ART SPARKS FLY

This will be short, but then the best things in life are often short! (and free)
Thursday, yesterday, Susan Josephson,--an instructor at Columbus College of Art and Design for twenty years--lectured at First Unitarian Universalist Church at 7 pm. --She had a full house in the Community Room, and she was marvelous. There will be seven more 7 pm Thursday talks by Josephson.--What a bright spot on a sometimes bland cultural horizon. Josephson talked about evolutions in art and art history.
There wasn't a question or comment she couldn't respond to.--And the questions were sometimes a little off-topic! One of her explications was of the concept of how religous images were thought to heal. I reminded everyone of how Our Lady of Consolation, a statue and shrine less than a hunded miles away in Carey, Ohio, is
yet visited by thousands and . . . some come running, and are healed.
I have hopes for the ArtScene, and I'm working on being able to write on it out of my home.--As my friend Jack Kerouac. would have said,the beat goes on.
Oh, yes, I have a marvelous and instructive time making paper-and-paint-art at The Whetstone Recreation Center. JoAnn Holtrey a veteran instructor for the City
of Columbus, is just great at teaching and making art.--She can do anything! (And she has the patience, well, of one of Picasso's wives, which is saying a lot.

It's a wonderful art world! ART GRABS MY HEARTt

KENY GALLERY in German Village is showing the incredible ELIJAH PIERCE. The Keny entrepeneurs have wisely obtained the showing-rights to Pierce's works and are presenting the late, great Elijah Pierce's Woodcarvings (and Historic Amish Quilts)
This exhibit will not be "beat", as Elijah might say, in the Central Ohio area, nor to my thinking, anywhere. The quilts, traditional and wild, dance before the eyes yet manage to be sedate. Yes, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent are there.
Pierce was a long lived minister of the gospel, and his art-- call it primitive, spiritual, or narrative--has a whimsical life of its own. The Kenys are to be congratulated.
The quilts are worth a trip from Cleveland or Detroit. --Technical problems are disturbing me at present so I must leave things at that.---Go, go go ! Visit Keny Gallery on Beck Street. Look it up. There's only one Keny Gallery, or I'll be a camel in Elijah's (imaginary) Noah's Ark.

A NOT SO DELICATE BALANCE

EDWARD ALBEE's A DELICATE BALANCE opens at my favorite live/alive theatre
on February sixteenth, 2012. --So who's afraid of Virginia Woolfe/Wolf? I am.
There's grim and cutting edge humor in CCT's A DELICATE BALANCE. Albee knows how give family life a bitter lemon twist with sugar. . --Two's company,but when it comes to the addition of house guests, beware!
COLUMBUS CIVIC THEATER is at 3837 Indianola Avenue. There's usually ample parking very near by, and acoustics and visual aspects in the intimate, if austere, auditorium, are first rate. CCT's recent production of George Bernard Shaw's anti war frolic ARMS AND THE MAN was first rate. Again: CCT actors and their director Richard Albert, understand clarity, whimsy, and poetic prose.--Theyre just darn good
The laconic mover and shaker Albee was born in 1928, and
he's still running ahead of most of us! Run, Rabbit, run!
, Call 447 PLAY, or just show up and take your chances. This inobtrusive theater at 3837Indianola Avenue is a gem. You'll be able to hear every line and see each gesture, and that's all too rare.

HAMLET IN CLINTONVILLE

DIRECTED (yes, elegantly and sparely) BY RICHARD ALBERT,
William Shakespeare's HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK, will trod the boards at Columbus Civic Theatre, 3837 Indianola Avenue,on Thursdays, Fridays,Saturdays,thru June eleventh. BEN GORMAN is slightly short of stature-- but not of talent. His Hamlet is played with clarity, power, and appropriate understatement. Of course,the script is good too! Nobody "saws the air" Lighting and sets are minimal. The costumes are understated yet their hues suggest medieval gloom. Each player, even to the grave digger, speaks with authority.-- They know their places well. Again: the plays the thing, and it closes June eleventh

COOL FOR COLE, as in Cole Porter,should be delicious and intense.--Like the hyped up times Cole lived in! COLE runs from June 30 to July 23.
CALL 447- PLAY . Columbus Civic Theater resembles a water logged jewel box. It's at 3837 Indianola Avenue, and there is ample parking. Know your places well.

ART WITH AN ATTITUDE,: Don RICE,

DON RICE,-- press man,bibliophile, art lover,author,and scholar,-- has made possible a highly attractive and informative exhibit. ART WITH AN ATTITUDE will show through January 18at First Unitarian Church. In "ATTITUDE" the printed covers of underground magazines from the Sixties have been neatly , professionally, hung or rather strung, on a wire which serves, adroitly, as kind of a poly sci clothesline! The colors (on the suspended covers} are gorgeous . They re bright, clear, unadulterated,
yet subtle. There is something "Asian" about the simplicity of the images. And,after all, the ancient Chinese have solid histories as designers and print makers --On the whole these newsheet covers are as American
as Ohio pumpkin pie-- drive the chevy to the levy. . . The subjects of Feminism, Peace, Antiwar Struggles,s, BoyCots,Sit Ins-whatever--the social messages are clear, yet abstracted, and the designs and hues are gorgeous. There are many names and titles. Go see, remember. I thought I saw Joe McCarthy last night. as live as you and me--Believe me, Senator, Betty Friedan was no Sarah Palin and
hey time is but a stream I go a wishing in and if it's oil it will float..
*Snowed in and lost in a mass media blizzard Ill live to write another day --Whatever your politics, you'll find Art with An Attitude, to be
an amalgam of artists and printmakers. Intelligent and beautiful The colors and shapes glow.
Don Rice is the author of ART WITH AN ATTITUDE: The Golden Age of the Underground Press, 1960a thru 1970s. His exhibit is vital; it has a strong constitution.

SEEING RED

She's here! The poet's best friend, Autumn! She's dancing on a real cool wind. She leaps, ripping open her notebook!--The pages fly! Her red skirt flutters. It flies, she flies! I want my words to fly, the way I want my fatigue and my anger and my vhronic illness to fly!-- Away!, away away! I want the poet Shelley to fly on the West Wind and help me out! But, he's dead, and so are the other Romantics . (Except me, of course. I wanted to write an article and call it Seeing Red.(!) I wanted to tell everyone to see RON ANDERSON'S wonderful show at KIACA. This masterful CCAD instructor has created marvelous large paintings of contemporary "ladies of the night" in gold and deep red . Yes, they are decorative, "Period," and illustrative, --Yet, they are evidence of Anderson's control over his media, and they are very, very good.
The old/new Masters hang out at KIACA Gallery, and one of them is the Maestro himself, TALLE BAMAZE, who hales from Togo Land and New York!. Can Bamaze paint? Can red leaves fly?
MORE AUTUMN MAGIC IS BLOWIN ON THE WIND:
Memories, red leaves, red dance skirts. . . RED LIGHT, RED LETTER. DANCES OF REDEMPTION This choreography by MARIAH LAYNE FRENCH smouldered at COLUMBUS DANCE THEATRE 592 East Main Street during August,2010. The subject was not roses, but prostitution and kidnapping, and the settings --which are universal, included Col
lumbus, Ohio, and police reports and news items.-- The choreography is convincing, yes, "engaged" and was beautifully danced. It (the choreography)concerns the CRIME of prostitution. It includes the spoken and printed word and appropriate sound effects.

NEW SCENE FOR THE ARTSCENE

THURSDAY January 7, 2010!--A new year! Ive been sick, but I'm still writing: I intend to go on writing. . .

Snow. . . Ohio-Michigan-Indiana-snow. The white insinuates itself into everything. . . this cold coffee, the torn paper in the wastebasket. . . my white anklets. . . I won't freeze to death if I keep my hand moving on the keyboard. I can't actually see my breath but I pretend I do. . . I wonder if there is snow in Silver Spring Md., and if my sister Chris is writing about snow. I miss her too much. (Don't go there, Liz, you'll feel worse. . .)

The snow seeped into the TV last night while I stayed up late, watching RASPUTIN as played by LIONEL BARRYMORE. -- JOHN BARRYMORE, whom my mother recalled from her youth, played Prince Youssepof -- Well, he (Barrymore) certainly played the Russian guy who killed Rasputin -- and LIONEL BARRYMORE -- with a princely flourish, played "The Holy Devil," GREGORY RASPUTIN himself.

Black and white images oozed into the Ohio snow fields while I slept. . . My words caught on the naked berry bushes. . . My father owned too many books about the Russian Revolution, and I read them when I was far too young. -- I am a marked woman.

WINDBLOWN : Gusts of Autumn Art!

GO GO GO! IT WILL BE FANTASTIC.

LEON APPLEBAUM will visit his major exhibition at HAWK GALLERIES, 162 East Main, on October 24, 11 to 5 pm and October 25, 1 to 4 pm. This artist's work is FIRST CLASS and NOW! He's been working glass over thirty years. His post card image suggests two big GLASS truck tires (or maybe inner tubes) conjoined by glass and floating in space! -- Way to go Tom, it's at your place I once saw TAGLIPIETRA himself working in glass!

PASTELLY & ROMANTIC, -- Vivid, child-spirited watercolors by ALICE CARPENTER will show at SHARON WEISS, 20 East Lincoln, at the November HOP and onward. Pre-images suggest "youthful, spritly, thought provoking."

BERNIECE KOFF WILL SHOW her fabulous, fabulous, flowers -- at least one! -- in PATTERNS IN PAINT at THE LYLE, 615 East Town, to November 18. -- LYLE is a delight, a gorgeous, eclectic, much needed space, an up-to-date new old home! And Koff continues to dare -- in colors and shapes! She has a splendid original way of using her compositional space!

STARRING ALICE SCHILLE: She was independent, often congenial, always keen and engaged -- a sometimes teacher to boot! AND SHE HAD STYLE! She painted independently and often alone and faraway. A world traveler in a tentative era for women. She was a gracious, determined woman who possessed an adventurous spirit and quiet technical ability. Yet, she returned yearly, well, almost yearly, to teach and to paint in Columbus. As curated by JAMES M KENY of KENY GALLERY (in German Village, Columbus, Ohio) the exhibit features Schille's work from 1902 to 1914. -- We all know what dislodged the European sojourns of U.S. artists from 1914 to 1917! During her career Schille painted -- as did her "ancestor," Mary Cassatt -- Dutch-clad toddlers; she captured desert scenes, painted dignified portraits, and solemn donkeys. Highly skilled at drawing, she could render horses, camels, and run-abouts. Her colors glowed; they did not blaze. She was often a woman alone painting outdoors, plein air. She understood flowers, gardens, and high fashion. What to wear for brunch, outdoors, with wicker chairs. She was always learning and practicing. You must see her work for yourselves in ALICE SCHILLE, THE EARLY YEARS, 1902-1914. THE SCHUMACHER is on the Fourth Floor Library at CAPITAL UNIVERSITY, College & Main in Columbus.

ALSO FROM KENY TO COLUMBUS: IN the Schumacher Show Case, works of the techno poetic MICHAEL McEWAN. McEWAN, as was SCHILLE, is a much admired teacher and a very substantial painter. -- I can't wait to see the new works. McEwan knows how to paint, and his students consider themselves lucky!

DOROTHY GILL BARNES in a fresh tradition of earliest Ohio -- combines with talents of BLAIR DAVIS and ADAM BRADLEY -- to offer a major sculpture presentation: GENERATIONS: MARKS IN TIME opens October 22, 6 to 8 pm, in the new PEGGY McCONNELL ART CENTER OF WORTHINGTON, 160 West Dublin Granville Road. Everything in Gill Barnes' work uses material from the Olentangy River Flood Plain. Way to go!

SEPTEMBER FIREWORKS! (IN ART!)

ART ON FIRE! SEPTEMBER ART SPARKS from LIZ: A PANOPLY!
Written on September 18, 2009.

-- In case you're interested, and I know you are: AREO PROSE GROUP will meet on OCTOBER 15, 2:30 pm,at AREOPAGITCA BOOK STORE. (Third Thursday) -- LIZ, that's me, plans to discuss literature about Florence Harding and her husband, President Warren G. Harding of Marion, Ohio. -- YOU ARE INVITED. Our sessions always include time for conversation and the sharing of work. Rebecca Rutledge, AREO proprietor, kindly makes tea. coffee, and cookies, available.

ART DANCES; DANCE WITH ART: And, be sure to dance around the art fires burning in the Columbus area! -- which includes Worthington, Upper Arlington, Grandview, and adjacent areas.

TO October 17 at SCHUMACHER GALLERY: LEE & GRANT. This exhibition features selections from the Civil War Collection of the Motts Military Museum, Groveport, Ohio, and was organized by the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia. It shows at Capital University Fourth Floor Library, Monday--Saturday, 1 to 5 pm. Worthy of at least an hour.

THE OHIO CRAFT MUSEUM, 1665 West Fifth Avenue, presents CONVERSATIONS IN FABRIC as curated by Linda Fowler and Tracy Rieger. The post card image, by Susan She, should tweak everyone's curiosity!

FROM THE MARVELOUS KENY GALLERY TO SCHUMACHER: The One the only ALICE SCHILLE: THE EARLY YEARS 1902-1914. Without ALICE SCHILLE -- traveler, recorder of journeys, teacher, painter extraordinary, -- the art lights in Columbus would dim considerably. The reception for the Schumacher exhibition will be Friday November 13, 5 to 7:30 pm. The exhibit opens October 27 and runs to December 5. Aren't we lucky?

MICHAEL McEWAN's DIVERSE LANDSCAPES will show at the marvelous Keny Galleries through October 5, 2009. McEwan's art, glowing depictions of the Ohio countryside -- including Hoover Dam -- is, well, tranquil yet glowing. This artist understands: the manipulation of oil paint, the natural world, and light. He has "the gift to paint simple." -- So what else could be necessary? KENY GALLERY is at 300 East Beck Street in the German Village section of Columbus.

In the CONCOURSE GALLERY to October 23 work inspired by Italy. Everything at CONCOURSE -- which is located in the (UPPER ARLINGTON) Municipal Services Center 1600 Tremont -- is always first class. Whenever I'm able, I attend Concourse Openings which are fabulous and yummy and provide good music. -- A fabulous space with art that's always spanking new!

THE ART HOUSE IS ON FIRE! CHIHULY XIV opens October 2 at the beautiful HAWK GALLERY 153 East Main Street. Call 614-225-9595 to reserve a spot at the opening. CHIHULY is the Glass Master without compare, and he understand public art.

MAHAN, MAHAN: MAHAN Gallery is so cool it's hot in fact almost beyond NOW, it's THE NOW ART SPOT. FRESH MEAT will show there, 717 North High, until September 26. The title says it all, or provokes all. Again, 717 North High.

At 2731 Innes Road, WOODSCAPE ART STUDIO, JERRY TOLLIFSON's art is solid. In more ways than one. His sculptures have even been controversial! The exhibit is titled SYSTEMS OF PARADOX, and can be viewed 2 pm to 6 pm on September 20, 27, or October 4 and 11.

CURTIS GOLDSTEIN will show at the Ohio State University Faculty Club to October 23, and this guy is good. He can paint anything; his scapes can't be beat. We wish him luck and think he is an A#1 artist. In November and December at the Faculty Club: ELAINE FREEMAN, JUDITH HAZEN, ANASTASIA HOROWITZ, BECKY TAFT. Again, I'm familiar with the work of these artists and they are above first rate! The spirit of Anita Loos will hover.

UP AT RGBLIV, where art is always explosive and that's good, the 20th Anniversary juried Exhibition will be fabulous.

LUC TUYMANS OPENS AT THE WEX September 17. Members get in free, general public $5. It's a steal. Find out more at wexarts.org or call 614-292-3535.

The COLUMBUS CENTER FOR PAPER AND BOOK ARTS at EUROPEAN PAPERS will present 25 artists who will work on forms, as in dress dummy forms! October 3, 3 to 5:00 pm, meet the show artists at an Autumn Open House.

Last and far far from least, RICCARDO DAVENPORT, A 25 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE, shows at KIACA GALLERY to October 25 with an artist's talk on October 11, 3 to 4 pm. Be there. Talle Bamazi, artist and director at KIACA is a story in himself. As a painter he's powerful and as a raconteur, unbeatable.

-- I love looking at Art in THE RHODES STATE OFFICE TOWER LOBBY, and until September 30, you can see COLUMBUS: THE CROSSROADS OF OHIO, a don't-miss! I met some of the fabulous artists who are showing there, when I attended the Columbus Free Press Second Saturday Salon at Editor/Author Bob Fitrakis' historic 1900 mansion on East Broad. The house is an historic piece of art, and Fitrakis regaled me with tales which included that Eugene Debs adored the work of poet Whitcomb Riley.

COME HEAR LIZ AND BE A SUPPORTIVE PRESENCE On October 15 at AREOPAGITICA, 3510 North High. I will include James Wright's fantastic poems about Marion, Ohio, the locust trees, and the Hardings, -- Florence and "Warn" -- with whom at one non-smoke-filled time, my father's aunts played croquet. My mother often told me, "When I was growing up my foks talked about THEM: I can remember, your Grandma and Grandpa would say the Hardings did this, the Hardings did that," meaning the Hardings represented the apex of style and fashion, and people imitated them. -- Among the present generation of my family, however, Republicans are few and far between! -- And President Grant is looking better and better!