Art at ArtSpace

The Fund for the Arts has spruced up the second floor of Artspace. We have four original pieces of art from Eric Brinley. They were "unveiled" at the Opera Guild's event, Viva Voce, last Thursday.

He worked from photos which he got from the various arts groups represented. He simplifies the image to the simplest line and uses color to create the emotional experience to go along with the image.




The image at the top is of a violinist representing the Orchestra, which is at the top the stairs as you approach the rehearsal space.
The bottom images are the main area of the second floor. Images represent Actors Theater's production of Dracula and The Louisville Ballet's Nutcracker. The opera does have an image but it is actually in the rehearsal room, which I could not access into when I was snapping photos.

What are your thoughts?

A great Saturday

I had a wonderful day with my friend TTT. After K's folks went home, I met TTT at the condo and we took her step-fathers borrowed mustang convertable to the Smoketown USA chili cookoff. I had been past this place many times, and wondered what it was about, and now I know. Good people and down home cooking. We wanted to make the most with the top down so we drove down River Rd. via downtown. We stopped at the Captians Quarters regalla, and there was an "art show" going on. really it was a bunch of beaded jewelry and a couple of mediocre painters. There were a couple of women who had a huge booth with beautiful alpaca wool sweaters, but $150 was out of my range.

There was a festival downtown that we hit on the way back and that was fun. Got a Christmas present for Mom that I think she will love. Since we were in the neighborhood, we wanted to stop by the NuLu gallery grand opening. We found first the Green gallery which is the brain child of Bill Green with the art of Five O Two party - nine months with nine artists with one love. The space was inspired. workable sized rooms with indoor and outdoor options and easy parking.

TTT and I agreed it would be a great location for the VIVA VOCE at some point.

We did manage to find the NuLu gallery. It was fun, but we were late and they were closing up to go to the FiveOTwo party. Its worth a second look.

On our way back to the car, we walked by Chuck Swanson's gallery and shockingly saw the owners own work in the windows. Its about time! We ran into Chuck who said that he had a last minute cancellation, and this was the first time his work hung in his own gallery. Amazing. He was on his way to the LVAA art auction. Sorry I missed it, but I am spread too thin right now to have volunteered for my dear friends at the water tower. Maybe next year.

I met up with K and we went to his friend's house to sample the band who left their equiptment in the basement from the party last weekend. It was a great little set of figuring out songs, and trying to remember words and revisiting pieces they hadn't done in a long time. The lead singer, Tracy is a school teacher with an amazing voice, a little Janice Joplin with a bit of Jewel as well. She has an impressive range and great expression.

All in all it was a great day! The opera last night went well enough, and though I wished I could have gone to my cousins wedding in North Carolina, I think I really needed a day of new experiences and thats what I got.

Basquiat at KMAC

KMAC (Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft) will be showing the film Basquiat on Tuesday, September 8 at 8pm. Tickets are only $5 and free for museum members.

I saw this film perhaps a decade ago, and it still resonates with me. It's about a young artist who gains the attention on Andy Warhol during his "factory"days.

Jean-Michel Basquiat struggled as an artist, attempting to sell his small postcard sized pieces on the streets of New York with little success. His encounter with Warhol changed every thing. Not only did Andy purchase every postcard the young artist had with him that day, he also brought the seemingly flea bitten cur into his fold where Jean-Michel found acceptance, adoration and fame. These elements were a bit too much for him and led to his destruction, but his work lives on. Sotheby's says the current auction record for a Basquiat work stands at $14.6m.

If you haven't, see this film!

Arts Funding

The media is a buzz with the Mayors new budget. There are a lot of small arts groups that got completly left out and people are more than pissed. I don't blame them either. The Leo article talked about the Juneteenth festival that has been relevantly bringing African American issues to the stage for 9 years. They went from $15,000 to ZERO in no time flat.

Some of these groups are taking it upon themselves to raise the money needed. Louisville Music News's Paul Moffit says in his blog that John Gage of Kentucky Homefront is having a fund raiser on July 25 & 26 at Iroquois Amphitheater.

The Louisville Orchestra and the Fund for the Arts is consistently Mentioned in all of these articles as they both received the lions share of the funds. None of the articles suggested that this was inappropriate accept perhaps a slight slant with Moffits blog suggesting the LO ticket sales were SO good that the LO didn't need or deserve this money. Interesting... I wonder if he has tapped the box office computers? Obviously not, if he is suggesting that ticket sales actually fund any of the arts groups. In for-profit endeavors that may be the case, but with orchestra and opera, ticket sales only account for 1/3 of the budget income.

I applaud John Gage for taking control of the situation. Go to the event, and support Kentucky Homefront!!

Here are some of the articles:
Courier Journal
Business First
PRWeb Release