Theremin's life interest you - the eccentricity and
innovation? As with Nikola Tesla his life was permeated with a
strangeness and otherness - does the alluring arcane romanticism of this period in scientific discovery permeate your attitude and
approach toward the Theremin? Are there any areas of science that really interest you?
Obviously I want to know what makes things work and the innovative
lives of both Theremin and Tesla are fascinating and inspiring. I
ventured to Belgrade to play right next to a Tesla coil and Tesla's
ashes in a museum carrying his name -I also traced back Theremin's
early life when i was in St. Petersburg, the big question beckons if
those two ever met during their time in NY, the city has many traces
of both of them. To be honest, my strength lies more in history than
physics, but i do like to take a screwdriver in my hand and fix things.
Are there any tweaks or adjustments that you have implemented to a Theremin ,or inventive ways you have discovered of manipulating the Theremin's sound and capability?
It seems to be a big job already to get the intonation right, so i am a
bit conservative when it comes to that, I do enjoy sending the theremin
through different effect boxes though to influence its voicing, some old
guitar effect box that I customized, a line 6 pedal and some
moogerfoogers, then some looping to turn the phonophonic instrument
polyphonic.
Moog music is working on a new Theremin based prototype and i am working with the engineers to customize some of its settings, so that is a big thrill to actually be able to influence the design of an instrument. The
outcome remains to be seen!
What's the most fun or innovative project you have been involved with Theremin wise?
Hard to tell, there have been so many different angles, playing along
and being attacked by dancers, but my favourite was a production by
Philippe Quesne, a big bus filled with an innocent audience drove into a
big hall filled with smoke, as people stumble out of the bus,
disoriented by the fog, the headlights of the bus hit the Thereminist
and the music starts, a setting like swamps in a horror movie, a
Thereminist's wet dream!!
Your collaborations have been excitingly diverse, and as well as
lending melodies and atmosphere to peoples work ,you have also guested with artists with a very abrasive sound - what was it like collaborating with J G Thirwell, and how did that come about?
JG Thirlwell and myself go a while back, we dated for some years and
ave been best friends ever since. One of my first big tours was opening
for foetus, and it influenced me very much, I think, mostly in terms of
showmanship. I know his, as you call it, abrasive sound but I also know
other musical sides of his very eclectic tastes, in general I like the
challenge of finding a way to collaborate even if it does not seem
obvious at first sight, either you like it or not, the theremin has many
faces. I like to rock it and I think it important to involve this
instrument in contemporary sound.
Are you interested in scoring soundtracks for movies and if so
what type of movie would be ideal for you to compose a soundtrack to?
So far I have done music for short movies or licensed songs for
different scenes in tv and movies, but obviously, of course, my
phantasy soundtrack would be for a scary spooky & seductive mad b-movie!
Last year you expanded your sound into seductive electronic pop by collaborating with Anders Trentemøller on the fantastic Avalanche EP, was this a liberating genre for you to work in?
It was a good angle to take, he told me to sing low and his support
gave me the confidence to try some different things. it has been a
great experience and beckons to be followed by an LP.
What's the music scene in New York like now, what places/scenes
can you recommend? How has New York changed over the years since you relocated there?
New York is in constant flux and I don't even know where to begin,
definitely check out concerts at the new rough trade store in
Brooklyn, my personal discovery has been Pioneer works
(pioneerworks.org) in Red Hook Brooklyn, a place for art and
innovation, and i discovered some great things there.
Are there any stories, funny ,bizarre or otherwise you would care
to share with us from all your time as a performer?
About to play a synagogue in Serbia, when the organizers refused the
concert as they had discovered a picture of me with Marilyn Mansion,
the devil as they called him, but my favourite incident is when,
playing in a small eastern European town, an orthodox priest held his
cross not against me but against the theremin as to protect the
audience from its evil, something like this just doesn't happen when
you are a trombonist..
What does 2014 hold for Dorit Chrysler?
Conducting a theremin orchestra, a commission for a soundtrack by MoMA, creating a song each for 10 photographs in an exhibition, working and hopefully finishing my new record and, ideally, being challenged and
surprised along the way.
Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage
Jeffrey Noble
Interview by Heike & Robert Dempster
Photos of Jeffrey Noble by Robert Dempster
Photos of the art provided by Jeffrey Noble
Technically, how would you describe your work?
It is very figurative. It is pluralist, in a way. I identify with things that Donald Judd was doing and even though I don’t work minimalist at all, I sample . Perfect. Because I am part of this generation that has the internet and has access to all this information on all these different art periods I can just go research at the click of a button. I am able to sample whatever I want from whatever period of time. I almost think of myself as a DJ sometimes, flipping through albums, sampling and doing these weird match ups. Lately I have been looking at a lot of Francis Bacon because he had the figurative element as well as that gestural, very abstract expressionistic approach.
How does your process work? How much of the finished piece do you see before you put brush to canvas?
I’d have to say it’s 50/50 for the most part. Sometimes I can visualize a piece and it comes out almost exactly how I had planned. Not even almost exactly but it comes out close. And sometimes works really go off on another tangent and divert from my original idea. For the most part I would say about 50/50. I specifically have been working with referential material. The references that I am using have poor quality or have been run through several filters, like a screenshot taken from a conspiracy video that had sampled a movie clip. I take that and do a photo collage in Photoshop and then I use that as my reference. If it is just a really old, poor quality photograph or something like that, I like using that as a source of reference, because it allows me a lot of opportunity to implement my own artistic vision.
You say 50/50. Do you have a preference for either the ones that you didn’t plan that way or the ones that came out exactly as you had envisioned?
It is kind of just like a case by case basis. I would like them to come out but I do like a certain amount of surprises to happen in the work. If it comes out less like what I have planned, I am totally fine with that. I almost prefer that. I can see that as I grow as an artist I start to allow more and more of that to happen. More chance to be involved in the process. Right now, there is still a pretty good amount of control exercising over the works I think.
You have been traveling a lot since graduation from New World School of the Arts. How did that affect your work? What did you take away from it?
I went to several different places. First, I went off to Texas with the Chinati Foundation, which is a foundation that was set up by Donald Judd, the minimal sculptor. Marfa, Texas. It is in the middle of the desert. It is three hours from anywhere. Being out there in that landscape was very, very different. A very different environment. It was inspiring in a lot of ways. I am really into these mid-century artists like Donald Judd and the minimal sculptors. Especially the work I am working on now doesn’t really have much in common with them. There is something maybe about what they were interested in. Their fascinations. Reading about them. Reading some of Donald Judd’s writings, I could really relate to some of the things that he says. That was just a brief trip. After that I followed by going to Europe and I went through Italy and did Venice, Florence and Rome with my graduating class. Then, I went off on my own afterwards to Berlin, Amsterdam and Vienna, Austria. I have to say, Italy definitely impacted me the most because I was seeing all the historical paintings, sculptures, architecture. All the work of the masters. It is all within the Western canon of art making. It has always been something that I wanted to see in person and I had the chance to. There were some things that I saw and I thought, oh, that’s not as impressive as it is made out to be, and then there were some things I had never even heard of before, that I was completely floored by.
You have to give us examples. What did you see that you expected to be great and it was not and what were you amazed by that you had never heard of?
I gotta say the Sistine Chapel. So much hype around it. The fact that it is a fresco is amazing. He was painting it on his back onto the ceiling, but it is not as impressive. The anatomy is not that tight. A lot of the figures are kind of disproportioned and whatnot. Maybe it has to do with the context in which you are viewing it. It was kind of dark in the room, looking up, and crowded with a lot of people. You kind of have been walking through the entire Vatican already and it is kind of one of the last things you get to. You are crammed in there with a bunch of people like sardines so that doesn’t make it quite as enjoyable, I think. As far as something that I did not know much about that turned out, was the Tintoretto paintings. He has a lot of ceiling pieces in Venice in the Doge’s Palace and whatnot. His paintings are oil paintings so they are done on canvas and then installed on the ceilings so he wasn’t painting them on his back or anything like that, but they are still amazing. I think he was very much ahead of his time and set a precedence for how the work is painted. So much of what he was doing was so gestural. Very implied. I could really take apart the layers of how he was creating these paintings and that’s something I was really, really into viewing as a painter.
What are you currently working on?
I have got too much going on. Right now, I am working on a bunch of projects for a bunch of other people. That’s basically how it goes since graduating school and finishing my student life, for now at least. I have been lucky enough to be working around a lot of art and with other artists, whether that is working for the museums, collections or assisting people. I just came from assisting Typoe. He is one of my best friends and he introduces me to a lot of people. One of the reasons I moved here to Miami.
Where are you from?
I grew up in Melbourne, Florida. 321
Some of your new paintings have a dark aspect. What inspires that?
I am entertained by the fact that I lived through multiple manifestations of apocalyptic fear. We had Y2K where people thought the world was going to end cause the computers were going to crash. Now we have had 2012 where everyone thought the world was going to end because of the Mayan calendar. I love that we constantly think there is going to be an end to this shit. I don’t want to get into my religious or spiritual believes or anything like that but I think that that is a very, very fascinating aspect of life that we constantly have to search for I don’t know. We keep subscribing to this fear that we are going to stop and this is going to end and that something bad is going to happen. I just don’t think that that is something you should concern yourself with but I love concerning myself with the stories surrounding it. It is bizarre.
Could you tells us more about your new series of paintings please?
With these new paintings I am working towards an exhibition. I will have a show at Butter Gallery. We are shooting for mid-April. We have not set a date yet. It is still in the works. Paco of Butter Gallery has been great to work with. He is giving me the freedom of not having a deadline. Even though, most times I work better with a deadline. As I said before, I pick a lot of imagery that is based on poor quality photographs. It allows opportunity for me explore other things in paint. I don’t have to stick so closely to the referential image. The photos for this series are from the late 80s and early 90s. All the images I am choosing are kind of from that period. The images are from a friend of mine back in Melbourne. He is kind of a local legend where I am from. For various reasons. His name is Mike Webber. I used to see him driving around town all the time and you couldn’t miss him because he drives these old beat up trucks and he piles junk in the back of his trucks, taller than the cab. This stuff, you think it is a hazard when you see him driving around. He spray paints all over it and stuff. It is a real eyesore but I love it. I think it looks great. He has got a whole fleet of them. He is just known as the junkman in my town. One time I was painting a wall with Typoe and he pulls up in his truck and he asks is we want to paint his truck. We did some quick graffiti, like our names or something like that, and then he takes off. I bumped into him again after about a month or so and he hands me these photographs he took of the trucks and they had kind of this old quality and I actually held on to them for a couple of years. I was looking for something to work with in one of my painting classes and I found those photographs so I thought, why don’t I paint those trucks? I thought it was kind of interesting, like this inception thing, where I painted the truck and he took a photograph of it, giving it back to me and
then doing a painting of the photograph of what I painted on his truck. I kind of hope that these other references almost function in the same way because they are his photographs that he took in the late 80s and early 90s. It is basically just like the bar and club scene in my hometown of Melbourne. Growing up with older siblings and being around older people, you hear stories about these places like the old Mars Club or Coconuts. I was born in 1987, so I am interested in the climate of that time.
Do you know the people in the photographs?
Some of them yes and some of them no. Many of the people, I have no idea who they are, but some of them, every once in a while, I would be going through his photos and I would be able to recognize someone, like my friend’s dad. That’s kind of cool when that happens. It is funny that you bring that up. I have an image of Moby in 1993. He passed through central Florida and played a show. That was probably before he was big or well known.
Is central Florida in the 80s and 90s the theme for the exhibition?
I guess so. What interests me about this specific time period are the people and technology. My generation has been the first generation that has gown up with the internet. We have access to the web everywhere we go. We grew up with a lot of things, a lot of information, that wasn’t immediately available to generations that preceded us. Growing up in a globalized world. I think that something about that is the reason why I am painting these people from this time. There is a historical stamp that is going to be on that time right there.
Do you even remember a time without cell phones?
I do. I think my interest in this period, too, is because a lot of my peers don’t have the same sort of affinity and understanding for that period. I have siblings that are like 10 years older than me so they were influencing me, turning me on to punk when I was really young and exposing me to a lot of things. For various reasons my mom kind of kept things away from us for a while. I don’t think I got a cell phone until I was a senior in high school. We didn’t have cable TV. We were watching reruns from the antenna of Seinfeld or The Cosby Show. We didn’t have any video games. We were not allowed to play video games. I kind of feel more at home at that time. Am I confusing this with a sense of nostalgia that I might have? Cause that’s another thing I feel my generation is so hung up on, is this nostalgia for things before. Look at what Instagram is. It is a super technically advanced way of communicating and sharing but it is completely rooted in throwing a little filter on a photograph that makes it look old or trendy. We have this really deep nostalgia for things we did not really experience first hand. Look at music. Any music. All this really folky sounding independent stuff. I bet it has something to do with that as well. I paint pictures because I don’t know how to talk about it. But that’s what I was thinking about.
RAMIREZ TRAN
Diamante from 7th graders
BROTHER
Annoying,Cute
Running,Crying,Laughing
Joseph,Baby,Kid,Monster
Loving,Playing,Cheering,
Loud,Sweet
JoJo
By: Josune C.
Friend
Loyal, Reliable
Amusing, Trusting, Caring
Argument, Company, Fan,Connection
Hating, Insulting, Competing
Backstabbing, Oppositional
Enemy
By: Daphne, D.Rhythmic, Harmonious
Motivating, Dancing, Singing
Peace, Vibration, Calm, Excitement
Performing, Connecting, Listening
Thunderous, Attractive
Harmony
-Janet C.
White, Fluffy
Flying, Soaring, Distering
Candy, Marshmallow, Fog, Cotton
Speeding, Slowing, Creating
Smooth, Filled
Clouds
-Michael P.
Freezing, Amusing
Falling, Skiing, Sledding
Swimming, Running, Sweating
Tropical, Undarkened
Summer
Hard, Bouncy
Shoot, Score, Pass
Gym, Court, Player, Basketball
Run, Jump, Sprint
Home, Guest
Stadium
Football
Amusing, Intense
Spinning, Juking, Inviting
Shorts, Padding, Helmets, Penalty
Pitching, Bouncing, Throwing
Aggressive, Engaging
Rugby
-Luis M.
Color
Graphic, Stale
Draw, Paint, Design
Nature, Books, Museums, Galleries
Glimpse, Sell, Buy
Interesting, Creative
Art
-Moises F.
Technology
Unique, Incredible
Runs, Works, Finds
Screen, Keypad, Mouse, Monitor
Searches, Heats, Lags
Slow, Mysterious
Electronics
-Carrey N.
voodooism
Dark, Dreadful
Tricking, Terrifying, Conjuring
Sorcery, Religion, Ritual,Ensorcellment
Dancing, Chanting, Manipulating
Mystifying, Forbidden,
Bewitchment
-Kandice C.
Wolves,
Frightening, Bold
Howling, Eating, Hunting
Coyotes, Foxes, Dogs, Jackals
Running, Attacking, Biting
Powerful, Active
Hunter
-Diana P.Soccer
Fast, Active
Diving, Kicking, Dribbling
Champion, Loser, Team, Corporate
Dunking, Passing, Shooting
Calm, Fit
Basketball
-Ignacio A.
Gym
Amusing, Exciting
Run, Jump, skip
park, bateman, outside, home
jog, walk, climb
crazy, Thrilling
PE
-Kieran M.
Winter
Slipping, Falling, Tripping
Snowman, Snowflake, Snowball, Ice
Throwing, Creating, Waddling
Dangerous, Freezing
Season
By: Coby S.
Post title...
By: Trace Knoerr
The Northlake Christian boy's soccer team had an outstanding season. Although they fell short in the state championship game 3-2 to Lusher Charter, they had many accomplishments. The boy's were the 2013-2014 Copa Acadia champions. They beat 5 top 10 teams in 4a throughout the tournament which was the first time Northlake's men's soccer team has ever done that. They had a season record of 21-3-3 including the playoffs and were ranked 5th in all classifications. Mason Morise, Weston Acosta, Max Miller, Timmy Lopez, Bj Blestel, and Blake Dufrene are the team's only seniors graduating this year. The soccer team is determined to make another appearance in the State Championship game next year.
Past
By: Ben Messina
Most people think of Saint Patrick as a little
leprechaun that wore green and drank beer on his special day. That is not who Saint Patrick was; Saint Patrick's real name was Patricius, and
he was a monk.
As a child, he was abducted from Great Britain
and taken to Ireland to tend sheep for six years. Though he left Ireland, he
eventually came back as a missionary.
Saint Patrick began to establish monasteries throughout Ireland. During his Christian life a a monk, He started a movement that established over 700 monasteries. In these Monasraries people were able to find sanctuary from the barbarians who ruled in the dark ages.
After
many years of spreading the Gospel a violent culture became
civilized.
Present
By: Ruston West
St. Patricks' day is no longer celebrated for religious reasons. In places like New Orleans, it is another major party in the streets whre family and friends get together and have a good time wearing green and gold attending many parades.
According to csmonitor.com, the original color of St. Patrick's Day was blue. The color was then changed to green around the 17th century, because green is found in the country's flag. It has been used by many Irish revolutionary groups since St. Parick's Day was established in the early 1600's.
By: Landon Starkey
& Erika Jarlock
Northlake
Christian's junior class of 2015 will be organizing this year’s prom. The prom
committee is led by Ben Stogner, the dynasty, and other junior class
students. When asked about prom, Stogner
said, "We've got big hopes and expectations for prom this year. Things
seem to be coming along great, so it is just a matter of time before we get it
altogether." Other notable members assisting
with prom development are Isabel Herring and Mrs. Knox. They plan to sell tickets for $30, and the
prom t-shirt will be available for $15 dollars no later than Friday the 28th.
This year’s prom will be held at the
Tchefuncta Country Club inviting students in grades 11-12. The Valentine’s Day
product sales helped fund the prom project. With the money earned, the prom committee
has begun to setup. The theme of this year’s prom is "The City that Never
Sleeps." The committee plans on using some New York style objects to bring
this theme to life.
By: Erika Jarlock
Come along to the Mother Daughter tea on
Sunday, April 6th, 2014! All daughters in grades 4th-12th are invited to bring
their mothers for a delightful afternoon tea. Our guests will be treated with
words of knowledge from guest speaker Abby Shields of No Heart Left Behind
Ministries. There will also be a performance starring Gabby Soong and Erika
Jarlock. After all, what is tea without music? There is a small price of simply
$15.00 per guest to enjoy this wonderful afternoon of mother daughter bonding.
The theme this year revolves around Proverbs 20:15, "Gold there is and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel."
By: Erika Jarlock & Austin Hynes
The wolverine boys’ varsity
basketball team completed another winning season with a record of 18-15. The
boys’ season ended with a first round playoff loss to Rosepine in a hard fought
battle at home.
The team was
led by seniors T.K. Keiffer, Matt Miller, Josh O’Rear, and Riley Risher.
Underclassmen Matt Whelan and Michael Piediscalzo were also large contributors
throughout the year.
Highlights
from the 2013-2014 season include a win on the road vs. 4A Lakeshore, two
victories over Hannan, and a second place finish in district 7-2A.
Coach Sean
Englert, in his second year with the wolverines, stated that he felt good about
the fact that his seniors were able to finish out
there b-ball career without losing to Hannan. Englert also stated that it will
be the team’s goal to continue to make progress next season and to establish
what it means to play basketball at Northlake Christian.
Praises
Of Heaven, Voices Of Men
By: Sarah Agresta
For those who do not know, the seniors of Northlake Christian have been putting on a variety show since 1991. The Variety Show is a very popular tradition at Northlake, which involves the performances of students who are "ham enough", or in this case, "Cajun enough", to show off their talent. It has consisted of singers, dancers, actors, musicians, comedians, and special performances by the current seniors and their parents. There is an elementary show and a high school show so that both the young and old can participate. Not only is the Variety Show an enjoyable experience, it is also an event in which the seniors are honored before they take their next steps into the future.
This year's variety show was titled "The Saturday Night Swamp Stomp" following a theme of Louisiana's finest Cajun atmosphere. It was a stinkin' success. Hosted by the leaders of student council, Riley Risher and Kelsey Binder, the variety show contained many entertaining acts, and the commercials were a hit.
Third place went to the
following members of vocal ensemble: Dominick Vega, Hailey Chow, Anna Jones,
Gabbi Ball, and Lauren Stewart. Junior Elacia Powell was awarded second place
having sang Break Every Chain by
Tasha Cobbs. And last but not least, the winners were Rachel Nix singing The Scientist by Coldplay with Timmy
Lopez on the guitar. "The Saturday Night Swamp Stomp," was a production that will
forever be remembered in Northlake's history of variety shows as well as the
class of 2014.
DAVID VIRGIN INTERVIEW
DAVID VIRGIN
- Landlord Green (1992)
- Virgin & Rumour (2004)
- Dublin 7 (2006)
- Sekret Sekret – Happy Town Sounds (Singles, Live & Rare) (2008)
- Rock N Roll Meditations (2008)
- Posing As A Sodomite (2009)
- International Treasure (2012)
- No Fun Sessions (2013)
- Three Decades of David Virgin (2013)
- David Virgin & The Stanley Knife Brothers - Party Like It's 1899 (2014)
- Boots 'N' Tooths (2014)
Compilations
- Tales From The Australian Underground Vol. 1 (2003)
- Tales From The Australian Underground Vol. 2 (2006)
- The Beardfire Music Cafe Mix Tape (2013)
Singles
- Give it up
- Landlord Green (1992)
- Rock N Roll Man (2008)
- White Trash (2009)
- International Treasure (2012)
When did you start making music?
I started playing music professionally at the age of 15, however I was writing poetry from a very young age. I grew up in a musical family; a big Irish family of 11 children. At parties we all had to sing something, the house was always full of instruments. My older brothers were professional musicians; they played Irish folk music and bluegrass. So I was born into music, and at 15 I was paid to play.
How did The Broken Toys form?
My first real band was The Broken Toys. I had always thought having a real band was out of reach for me, and then punk music came along and allowed the type of expression that I would be capable of and enjoy. The punk scene allowed for all types of people, even people like me. My first band members were just guys I knew, I wrote all the songs - words and music - and played the bass. My brother John played the drums, and we had Andrew Campbell on guitar and vocals and Lyndon Hooper played rhythm guitar. After our first few gigs Lyndon and John were replaced by older guys; Peter Mullany on guitar and Paul Cosgrove on drums. Lyndon and John were too young to be allowed to play late gigs. I was 15, they were younger. I talked my parents into allowing me to live in town (inner city Sydney) with my band so I didn't have to travel home alone on the train at night. We played very often, mainly at The Grand Hotel near Central Station in Sydney.
What was the punk/underground art and music scene like in Sydney, what memories do you have of that time?
Sydney in the late 70’s had a vibrant punk underground music scene. I lived in Darlinghurst and King’s Cross, in those days the housing was cheap and run down. Sydney has a warm climate so as long as you could get something to eat you would survive. We all seemed to have plenty of time to make music and art and do gigs. It seemed like everyone from Australia who didn't fit in anywhere else and was clever came to live in Darlinghurst.
Even though Sydney is a major city, the inner city itself, town, never appeared to have any people in it. Most of town was office buildings or Government buildings, so at night it was like an Omega Man playground for punks. On Sundays you could walk around and see no one in town. In Darlinghurst there were no children just hippies, artists, punks, prostitutes, dancers and people who worked at King’s Cross. Sydney is different now but back then if you couldn't make art in Sydney out of how weird it was, then you weren't an artist.
Out of the Sydney underground came SPK , SPK as well as being abrasive and confrontational, were a very original band. Tell us about how SPK formed...
SPK started with Graeme and Neil. Neil liked my band Broken Toys, he knew I wrote all the songs. He told me that he and Graeme had a band but no songwriter. He asked me to join and play bass and write the songs. Neil was very good with lyrics, so I just wrote the music to go with the
words. Graeme had a machine that he got from the guys from Kraftwerk that you stuck pins in and it created sequenced sounds. I made a rhythm machine from a home organ rhythm box and put it through a fuzz box to make it sound like machines. Danny Rumour played electric guitar. I had worked as a metal press operator in a few factories; I knew what machines were supposed to sound like. So we made music that sounded like machines and Neil wrote lyrics about men and machines. We recorded three or four singles, the songs later ended up on the ‘Auto De Fe’ album.
What did you think of the Industrial culture movement?
I only found out it was a movement later. I was 16 years old. My job in SPK, live and in the studio, was to create a definite atmosphere of man, machine, sex, fright, adrenaline. We did a great job. It was hard work to get normal people like us to create that sound on record and live.
What's the craziest memory you have from an SPK live show?
When we played live no one knew what we were or where the sound was coming from. The guitar didn’t sound like a guitar. When we used our home-made rhythm machine it didn’t sound like drums, it sounded like a machine. Some of the vocals were on tape and some were live. Most of my bass playing was just throbbing sliding, that was the sex bit. The taped vocals were twice as loud as the band, this caused people to run out of the venue in fright. One time everybody ran out because the taped voice was so loud, then all came back in one by one. The only time I was ever hit by a beer can was playing live in SPK, the can was intended for Neil but he ducked.
At what point did you leave SPK and form the Ugly Mirrors, who became Sekret Sekret? Were you also unhappy with the direction SPK were taking?
I was sacked from SPK twice by Neil and re-hired twice by Graeme so I missed one gig and a film clip. Neil and I lived together in Mansion House in Sydney so we knew each other very well. Mansion House is now a posh hotel called The Southern Cross, back then it was full of warehouses and sewing machine sweat-shops. We lived in a warehouse. This was also where SPK rehearsed. The top floors of the building were a run-down, private hotel for derelict men. It was the end of the road for many lost souls.
Neil was a very insecure fella, and he would get jealous and sack me from the band and Graeme would re-hire me. Neil was a nice guy and it’s a shame he died young. The later SPK would have been more interesting if Neil had been in it. Graeme went to London to make a new SPK. He took the singles and used them on later albums. So Neil dying and Graeme going to England was the end of early SPK.
I don’t know much about later SPK but I’m glad they were successful. History has now shown that early SPK was a first of its kind and I’m very proud of that.
Sekret Sekret were successful in the Australian underground , despite only having a ltd amount of releases, although there was not much physical output ,did you play live a lot during this period? What's your best memories of this time?
Danny Rumour and myself formed the Ugly Mirrors which later became Sekret Sekret. Even while we were in SPK we were writing songs and preparing for our new bands. The idea was to have the type of band that could play soft, melodic music and still create intensity equal to, or better than, some of the other live acts around. In the late 70’s the motto was louder, faster, harder and the colour was black. The Ugly Mirrors, and later Sekret Sekret, created a new intensity and our style was soft, melodic and powerful. We would creep into your heart and stay there. We brought colours back into the scene, and as one newspaper wrote; “Paisley is the new black.” With our paisley shirts and creeping soft music we were the first and the best of the neo-psychedelic era bands, The Church, The Hoodoo Gurus, The Go-Betweens and The Triffids followed our lead.
Punk in Sydney continued on at any rate and co-existed with the new psychedelia. Sekret Sekret became a very successful live act, we played very often, sometimes 5 or 6 nights a week. We had a lot of underground hit records. In those days recording was expensive so we didn’t make an album. Now you can buy a Sekret Sekret double album through a company called Feel Presents. I enjoyed having a successful band and being on the radio a lot. For a songwriter, having your songs on the radio is the best thing. Sekret Sekret lasted seven years and was a great ride.
After Sekret Sekret split you embarked on your solo career. Where did you take inspiration from to create your solo sound? Who's been in the David Virgin Band over the years? Has it been a revolving line up? Where have you toured and played in your solo career?
After Sekret Sekret split up I started just using the name David Virgin for my acts. I’ve had many types of bands over the years under David Virgin. In France I had French guys, in Holland I had Dutch guys, in Ireland I had Irish guys. In Australia I would often team up again with Danny Rumour and some other old pals. In ‘91 I made an album called ‘Landlord Green’. The idea was to make nu-folk. It was released only on vinyl and, like everything else I do, it was 20 years too early for anyone to get it. At the time people were saying, “why vinyl?!” and “why nu-folk?!”
I thought it was a good idea, it’s a good album, you can buy the digital version now if you want.
There was a notable gap between your debut solo LP ‘Landlord Green’ and 2004's 'Virgin and Rumour’, were you active musically during this period?
After ‘Landlord Green’ I headed over to Europe to play solo or with bands I could pick up. I lived in the South of France for a while where I played a lot, including four gigs at the famous Rockstore in Montpellier. I settled back in my birthplace of Dublin for a while and created a classic rock band called PIN with my brother John Boy on drums. I wrote a bunch of classic rock songs, played the bass and sang the lead vocals. It was a fun band. We recorded an album and released a single called ‘Tuggin’’. Many of the songs I wrote in that period were released on my classic rock album “International Treasure” which I recorded back in Dublin in 2012. After a few years living in Dublin in the 90’s I went and lived on the North Coast of New South Wales in Australia where I formed a band called Black Train with my old friend Kim McLean. We played cowboy songs and old-timey music. Kim and I had an act back in the late 80’s playing old cowboy songs and old-timey music in pubs around Sydney. It was kind of a hobby; finding old songs, playing them live and doing lot’s of yodelling.
Also in northern NSW I had The David Virgin Group, that was my touring group and locally I played with Jimmy Willing and the Real Gone Hickups as guitarist. The Hickups are a cow-punk, hillbilly band. At the same time as those three acts I played drums in a band called Blurter. Blurter were a wonderful, hard-edged, cabaret act and were very popular and well loved in the area. I was recording a lot then as well so Danny and myself made the ‘Virgin & Rumour’ album up there on the North Coast in 2004. I later released the ‘No Fun Sessions’ volumes 1, 2 and 3 which were all recorded between 2000 and 2005. So for me there was no gap between ‘Landlord Green’ and ‘Virgin & Rumour’. There is no rest for the artist, I’ve written over 2,000 songs since the age of 15, recorded and released as many of them as I could, and have spent a life-time playing honky-tonk bars in different parts of the world. I’ve spent many years in three or four bands at the same time, playing different instruments and different roles.
Onto your more recent releases, David Virgin & The Stanley Knife Brothers is your project feat Both your sons Rohan Healy and Al Quiff , your LP 'Party like its 1899' has a more country and western and hillbilly influence, how did this project come into being and what was your influences? Your New Lp 'Boots and Tooths' came out in Feb, what did you draw upon for inspiration for this LP?
This year I have released a lot of music. David Virgin & The Stanley Knife Brothers...How it all started: I had always wanted to make a good rockabilly record just like the Sam Phillips ‘Sun Sessions’ so I asked my two boys would they help me make a live-round-the-mic Sun Sessions type record. I wanted to use my own songs that sounded like 50’s rockabilly a bit. Then I realised it was going to be really, really hard to do. I was going to have to do a lot of research to find out how early rockabilly players sounded the way they did. So I spent about a year digging deeper and deeper into the origins of blues, jazz and folk. I went down a very deep rabbit hole and sometimes worried for my sanity. The sound I was looking for ended up having nothing to do with jazz, blues or folk music because those styles didn't exist where the essence of what I was looking for was to be found. After all history tells us blues is from 1912, jazz is from 1914 and I found no evidence of the existence of folk music anywhere (I actually like folk music, but I’m pretty sure it was fabricated by academics sometime around the 1940’s or something). What I did find was so called “folk” songs written by actual writers and published by actual publishers on actual sheet music and were not collectively written by anyone, for example, “the folk”. I found the spirit of the Sam Phillips Sun Sessions in sheet music archives, most of the songs written by European immigrants to America.
The spirit of Rock n Roll was born out of the imaginations of songwriters who wrote for minstrel shows from the 1840’s onwards, and eventually by the Tin Pan Alley songwriters in New York around the 1890’s to the early 1910’s, and that’s where I found the essence of the rockabilly I wanted. Songs written by educated and clever songwriters and musicians feeding an insatiable desire by the American audiences for raunchy and racy themes. The subjects the middle class American’s couldn't get enough of included gambling, prostitution, comical relationships, poverty, drunken Irish, lazy people, people on drugs, travelling, and all the stuff we now associate with rock n roll, blues, folk and even jazz. So for our own amusement we brought many of these songs back to life in the earliest forms we could find them, and tried to capture that same wild spirit. So the album, ‘Party Like It’s 1899’ is music before jazz, before blues and before folk, whatever that is.
So finally I was able to start my Sun Sessions style album called ‘Boots ‘N’ Tooths’. My two sons and myself recorded round a mic my own compositions. The boys played very well using the skills they had learned making the Stanley Knife Brothers album. We recorded the album over a few days and I believe it captures something of the 50’s rockabilly sound. An added bonus is that my boys now have a great act called The Dublin City Rounders where they get to use all the skills they picked up on this project.
Nutty letters from nutty kids
1/22/13
Apple Computer, Inc.
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
Dear Apple,
I am writing to complain about one of your apps. This one is called “Blower”. I heard it is suppose to turn your iPhone into a powerful fan, but that is not the case with me. My friend told me about this app, and I was interested on installing it as I am always very hot.
So I decided to buy the app of course since it would just be perfect for me! So I went on my iPhone and looked it up in the App Store. I installed it and quickly opened it to cool myself down after doing my yoga. Thing is, it wasn’t working, then I realized I didn’t have the power up, silly me! So there I was, and it didn’t work. I figured it needed a power source, so I decided to plug in my charger, even though my iPhone was at full battery life. I was appalled when it didn’t work. I decided that perhaps my charger was broken so I went out, got in a taxi (for $50) and bought a new one priced at $39.00. I plugged it in and turned on my fan, and to my surprise, it didn’t work. So I decided that maybe I needed a tablet to make this app work, so once more, I got out, got in a taxi (at $50 again) and went to an Apple store. I bought the new iPad Air at $929.00 as I buy the devices with most data space, and I went back home (each taxi ride was $50 for one way). I installed the app again and plug in my charger, and turn on the fan. I was flabbergasted when it didn’t work. My new solution? To get even more power. I decided to take a taxi (this time $100 one way) to a car dealership to buy a car for $30,369. I drove home and parked it in my garage, opened the hood, and took out the jumper cables, and hooked them on my iPad Air. My car exploded and launch me onto the floor as well as destroying my iPad Air. Luckily. I was outside when I hooked the jumper cables to my tablet since I am extremely claustrophobic. I sustained some injuries and needed to get surgery priced at $15,000 since I didn’t have Insurance yet. I took a year to recover from my injuries, but when I was back on my feet, I was determined to get the app working. So I went to the car dealership to buy a new car again at the same price. Then I got car insurance and insurance, as well as once more, purchasing an iPad Air at the same price.
This time, I was certain I had the solution. I bought a generator and an extension capable and plugged it into my garage outlet. I plugged my charger in with my iPad, and you know what? It disintegrated! Now, I was done! Please help me. Am I doing it right? Is there a way I’m supposed to hold my phone and/or tablet? I need answers immediately as I feel like I may die after my yoga. Please help!
Sincerely,
X Samuel J. Stuhlinger
Samuel J. Stuhlinger (Michael R.)
January 29, 2014
Customer service Dept.
Littleton Coin Company,
1309 Mt Eustis Road
Littleton, NH 03561
Hello, I wanted to inform you that I love your products, and will be looking forward to order from you again.
I wanted to say that recently I ordered a package from your company. As walking to my house with my package and makes a run for it. I tackled this man and he tackled me. We threw a couple punches. The last thing I recall is laying on the sidewall, I woke upon the south side of Chicago like 20 miles from home.
I have possible brain damage, is there any way you can help me, maybe some Nutella or Jelly? I don't know, put up posters all over Chicago with a bounty for this man. Is there a way to get my Package?
Thank you,
Cristian U.
4220 N. Richmond St.
Chicago IL. 60618
January 29, 2014
Public Relations Dept.
Things Remembered, Inc.
230 W. Huron Rd. Ste 7207
Cleveland, OH, 44113 United States
Dear Public Relations Department,
I know that your store sells many products that are used for either decorating your home, gifts, or jewelry. What I especially like about your store is that it contains many pleasant decorations for your home. I would like to offer you a product to sell at your store. Personally, I enjoyed a lot of this product, because it gave me a comforting sense of not being alone. I really hope that you enjoy my explicit description.
The Statue of Liberty is something very important and serious, so my product shows a bit more happiness as it holds an icecream cone on each hand. Instead of a crown, she would be wearing a chocolate fudge cake. The dress should be in different colors such as pink, green, blue, or purple. This is the part I enjoyed the best, it will have many recordings of songs, you may also use it as an alarm. It can have anything be recorded and timed to sound at any time.
There has been only one small problem I have found in the volume. Sometimes it might fail to lower the noise or maybe the recording will go longer than an hour. Even though it has some problems, it can still be very enjoyable with its great characteristics.
I hope to hear from you soon, and I hope that you like my product. If there are any questions, you can send me a letter to this address and with pleasure, I will answer back. Have a wonderful day and thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Aime H.
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C. 20220
Dear Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
I have just found out that you will be removing Benjamin Franklin's hair from the one hundred dollar bill and he will be bald in the new 100 dollar bill.
I don't think that is a very good idea to leave him bald. We know him with his long hair and now you people are trying to cut all his hair and make him bald. I think he will look very different in the 100 dollar bills. What if people don't accept the money? You will have to buy my ticket to go to Disney Land. I have already used very excellent faces of other people on the dollar bill. They all look the same in my opinion.
Why can't you just change another president's face?There's the one dollar bill, you can take George Washington's hair too. Even though Benjamin Franklin was the oldest doesn't mean that you have to change his whole facial hair. You could add a beard so he can look like Abraham Lincoln they can both look the same.
I think people will think the president's had a problem back in the days with hot weather but never told anyone and you decided to just cut their hair. Like they were at the hair salon ready to get all their hair shaved off. I bet the president will feel astonished of what happened to his hair.
Can you please let me know what will happen to the 100 dollar bill? It is not true that Franklin's hair will be GONE!
Sincerely,
Diana P.
WALTER GROSS INTERVIEW
When did you start making music?
Around 19 learning on the MPC which is still my main axe. But I was always messin' around and listening. I remember playing with those old fisher price turntables and sitting in my room all day making mix-tapes off the radio, that was the best. You get half of your favourite song on some shitty tape and still be hyped. I played the trombone for like a month in 3rd grade but felt I had to quit in order to stay "focused" because I was learning how to multiply. Tried picking up the guitar a few times and as much as I love folk/blues music I could never commit like I can to that dumb solid beat machine. I still cant forget the smell of that brass oil/lube whatever the hell it is in that old band room.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
I go through waves in listening to music. I have to be careful while in production mode and I like to stay busy so I fill most of my days with comedy podcasts/radio. I'm digging this Ethiopian nun pianist lady, Emahoy Tseque Maryam, its really amazing and has cool song titles like "Mad Man's Laughter" and "The Homeless Wanderer". Burning Witch has also been a hugh influence. Swans. Wolf Eyes. Dj Dogdick has always been a great inspiration and that bmore noise/rock/party stuff. I really dug Stress Ape (now defunct). Tenshun/Psychopop aka Skrapez of course. Black Pus. Tarkovsky. Marketa Lazarova as of recent. Black Dice. Harvey Pekar. Vonnegut. Mr. Oizo as of late, I really liked his new movie Wrong Cops. I dig how Shane Carruth is doing things with the film industry and his latest Upstream Color. Abner Jay. Ben Wheatley might be my new favourite director. Just saw A Field In England at The Silent Movie Theatre in LA and it was everything I hoped for. I love the tone of his movies, its that kind of perfection you didn't know you needed. The more I do this though the more function is required on various levels to keep the process interesting and so figuring that out is key whether its for therapeutic reasons, entertainment, energy, helping, sharing. As much of a recluse as I am, I still like thinking on that idea of folk art. And the MPC is a good primitive sturdy transparent box to convey whatever I'm down for at that moment and then channel it to whomever.
What do you think is the biggest influence was on your sound?
Early love for film. Kubrick, Lynch, Wu-Tang, Coldcut, Decasia, Deafness, Belong, Set Fire To Flames, Lil Howlin Wolf,The precious foley of life, Noise, Old blues/gospel,Burning Witch, Abner Jay, Violent Femmes, Doom, Butthole Surfers, Chop n Screw, Early 3-6.
Being into movies, have you ever done a soundtack for anyone and if not would you like to? If so what would the ideal type of movie be for you to score?
Tell us about what the music scene in LA
Not sure really, the few spots i played got shut down or i blew their speakers. I do enjoy the comedy circuit out here, just as a fan, its cool to see so many little shows pop up usually for free or very cheap. I've seen some great shows/acts. I will definitely miss it.
Do you have any tales, interesting, funny or otherwise you can tell us from your years of touring and recording?
I played in a dojo once, complete w/ a ring and punching bags and blew the system. My favourite venue was this warehouse in the industrial part of downtown Los Angeles and there was a halfpipe and we were rockin some noise beat stuff, me, Skrapez and k-the-i??? and these dudes were rippin it on the halfpipe, it was like my 16 yr old's dream.
I snapped the cone off a shoddy system in LA and people actually liked the cone rattlin off. Went partially deaf for awhile and sat around asking people to repeat themselves. One of my first mixes was on 3 turntables and I got in touch with Simeon Coxe of Silver Apples and sent him this cd mixin his shit w/ a bunch of other stuff he said he drove around in his van listening to it. I funded a lathe w/ my spine juice. One of my favorite moments though is when Dj Scotchegg of Devilman got us this random dj gig in England and all 4 of us, Devilman and myself gave the sloppiest, most hilariously pathetic dj set ever and Scotchegg had people singing along to Bon Jovi and we're fiddling with the wires, switchin' our dumb laptops causin a racket cracking up in tears in this lil dj booth, it was amazing.
Any other artists you'd like to recommend you feel deserve more attention?
Tenshun. Psychopop. Lost & Found Sound. Telecaves. Sole.
What are you currently working on and what are your plans for the future?
Play live shows, make more music and tour UK/EU. I'd like to eventually write/direct/score/edit my own film. More stop-motion experiments and soundscapes. Figure out this visual thing. Do people still buy dvds? I want to release more sonic/visual pieces in as many formats as possible.
Walter Gross
Tell us about your other projects, past and present and future...
My first real project was in '05 called Youth:Kill with the frenetic mad rapper from Cambridge, Mass known as k-the-i???. We put out a mixtape and some wax, doing a noise hip hop thing. I remember some online review said it was like the Black Dice of hip hop or somethin which I took as a good sign. And I've pressed up various split tapes, records, lathes, music videos, short films, collabs, mixtapes, podcasts since then but now I primarily operate solo, exploring this live-performance/song-writing this as well as trippy videos using stop-motion styles and trying to write more.
Poems by 7th and 6th Graders
Glow of the screen on my face
my eyes stuck to the screen
my mom telling me that I need to go outside.
I hear a pop coming from the kitchen
my popcorn bag is empty in a split second
the taste of buttery salty popcorn
I run to the couch, like my life depended on it
my sisters and I fighting for the remote like animals
I surf with one click of a remote
traveling around the world
By Magaly S.
Screech, oh no I’m alone
in my basement
*tick* oh no its…….
midnight
Im fine
Nevermind I’m not
Help!!!
I hear noises
oh no what was that
Everywhere there are noises
could it be…..
ghosts?
naw
mom and dad?
naw
rats?
oh nooo
oh my god
lights are out!!!!
mom and dad get home
really? what the worst that can happen
now?
*boom*
really a thunder storm!!!!
help
-Jenny F.
A special person
in my life
who takes care of me
like a bear
protecting me from harm
Alert as an eagle
A shield in front of an arrow
striving to slice into my heart
Like a hen shielding her
chicks from the awaiting eagle
waiting to devour me
Thanks mom.
I love you.
By: Ernest R.
What Am I To You?
What am I to you?
When you read me am I boring?
When you rip my pages It’s like you ripped a piece of my heart,
I’m just a crybaby coward that is sometimes creepy,
Do you know how I feel when you put me on a shelf that’s dusty as the inside of a vacuum,
I know lots of words and I define them to help you know the meaning,
But sometimes you ignore me,
What am I to you a devil, dog, deer, dinosaur, dingo, donkey, duck, dove, dragonfly,
I may be old but I’m helpful,
From research, sometimes enjoyment, and I help you learn new words every day,
I’m a dictionary not anything else in the world.
Me
You threaten me
you call me names
Hey Phillip
why did you hate
the person I tried to be?
I don’t need your negative rate
just let me be me.
When I rebuttal back
you start to cry
people think I’m whole
and question me why.
I was defending myself
it was the last choice
I called you an ugly little elf
who’s “cool” with a Rolls Royce.
To be honest,it’s very low
you need to hurt
you go blow after blow.
You try to convey your point
you don’t and that’s a mighty loss.
For me it’s a huge win
I intend to begin
the great crusade
that shall not fade.
We will fight tonight
By Sean P.
Impatiently waiting,
When will it come faster?
Listening to their music cheers me
Up and gets me motivated.
If I could go to the future
To the day I’ll get to see those
Five idiots I fell in love with,
There music and personalities and
How they speak saves many of their fans.
As they sing like angels they
Give me the chills,
As they sing they would only
See the spotlight that as far as it goes,
Millions of roaring fans
Waiting to see them.
But in their eyes we are just another fan and in our eyes we are just another fan and in our eyes they are our world the
Fine boys we fell in love with.
When the day comes,
The crowd would roar
And so will I,
Can this day come any faster?
The day I see the most amazing talented band
Biggest boy band, called One Direction
By: Gisselle A.
Poems by 7th and 6th Grade
Fresh Music
My grandmas bedroom wall
is engraved with the mindboggling
imaginations as a child
Creations so diverse like a picasso
each with a different meaning
Dull but colorful painted with
emotion and crazy picture
what was I thinking as a child.
--Cristian U.
Love
Make the color shine like a glazed donut.
When red comes in mind you think of
love and doves.
life is red, blood is red, love is red,
mostly everything is red. Love is life
will last a very, very long.
Red comes from our heart like doves
from above. Cherish the color that is
well known.
-Kieran M.
Avicii
Everyone is dancing
as if they’re going wild like fangirls screaming over One Direction,
The whole crowd yells of excitement
as if it’s their first time riding a rollercoaster.
Avicii makes me feel like i can do anything
because everything is possible,
The sweat of everyone
like its been a long hot summer day.
Listening to Avicii is like
drinking diablitos in a long hot summer day.
-Yvette A.
Shot
Aggressive as bulls
It’s do or die
Ding
Like a school bell ringing
Halftime flutters me to paradise
But the sensation only lasted for so long
Gone in a heartbeat
I inhale my last breaths
My breaths dissolve as I breathe them
with the slightest thought of going back
I stare at the defense with cold eyes
All at once
Doubt falls on top of me
A tsunami
But I swipe it off
as the time ticks tirelessly
A time bomb about to explode
Heartbeat pounding
The basketball sweats in my fingers
The pressure falls on me
Unstoppable rain
I need an umbrella
Heartbeat pounding
It’s do or die
My doubt is gone
I got this
Swish
Clean as the whistle
-By Sirine N
Girls Run This Motha!#% at Wyn317 Gallery
Inspired by the successful, talented, beautiful and iconic Beyoncé, Miami artist Diana Contreras invited fellow Miami artists Kazilla, Michelle Vasquez, Miss Lushy, Delvs, Lulu107 and Charlotte Jane Oedekoven to join her in an all female group exhibition at gallery WYN317 in Miami's Wynwood art district. The exhibit "Girls Run This Motha!#% celebrates Women's History Month and International Women's Day through paintings exuding the same indepentend and powerful spirit as Beyoncé, representing for women from around the world.
Thanks Diana for bringing these Miami ladies together in a show that brings Girl Power into 2014. Girls Run This Motha!#%
An Interview with Hamid Lagder
Please share some of the steps of your journey as an artist.
As people and as artists, we are always growing and changing in hopefully more positive and mature directions. My journey as an artist has involved a great deal of growth and change in perspective since my early attempts at art, some of which still hang in the halls of my old high school. My goal is to always produce better art, but also art that reflects who I am now, in this moment. One of the things I’ve learned along the way is that you have to be inspired in order to paint—creating art is not like a work task with a beginning and end and timetable. If I am not truly inspired, the result will not be what I want even if I spend days and weeks applying paint to canvas.
Are your landscapes and cityscapes predominantly imaginative or inspired by actual places you have visited?
My art is equal parts imagination and inspiration. Having lived on three continents, my art is, without a doubt, influenced by the amazing places I have lived and visited, including Morocco, Russia and the U.S. I grew up near Marrakesh, and have vivid memories of narrow, colorful streets, the Kasbah, old-world people, the bazar and villages rising out of the mountains.
What are some of the subjects you explore in your abstract works?
My work depicts a variety of scenes from everyday life. For example, I created a series of paintings that address the social and economic issues faced by African women who are responsible for securing food for their families. In Morocco, domestic chores are strenuous in rural areas. Because their homes are not equipped with running water, women who live in rural areas of the country need to fetch water from places located an average of six miles away. This is the kind of manual labor that some Moroccan women, and African women in general, embrace as part of their daily lives. Although the labor may be specific to their households, it defines their roles in the community and gives them a sense of empowerment. My paintings portray women who are free, independent and strong.
How do the aesthetics and culture of your native Morocco inform your work?
I grew up in Youssoufia, a small rural town west of Marrakesh where people are very traditional and hard working. Everything is made from scratch—food, rugs, furniture, etc. My mom used to make rugs by hand. I think it’s part of the reason I use so many tools and media in my work in addition to brushes—it makes me feel like I’m creating something hand-made, unique; something that cannot be easily duplicated.
How was the experience of living and studying in Moscow?
Living in Moscow was tough in the beginning. I did not speak Russian when I moved there, but picked it up quickly because I was intrigued and wanted to start communicating with people; I was eager to experience Russian life. I really enjoyed Russian culture. It was an unforgettable experience, coming from a completely different culture and immersing myself in a new one. I was fortunate to have made a few close friends who were Russian natives who helped me understand their culture and traditions.
Where would you love to travel for inspiration and why?
Italy is on my “must see” list. It is one of the art capitals of the world. Where else can one see an entire floating city? I’m sure that everything I’ve read and heard about Italy can’t compare to the actual experience of being there. It will influence my art in unpredictable ways.
You paint with acrylic on canvas. Why did you choose acrylic?
I’ve experimented with a variety of mediums that include oil, water color and acrylic but acrylic has turned out to be my absolute favorite; it dries fast, it has this wonderful texture and unlike oil, it does not have the tendency to turn yellow as it ages and oxidizes. Honestly, I like to get messy when I work and acrylic paint makes cleaning up a lot easier too.
How do you choose the titles for your work?
Titles are tricky; they really come after the work is finished and are inspired by the work itself. Since my work is more abstract, the titles for my work tend to be abstract as well. I don’t want the titles of the work to be the focus; they shouldn’t influence the viewer to see the work in an overly specific way.
You currently have a piece in the Capitol Hill Art League. Could you tell us more about what the league does and also elaborate on your piece?
CHAL promotes the visual arts in the Washington, DC community of Capitol Hill and surrounding area. CHAL members are artists drawn from the neighborhood, the city and region. I was introduced to CHAL by one of my art teachers, Joyce McCarten, who is a fellow member and DC artist. The league is a wonderful, supportive community of incredibly talented people. My current piece on exhibit with CHAL is titled, “George” and is an interpretation of George Washington as one of DC’s most famous icons.
What ideas would you like to explore further going forward as an artist?
I like to constantly challenge myself to be a better artist and explore techniques and imagery that perhaps I am not comfortable with; there is so much to learn and so many ways to express myself on canvas. It is one of the reasons I don’t just shop at art supply stores; I shop at Home Depot too. I want to remain open to a variety of influences and mediums. The process of creating art is, in itself, as rewarding as the outcome. In the near future, I would like to explore more of the imagery of my native country.
What is the art scene like in Washington, DC?
Washington, DC boasts a vibrant, eclectic art scene that is as diverse as the people who live here, and is very contemporary. The great thing about art in DC is that it is so accessible; entry to most galleries is free.
Do you have any upcoming exhibitions?
I was selected to show my art in Results Gym, which was converted from an old primary school building in Capitol Hill. It is a terrific, unique space and I am excited to feature seven pieces from my art collection beginning March 8.
How would you describe your art?
I love to paint abstract pieces on canvas and wood in a way that creates a lot of texture. I experiment with mixed media to achieve rough, raised, textured surfaces because life is not smooth; it’s bumpy and interesting and colorful. I am intrigued by color and like to use unusual, vivid color combinations in my work. I want my art to tell a story but in a broad way that allows the viewer to individualize it and make it personal
Michelle Vasquez on Girl Power, International Women's Day and Representing for Miami
Why did you decide to participate in the group show “Girls run this Motha!#%?”
Being a part of an art duo, Yuhmi Collective, it's been a while since I exhibited on my own. As a woman I thought it would be fun to share my half of what I bring to Yuhmi.
Tell us a bit more about Yuhmi Collective please.
What does Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day mean to you?
As a female artist to me it's important to celebrate women's strength and beauty. I'm honored to have been invited to represent Miami ladies and participate in the “Girls run this Motha!#%” exhibit!
Please tell us how your work in the exhibition relates to Women’s Month?
My work is about femininity and getting to know myself as a woman. I've developed a cat woman character, an alter ego, where I give my ladies graceful strong feminine qualities that are personal to me. I like to think of them as super human.
Why a cat woman? What or who inspired your cat woman character?
How do you interpret Girl Power in your art?
I enjoy painting alluring feminine women with flowing hair and super human feline qualities.
Which woman/ women do you admire and why?
I admire so many women. Especially my mother and those who raised me, they taught me that I can do anything I set my mind to. Forever instilling the words "I Can!" in my life. Thank you!
What subjects do you generally explore in your art?
My work has been about developing my artistic persona.
How would you describe your art?
A journey into a floating world, a place where imagination and reality merge, and are free to run wild.
What medium is your favorite and why?
I like working with a variety of mediums, and enjoy discovering new techniques. Most recently I'm exploring aerosol, it's fun quick and allows me more time for details.
What other projects are you currently working on?
Most recently Victor and I had the honor of participating in the FAAM Street Art Auction! To be amongst Miami street artist invited to show along side major street artists works like Swoon, Lady Aiko, Fail, Banksy, and Basquiat to name a few. This is a blessing!!! It was a true pleasure to paint along side so much amazing talent!!! We also just finished producing a video of our latest mural collaboration titled "Mila the Nonapus" a super-human hybrid creature, nine tentacle flying lion lady our creative interpretation of a griffin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9htjNrK06vk
You imagine a lot of fictional and fantastical characters and creatures as subjects of your art. Do you create continuing narratives around these characters?
What else do you have planned for 2014?
Looking forward to painting more murals, some travel, exhibitions, and who knows maybe a solo Yuhmi show! So excited! Check out our @YuhmiCollective FaceBook and InstaGram where we will be posting updates!
In 2009 Victor Vazquez, my husband, and I both started Yuhmi Collective with graphic design and art commissions. In 2012 we followed our hearts and Yuhmi officially transformed into an art duo. We are a two person collaborative team. We enjoy creating paintings, illustrations, murals, toy designs, and installations.
I like to think of our characters as animal spirits. Empowering them with animalistic qualities to give them super human strength. It started with a want to become a better version of myself, I asked what qualities would I have. Currently, I chose feline qualities. But this is constantly evolving. Working alone and towards this Beyonce inspired exhibition, I thought it appropriate to get to the core of my most feminine quality. Leaning towards my zodiac sign Leo. My inner feline, sweet, fierce, strong, and courageous.
Our paintings are a reflection of our life and experiences. An autobiography of sorts. Documenting a journey of our magical interpretation of life itself. We are creating our own whimsical parallel universe.