Highlights of 2006:
Lise was chosen to be Artist of the Month (March) at the
Lower Adirondack
Regional
Arts
Center in Glens Falls, NY. An exhibit in their Lapham Gallery and a web interview with pictures and
soundclips ensued. The web interview can be found here.
Lise was a featured artist on Whole Wheat Radio (
Talkeetna
, Alaska) on
December 9, 2006
where both the Come to Me in Dreams and The Goldenrod albums
were played.
Concerts included:
1. The Kingsbury Coffeehouse in Kingsbury,
NY
2. Glens Falls Civic Center for a Celtic Festival, Glens Falls, NY
3. Crandall Public Library, Glens Falls, NY
4. Canajoharie Public Library (Van Alstyne Homestead), Canajoharie, NY
5. Cobleskill Arts in the Park, Cobleskill, NY
6. Country, Bluegrass
and Celtic Music Festival of Schenectady, NY at their central park
7. Kribstock, Hadley, NY
8. Inlet Fall Festival, Inlet, NY
9. Saratoga Springs
Victorian Streetwalk, Saratoga Springs, NY
10. First Night Saratoga, Saratoga Springs, NY
Exhibits included:
1. Mohawk
Valley
Center
for the Arts, juried invitational, “Reflections of our Times”
2. Lower
Adirondack Regional
Arts
Center, Artist of the Month exhibit (March)
3. Lower
Adirondack
Regional Arts
Center, members’ exhibit (March – May)
4. Fulton Street Gallery, members’ exhibit (December 2005 – January 2006)
5. Westside Gallery (group exhibit, October 2005 – April 2006).
Special shows and exhibits around the holidays included:
The Art Center of the Capital District, Lower Adirondack
Regional Arts Center, Aimee’s Gallery (Ceramics Exhibit), Mohawk Valley Center
for the Arts, Kismet Gallery, The Small Gallery at Hubbard Hall and Fulton
Street Gallery members’ exhibit (December 2006 – January 2007).
New galleries included Clay Horse Pottery in Little Falls, NY; Kismet Gallery in
Troy,
NY; and Mimosa Gallery in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Lise’s role as curator for Fulton Street Gallery in Troy,
NY
was a Fiber Arts Invitational Exhibit that ran from September 1 – October 7.
More information about the exhibit and artists can be found here.
Lise’s web-diary for the
year follows:
January 2, 2006
Since the year has just begun, I begin this year’s web
diary talking about experiences of the last few months as well as events of the
last year.
From January through May, my focus was primarily on visual art. From May
until the end of the year, the focus was primarily on music.
For the visual art part, I spent a good deal of time making
pottery and went to see throwing demonstrations and slide lectures by Steve
Branfman and Julia Galloway. Julia
was especially inspiring not only for her beautiful objects and spunky
character, but because she makes functional ware, sometimes frowned upon in
academia, especially during the years when we went to school (we both attended
college and graduate school at the same time during which the Soldner/Volkous
period influenced everything in all of the major art ceramics departments). I
always admire artists like Julia who can challenge trends and conformity by
sheer talent.
Last summer I also sewed some new ren-costumes (like the majority of ren-performers,
I do make the costumes for the band). It is a time-consuming project because of
all of the ruffles, the grommets, the gatherings, the embroidery and other
aspects of this kind of costume design. I also do it because, like pottery and
drawing, it is another creative outlet for me, a chance to put certain visions
and ponderings to work, to complement the sound of the band with something
visual as well. But, as with our unconventional sound, I am not a stickler for
authentic attire. It would be extremely difficult anyway with machine-made
fabrics and the fact that many tapestry-type fabrics which are used for most of
the ren-outfits one sees at ren-faires have liberal doses of polyester and rayon
in them—relatively new inventions—not to mention all of the other modern
treatments: usually sewn on machines, using 50/50 thread, with machine-made
grommets, polyester elastics, cotton underclothes, 50/50 bias tape, and so on.
At our concert at the Inlet Fall Festival, we ran into one of our fellow
Killington ren-performers, Jack of All Trades (ala, Steve
Gratto)! His show was a little different than at the faire and
included microphones, music and modern attire. But, then again, our show was
also quite different. We talked briefly about banding together for performances.
If you would like music and a juggler/stilt-walker/tight-rope
walker/unicyclist/outrageously fun showman for your party, school event, etc,
you can always e-mail and we’ll
see... Denote period costumes or contemporary attire.
My research was varied and wide last year and included such topics as
Renaissance period songs from Wales, Ireland and Scotland, computerized kilns,
digital printing, owls, the history of traditional ornament, birds of prey in
North America, the history of playing cards, log cabin quilt designs and a
number of poets. Expect some new directions and changes, both in my visual art
and music.
Jim Lestrange and I also attended James Howard Kunstler’s book signing
of “The Long Emergency”, a book about peak oil and the converging
catastrophes of the 21st century. A prelude to what the book is about
can be found in a Rolling Stone article here.
Some of what it said inspired both of us to start a vegetable garden (and
indeed, we went overboard and had more vegetables last summer than we could eat,
can or freeze without devoting all of our time to this activity!).
Mr. Kunstler also gave Jim some wonderful accolades about his computer
business here. Jim
is my website designer, and is a musician in both the bands I play in. Jim was
also a member of the band, “Skuttlebutt”, until recently, when in September
they decided to disband. John Cromie, the very talented whistle player from that band decided to join Saratoga Faire
for Irish/Celtic concerts.
Thanks again to those of you who send your encouragement, for attending
concerts and buying CDs and art. It all helps to keep me motivated, to be
inspired, to be grateful, and to think about what the world might need in
general, and from me in particular. I hope the new year brings positive change,
peace and more reverence for our planet and for the lives that inhabit it.
From left to right: (1) with my friend, Sally, on
Christmas Eve helping to decorate her tree with baby’s breath, (2) Jim
Lestrange in a cheerful mood, (3) at an art opening. (Photos
1 and 2 by John Cromie).
A picture of some gifts I received over the holidays. I’m
enjoying these so much! People around me know me pretty well, I think.
December 6, 2006
an appendage
Some people have e-mailed me and complained
that they can’t make out what a lot of these items are. So I will list the
items, and since I have had a chance to experience them all, tell you what I
think of them. Please don’t consider my thoughts to be a formal review; they
are just feelings/views/perspectives about items that I was in a pre-disposition
to like/enjoy because they were gifts and based on my general interests.
Leslie Ritter and Scott Petito, “This Christmas Morning” CD:
These are folks I record with, so I was anxious to hear their latest release.
They are always a class act and won two Just Plain Folks Music awards for best
Christmas album (second place) and best traditional song (first place for The
Bells of Christmas) after 3 nominations and 25,500 albums submitted to the
contest. Leslie’s voice is especially striking and soulful on this album (one
reviewer described it as “a caress”). The production is spare, so her voice
and what she is saying is very much the focal point. The lyrics, as in their
other albums, focus on the spiritual. The gem on the album is “If Mary
Knew”, an original taken from Mary’s perspective, and is as much of an
Easter song, or a universal Christian song as a Christmas Carol.
Butterfly Calendar:
given to me by a twelve year old girl because she knows I spend many hours
drawing butterflies and am enchanted by their large feather-weight wings on top
of their small slender fragile bodies, their beauty, their grace, the way they
live, survive, flutter around everything. The other part of this gift was going
to a butterfly sanctuary. A butterfly calendar in a prime spot in my home is
always a wonderful reminder of their presence in the world.
Blackmore’s Night “Castles and Dreams” DVD:
This is a concert DVD. Since I had expressed a desire to see this group perform
and had not been able to, this present was given to me as a response. I started
following Blackmores Night since their first CD, when I saw an article written
about them in a guitar magazine. At the time I was ensconced in my own recording
project of Renaissance songs, rendering them in the way I wanted to hear them.
Realizing that these folks were trying to do something vaguely similar, finding
their first CD was of paramount importance to me. I have been following their
career ever since.
When we watched the DVD, late on Christmas night
after everyone left, we were struck by the fact that Candice reminded us, in
appearance and disposition, of our friend, Rachel, owner of the Killington
Renaissance Faire where our group performed for a couple of years.
I enjoyed the uniqueness of the music, the superb musicianship (and watching the
guitar athlete!) and Candice’s warm and fun delivery. It was wonderful to see
Tina Chancey’s playing too (whose career I have also been following).
“Down From Troy, A Doctor Comes of Age” (book):
About a boy coming of age in Troy, NY. Written in a flowery, almost poetic language about being the son of a
physician. The author was inspired to become a physician himself. This was Troy
in the day when doctors lived in the heart of the city, saw patients on the
first story of a row house as needed while the family tiptoed around
upstairs, and when trains, boats and horses were a major mode of travel. The
author's mother was a professional singer and sang at Troy
Music Hall
on a regular basis. This was the day when a talented singer wasn’t required
to travel huge distances in order to work and where an area’s local musicians
were called upon regularly to entertain the public (a public who actually left
their houses to be entertained!).
“Picasso” (book) by Norman Mailer:
About Picasso’s youth up until the First World War. Takes Picasso through
several stages: youth paintings, finding a style, the Blue Period, Rose Period,
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism. From
Spain
, Picasso settles in
France
and lives the bohemian life: poverty (sleeping in his studio with paints and
turpentines, newspapers for a table cloth, occasionally without a studio or
place of residence), drugs, drinking, brothels, orgies, a 7 year live-in affair
with a beautiful woman named Fernande, and a host of writers and artists who
influenced him. I did a huge paper on Picasso in college (which my professor
liked) and this added to the body of knowledge. Even so, I’ll never really
entirely understand Picasso except for his tremendous drive to create, his
ambition to explore new ways of seeing and painting and his ability to put up
with many, many years of poverty, scorn and dismissal to push his vision
through.
“The Private World of Tasha Tudor” (book):
I had given this book to my mother and then this same book was given to me
because I liked it so much. When I was unwrapping it, my mother remarked that I
reminded her of Tasha (already?). What’s not to like about this book? She is a
painter, a puppet-maker, story-teller, a gardener, a cook, a lover of animals
and lives a full life as if she were in the 1800s. Her quotes throughout the
book are priceless and the photographs are stunning.
Crimson Collection, Sing Kaur and Kim Robertson (CD):
I discovered Kaur’s and Robertson’s “Guru Ram Das” CD many years ago and
took it wherever I went where remaining calm, peaceful and focused on the higher
purpose became essential (Garden State Parkway, hospitals, break-ups, etc.).
This is another one from the series. Sing Kaur has a voice that exudes so much
warmth and purpose that it seems to come from another world. And her voice is
often in my thoughts when I am in situations that seem stressful.
“Broque”, Gideon Freudman (CD of cello music):
Gideon Freudman is a cellist from the Pioneer Valley
area of
Massachusetts where he is a bit of a star. My father gave this CD to me in response to my own
cello playing (pretty rudimentary). Gideon’s style is innovative and he is a
pleasure to watch when he performs.
“To Lise from Your Hunk of Burnin’ Love”: one of the
tags that my sweetie printed and attached to one of the gifts.
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