Angela updated Nine Ravens with the following:

I am the Fire around you.
I am the spark of life within you.
I am the flame burning through you.
I am all that I am.

Behold, there is magic all around us.
Behold, there is magic all around us.
Behold, there is magic all around us.
Awaken! Rejoice! Sing!

– from “Behold” by Abbi Spinner

To see the original post, click here.

Image in this post is Surrounded by Sacred Fire by Angela Raincatcher, 2010 from the original post.

Picked by: RB

Why: The food at B. Smith’s is good southern cooking, and Art Enables is awesome.

Details from Art Enables:

This Wednesday already. Tomorrow. TODAY maybe
(depending on when you open this)
B. Smith’s @ Union Station
6:00 – 7:30
Wine & hors d’oeuvres
celebrating the opening of

Art Made Large

In the Cabinet Room, works on canvas by the artists of

Art Enables

The event is free and open to the public. You are welcome to bring your friends.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

This East City Art posts previews the upcoming show at Connor Contemporary Art. It will feature John Kirchner’s Infinity, John Stark’s Mercurial Complex, and Susan McWilliam’s Video. An excerpt:

“Conner Contemporary Art will present three concurrent solo exhibitions featuring a sculptural installation and opening night performance by John Kirchner, a new cycle of oil paintings by John Stark and recent video by Susan MacWilliam.

JOHN KIRCHNER

Infinity is a large-scale sculpture installation by John Kirchner. To create his 4th solo exhibition with the gallery, the DC-based artist physically and metaphorically deconstructs a 26 foot boat. The Chris-Craft cabin cruiser, named ‘Infinity’, was built and marketed in 1955, the year of Kirchner’s birth. Reconstructing the vessel in the exhibition space, Kirchner re-interprets the boat’s social symbolism, turning the American dream, and the world-view that gave rise to it, on its head.

Kirchner converses with certain artistic traditions as he transforms the pleasure cruiser from a faded symbol of status and progress into a monumental parable about human nature. Known for making irreverent interventions with historied objects, Kirchner often draws upon the conceptualism of Surrealism and Arte Povera. In his new work, he explores the themes of power and vulnerability in Hieronymus Bosch’s parody of the Ship of Fools and Michelangelo’s depiction of The Deluge in the Sistine Chapel.

Presenting a live performance in the gallery during the opening night reception, Kirchner will confront viewers with a provocative allegory of the human condition.

JOHN STARK

Mercurius Duplex is John Stark’s first solo exhibition in the U.S. An innovator in the dark undercurrent of London’s contemporary art scene, Stark integrates styles and themes from recent and past artistic traditions to form his own system of meaning. The London-based artist makes his much anticipated American debut with a powerful new series of paintings in oil on wood panel.

The show’s title, meaning ‘Dual Mercury,’ reflects the artist’s conception of his work as a Mercurial marriage of ‘high’ and ‘low’ art. Stark’s paintings contain a world of desolate landscapes, imaginary destinations appearing at moments in crisp, exacting detail, only to dissolve into light or mist elsewhere. Never giving away too much information, or surrendering to academic formulas, he converses easily with traditions of landscape and figure painting, while also evoking colorful sci-fi posters, or sublime filmic vistas.

Stark presents us, in one painting, with a spare, moonlit terrain that echoes the cool stillness of Caspar David Friedrich. In another, he conjures the cosmic symbolism of Albrecht Altdorfer and Matthias Grunewald, painting a vivid sunrise, glowing with otherworldly colors, and lit with hints of meteorological phenomena. Stark updates these German masters with pop culture references, populating his unattainable, foreboding spaces with skulls and grim, hooded figures, which can read dually, as memento mori, or as death/metal insignia.”

Click here to read the complete post. Visit the gallery’s website here to learn more about the exhibit.

Image in the post is John Stark’s The Fall, from the East City Art post.

In this post Tammy Vitale describes two different, yet similarly joyful ways to move through life, to saunter and to sashay. Here is an excerpt:

“The Universe sent out (as always) an interesting note for the day this past week: ‘Expect miracles, Tammy. Don’t attach to unimportant details. Don’t insist ‘how’ your dreams will come true. Prepare to be amazed. Feel the joy when you daydream. Take baby steps in the dark. Every single day physically do something about your dreams. And most important, saunter.’

I posted it on my FaceBook because ‘saunter’ seemed like a good thing to do – my definition: stroll with attitude. Which sounded like a good practice since between Mercury going retrograde and the Full Moon I was anything but sauntering around. More stamping and stomping than sauntering.

Dreams will come true. Prepare to be amazed. Feel the joy when you daydream. Take baby steps in the dark. Every single day physically do something about your dreams. And most important, saunter.’

It spiked a discussion in which FB friend Sue noted that she likes sashay better, and of course it sounded even better to me than saunter because my Momma used to say: ‘You sashay yourself right over here, Yung’un’ when I was maybe going a bit out of my boundaries (not necessarily good as a yung’un but waaaay good at my age).

I think words sort of take on their own meanings with use. Often those meanings are couched in the story where the word finds itself. For instance: I love you can mean: I want to have sex with you; I want to spend my life with you; you make me feel at my best; I want you to just change this little thing about yourself; I want you to wait on me because I’m needy; I want you to think and feel for me because I can’t, etc.

When I think of ‘sashay’ my story includes a taste of spice, a hint of saucy and a good portion sassy. Saunter has a story, yes, and it can be a very self-possessed one. But sashay is a whole ‘nother thing. It’s quicker, lighter on its feet and absolutely full of itself.

I looked up sashay. Turns out it refers to chasse, a dance step, which is any 3-part step that is: step, together, step. Which brought sashay into a whole new light for me.

Step: movement; together: rest, reflect on that movement; step: next movement.
It can be forward, backwards, sideways or circular.

As Fabeku would say: a true case of awesomeness! (or something else that sounds much more boisterously joyful but you get the idea). Along with a bit of the exotic in the sound and a whole lotta ‘You Go Woman!’ in the execution.

I think I must now sashay though life. I don’t have to move forward (big, bigger, biggest, BIGGER, BIGGEREST as urged by way more than one internet guru these days), I can move sideways or even backwards for a while (wait! I have to go back and see what just happened…rebuild a bit…rethink a bit), reflect, and then decide on where I want to go next.”

Click here to read the complete post.

Image in the post is Vitale’s Saunter, from her post.

By: KB

Why: With all of the controversy surrounding illegal immigration and immigration reform, it’s important for Mexican art and culture to be part of the conversation.

From the National Gallery of Art film series webpage:

“GenMex: A New Generation of Cine Mexicano
September 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25
East Building Concourse, Auditorium
In a memorable year for Mexico—2010 marks both the bicentennial of independence from Spain and the 100th anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution—it’s also becoming abundantly clear that fresh directorial talents are invigorating the burgeoning pool of distinctive cinema known as Nuevo Cine Mexicano, one of the world’s most dynamic national cinema movements. This series includes the work of eight filmmakers. Presented in association with the Mexican Cultural Institute and the Embassy of Mexico. The Gallery wishes to thank Carlos Gutiérrez.”

Image in the post is of the Mexican Cultural Institute, a co-sponsor of the event along with the Mexican Embassy, as the post mentions.