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Salvador Casco on the Emergence of Expression

Recently, I was invited to participate in a Career Day event hosted by Northern Virginia Family Services. The event brought together professionals from various fields; a videographer, a reporter, an event promoter, a financial analyst, a policeman and myself – a contemporary artist. The event was hosted to inform youth, at risk of becoming involved in gang activities, of career opportunities. I took with me a selection of paintings, which were placed around the room. I gave a brief history of my artistic life, and talked about key points of my creative process and techniques. Later I had a chance to meet with the students and answer their questions. I’m hoping that the participants were able to get something from my words, and my paintings, and that I might have influenced them to make a turn for the better.

I grew up in a small town where electricity was a luxury. In pitch-dark nights, my mom took me outside to contemplate the stars, and I would make fanciful configurations with the constellations. She has told me that she knew then that I was an artist; that she was aware of my sense of wonder and curiosity at nature and the universe. My view in the morning was equally inspiring. I woke to un-obstructed panoramic views of glorious sun rises, with their ever changing warm color compositions. The morning and the evening both guided me to the path of creativity, and made me appreciative of the transformative powers of the elements. To this day, nature is a springboard for my imagination. The morphing of the clouds in a semi-clear blue sky, and the scribbles left on the beach by thousand of tiny snails after a receding tide, are inspirations for the inexhaustible nature that I reference in my work.

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Drawing has been a critical part of my artistic development. During my elementary school years, I drew not just for the simple pleasure of it, but for my teachers. My teachers would request my assistance in executing all kinds of drawings on black boards. There were many times when my lessons were interrupted by a teacher walking into the classroom, asking for my assistance in another room. Drawing then was about depicting what I saw; now my work is solely about expression. I aim for non-objectivity as much as possible, hoping that my state of mind will surface in the work. I enable this transparency by working with scribbles – indistinct markings that generate a collective energy, motion, and image. Sometimes figures find their way into the final product. I’m not sure if the scribbles are gravitating to or away from figures, or a literal representation. My drawings are warm ups for my paintings. I am likely to carry some of the gestures on into my paintings.

Texture is an overriding trait in most of my paintings. I get a lot of satisfaction at not being able to tell for certain the surface of a painting. I use all kinds of paints mixed with spices and coffee grounds to achieve a somewhat gritty and sandy texture. In the past, I’ve used cinnamon, ginger, turmeric – which have distinctive scents. I enjoy that the outcome of those works are a gift for the sense of sight, and also a gift to the sense of smell.

Currently I spend much of my time working in my studio in Columbia Heights, in Northwest, Washington, DC. I’m working with inks, dyes, acrylics and oils on a variety of surfaces. My desire is to communicate with the viewer my deep and profound appreciation of the exuberance of the human experience. I believe that the emergence of expression is a central element of my humanity. My artistic process is an essential part of my emergence as a human; I hope that my work inspires the emergence of others. It is satisfying for me as an artist to engage with that intent as I create. Works can be seen at my studio by appointment and at my web site.

Growing up in El Salvador, attending Art School at Bucknell University, and living in the United States for thirty years, are integral factors that have contributed to my artistic development and my ability to communicate. I have shown at Moore College of Art and Design, The Drawing Center and Columbia University. More recently, I participated in Artomatic 2009 and contributed paintings for Art Without Frontiers, a show held at The Mexican Cultural Institute. To view some of my works go to www.cascoart.com, or contact me at chamba321@aol.com

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Cindy Coldiron on Creating Cast Recycled Glass Public Art

I was recently awarded an Arlington County Public Art grant to create a group of kiln-cast recycled glass sculptural works. I’ll be creating the works over the next few months, and they will be installed in a county park next spring.

From the time I was a child I was always fascinated with how various decorative objects were made. My grandmother had collected affordable art glass and ceramics, and I became a collector myself in my teens. Beginning in the mid 1990’s, I started taking art classes through the Arlington County recreation program. I took classes in pottery, cloth weaving, basket weaving, and painting. But the class that really created an intense continuing interest was a stained glass class taught by the artist Jimmy Powers (who is now a resident artist at the Lorton Arts Center). During one class, Jimmy brought in a small kiln and mentioned fusing glass. I was instantly drawn to kiln-cast glass sculpture – it combined my love of 3-D sculpture with glass.

Ten years ago next month I won two grand championships at the Arlington County Fair – including for a glass vessel called “Pond Life”. After my initial wins, I was so enthused with art competitions that I began to enter professional level juried art shows – starting with the Torpedo factory and the former Wilson Center gallery in Washington DC. I decided to set up my own art glass business in late 2000. I worked for years creating vessels from a glass purchased for fusing, but the rising costs of the glass prohibited me from working on a larger and thicker scale.

Glass-w-extra-space-littleThree years ago I began experimenting with making sculpture from recycled glass (including bottles, window glass, and table top glass.) Creating work from recycled glass has forced me to learn a whole new set of technical skills. Each type of glass reacts differently when you work with it, depending on a number of factors. Glass expands and contracts upon heating and cooling and it does so at different rates depending on its coefficients of expansion (COE.) If the COE of all the glass in a piece is not the same – or near the same – the piece will crack upon cooling.

The glass used to create most art glass comes from sheets pre-tested for fusing compatibility. Recycled glass, in contrast, has various unknown COE’s. Window and bottle glass (also known as “float glass”) are an inexpensive source of glass, but the COE’s can range greatly from bottle to bottle, even for the exact same product. Until three years ago I had always used glass from the same large sheets for my kiln-cast sculptures. To create my new work, I have done compatibility tests and found a few types of bottle glass that do tend to work with each other.

Recycled glass is also different in that it has to be fired at higher temperatures to get it to melt in a kiln. When you create glass pieces you frequently fire the work multiple times. I’ve found that with recycled glass I get about three attempts to fire and re-fire the same piece of glass (at temperatures over 1600 degrees) before the glass stiffens up and does not want to flow. Between firings, the cooled piece is cold worked with various sanders, dremel tools, tile saws, etc. in order to remove the mold casting materials, kiln wash and rough edges.

I am hopeful that people will appreciate my artwork when it goes up, and also that the work will bring increased attention to the uses of recycled glass. Glass comprises a large amount – by both volume and weight – of the post-consumer waste stream. I hope my work will inspire others to explore new uses for recycled materials, including glass.

This is a permanent installation piece where all the pieces work together to give a cohesive theme/message. What the viewer will see is a series of cast recycled glass dragonflies (18 inches or so each) all on a huge round mound flying towards a blue glass “pond” vessel. The theme is destination, and the sculpture conveys activity, a goal. I’m very proud to have received this commission, and hope you’ll follow my ongoing work on the public art project by looking at http://myartgrant.blogspot.com.

In the years since becoming a professional artist, my work has been exhibited at numerous juried shows and exhibitions, including the former Wilson Center Gallery in NW Washington, DC, the Art League (Torpedo Factory) in Alexandria, Virginia; the Washington Square Sculpture shows; corporate exhibitions; and “Art Anonymous” at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. I have won numerous awards including a recent public art grant from Arlington County. I have studied art through Arlington County classes, the Millennium Arts Center (predecessor to the Washington Glass School); the Art League at the Torpedo factory and at the Lorton Wokrhouse Arts Center. My artist website is at http://artist-cindyann.tripod.com.

Cem Catbas on Creating Scheherazade for the Baltimore Ballet

Every now and then I find myself sitting at the kitchen table, or at a restaurant, trying to decide what I want to do for the next year. It is never an easy decision, because you have to assess your resources. You always have limited money, time, and support, but unlimited passion. I decided last year that it was time for me to introduce “Scheherazade” to Baltimore. A gem of the Ballet Russes choreographed almost a century ago, the dancing is exotic and classical, and the music (by Rimsky-Korsakov) is flavorful and touching. I realized that I would have to restage the ballet for a smaller and more tentative cast than the original production, and began the creative process for my company and myself by studying various existing productions.

I started rehearsing the lead role with my partner in early March. Our pas de deux (dance for two) is 10 minutes long, demanding memory and stamina, yet does not contain particularly strenuous lifts. After the first half hour, it became obvious to both of us that all we needed was rehearsal time. We danced together in “Les Sylphides” recently, and have comfort dancing together.

I also started rehearsing the roles of The Persian King and his brother in March. Their interaction in the first and the third scenes is important in understanding the whole plot. I approached their choreography as if it was a new choreography. We began with the bare minimum cued to the music (we called it “the skeleton.”) By introducing subplots, I made them think and learn from each other. In coaching the development of their performances, I believe that “Less is more” only when you are comparing two different qualities. Any other time less is less, and more is more.

I started corps rehearsals with the Three Odalisques, a beautiful trio executing belly-dance-like movements. Since I was born in Turkey where belly dancing is a way of life, I retained the choreography, but added my own interpretation (which in my humble opinion makes it better.) I brought a DVD of a recent performance for the dancers to watch at the first rehearsal. Although this may seem like cheating, it’s actually a fairly common rehearsal practice. Dancers are frequently so busy with their own corrections during the rehearsal time that they can fail to capture the whole picture which for an artistic director, must remain the most important thing. Helping the dancers to see themselves within the whole picture speeds up the preparation period and makes the artistic director job easier.

I could not start working with the full corps de ballet till the following week (end of March), because I needed to be sure who was able to commit. By that time I had divided the ballet into three scenes, making it easier to schedule separate rehearsals for everyone. When working in a semi-professional situation, it is particularly difficult to be able to rehearse with the whole cast all the time. Someone is always either sick, having personal problems, or is injured. I read that Balanchine had similar problems in his early years in NY, and that is why he choreographed Serenade with different number of girls in each scene. Trying to mount a professional production under these circumstances can take a toll on you because you strive for perfection that at every step is unattainable. Much great choreography that we like today had been revised and re-staged with a different cast countless times. They are not a product of a single creator but a collaboration of many talented artists over time.

Now one week before the performance date, I finally see my dancers transforming into artists. In any live performance, the beginning is what grabs the Goucher College Performance spaceaudiences’ attention, and the ending is what they will always remember. If what happens in between is good, you will have a great performance. When my dancers do well in the studio, I always say: ‘Good.’ If they can do it that way with the makeup, costumes, lights, sets and a little bit of stage magic in the presence of an audience, it will be “Great.”

Our performance is on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 from 5:00-7:45pm at Goucher College’s Kraushaar Auditorium. To purchase tickets for this performance please call (410) 667-7974, or email directors@baltimoreballet.com.

Cem Catbas, Artistic Director of Baltimore Ballet School, and co-founder and Director of Baltimore Ballet Company, danced principal roles with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, the Istanbul Contemporary Ballet, and the Koblenz Ballet in Germany. Awards he has won include the 2006 and 2002 Individual Artist Award for excellence in solo dance performance from the Maryland State Arts Council, 1st prize in the 1st International Seleznyov Ballet Competition in 1991, and the Most Promising Dancer award from the city of Istanbul. He has a B.F.A. with honors from the Istanbul University State Conservatory where he studied with Ramazan Bapov, Nikolai Morozov, and Ludmilla Morkovina. He has worked with Ben Stevenson (Houston Ballet), Patricia Wilde (NYC Ballet), Marianna Tcherkassky and Terrence Orr (ABT), Richard Glasstone (Istanbul Ballet), and Kent Stowell (Pacific Northwest Ballet), among others. He has choreographed “The Nutcracker”, “Pictures at an Exhibition”, “A Gershwin Rhapsody”, “Carnival of the Animals”, excerpts from “Petrouschka” and “Scheherezade”, and staged “Les Sylphides,” the 2nd act of “Giselle”, “Swan Lake” and “La Bayadere” for Baltimore Ballet. He has been a judge for several competitions including the Frederick Arts Council. His students have gone on to dance professionally, have won numerous awards including 1st Prize at the regional Youth America Grand Prix Competition, and have been accepted into the most prestigious summer programs with full scholarships (including NYC Ballet’s School of American Ballet). He has been interviewed on WMAR-TV, WJZ-TV, and Comcast Local Edition. He has given Master Classes in the US, Canada, and Europe.

“Hooray for Bollywood!” by Laurel Victoria Gray

On June 20th the Silk Road Dance Company (SRDC) will present my new full-length, Bollywood-themed dance concert at Harmony Hall. The term ”Bollywood” refers to India’s enormous Hindi-language film industry that is located in Bombay (now known as ”Mumbai.”) Although Bollywood choreographies originally drew from Indian classical and folk dance, other genres like jazz, hip hop, and even belly dance have recently entered the mix. Bollywood movies have an innocent optimism, an infectious charm, and an unabashed sense of melodrama that paints the world in bright colors — just like the old Hollywood musicals of the Depression years.

When I received the invitation to create this show, just two months ago, it came as a surprise — and a challenge. While SRDC performs throughout the year, we usually spend about 18 months preparing a new evening length concert. And, SRDC usually performs traditional Persian, Turkic, and Arabic dance from the Silk Road and Middle East and only a few Indian or Bollywood dances. But from my point of view this invitation was kismet, or fate, since my infatuation with Indian movies began decades ago when I was immediately enraptured after my first glimpse of dance scenes from the famous film “Pakeezah.”

After watching countless Indian films, I made my first stab at creating Bollywood style movements – for one of my Joy of Motion dance classes – in 2003. This was extremely audacious since I am not an Indian dance specialist, but the Hollywood flavor of the choreographies was familiar ground. My students loved the experiment, and enjoyed the idea of a Bollywood choreography. My first full Bollywood choreography, with over 50 dancers, set to the song “Aa Tayar Hoja” from the movie Asoka, became the finale of my 2003 student concert at the Publick Playhouse in Cheverly, Maryland, and got a great audience response.

Since then I have created nine Bollwood inspired choreographies and most of them will be in our June 20th concert. This concert pays homage to Bollywood by visiting some of the subjects most common in Indian film choreographies. Our selections, set to compelling music from beloved films including Lagaan, Asoka, Bombay, Bride and Prejudice, and Slumdog Millionaire, should strike a familiar chord with Bollywood film fans.

In creating a Bollywood-inspired choreography, my expertise in Central Asian dance is a great help. There is a marked kinship between Indian Kathak and classical Uzbek dance. This stems from the Turkic leader Babur who conquered India in 1526. Through Babur and his descendants, the Central Asian Muslim Turkic culture has intertwined with North Indian Hindu culture to create the great Mogul dynasty. There are many elements in Kathak dance — spins, gestures and poses — that echo classical Uzbek dance. So while many of the dance steps are familiar, mastering the precise styling, facial expressions and hand gestures has been challenging for the dancers (like achieving a native accent in a foreign language.)

Over the years, my company and I have benefited from artistic collaborations with members of the Virginia-based Indian Dance Educators Association (IDEA). IDEA teachers, including Jayantee Paine-Ganguly, Christel Stevens and Asha Vattikuti have been very generous with their time and expertise. In this concert we will be joined by Jayantee Paine-Ganguly and her advanced Kathak students. Jayantee’s participation will introduce the audience to classical Indian dance, taking them beyond Bollywood. It may remind audiences of those great, old film scenes that utilize strong elements from Kathak dance.

Some classical Indian dance professionals actually look down on Bollywood dance because it is a degradation of the elegant, classical styles. (And it is.) I understand their position, because I sometimes feel the same way about the misrepresentation of traditional Arabic dance, including belly dance, by Western performers and the media. At the same time, Bollywood dance has an endearing appeal, and in these times of woe anything that brings people together to dance with shared joy should be celebrated. Some of us will have to wait for our next incarnation to devote our lives to the serious study of classical Indian dance. In the meanwhile, we can enjoy dancing to lively Bollywood tunes in beautiful costumes and maybe, just maybe, learn a little more about Indian culture — like Hindi song lyrics!

silkroaddancecompanybollywoodghoomarrajastaniwebPerhaps the popularity of Bollywood resonates with our desire for tribal identity, our dreams of a global village where everyone miraculously knows the same songs and dances. After all, Bollywood is a community-oriented phenomenon. In Bollywood films, dance is typically performed with friends, family, neighbors — and even complete strangers.

As a costume designer, my challenge for this concert has been to create different color palettes and costume styles for each piece, aiming overall to recreate the opulence and glamour of Bollywood films. I hope that exposure to an evening of Indian color sense will convince the audience that, of course, purple and red really do go together – just like saffron and magenta, parrot green and scarlet, hot pink and orange….

One of SRDC’s favorite guest artists, Ahmad Maaty, will once again team up with the company, as will members of Ensemble Mumtaz and the Good Karma Bollywood Dance Team. Actress Catherine Frels will serve as the charming Mistress of Ceremonies, guiding the audience through the intricacies of Bollywood plot conventions. Choreographic highlights will include a Rajastani folk dance, a visit to a magical temple, a candlelight ritual and — of course — a wedding party!

But just like in the movies, there are many obstacles along our silken road to Bollywood. Will this concert all come together in time? Will the protagonists find love and happiness — and a red lengha choli set? The only way to find out is to join us on June 20th.

HOORAY FOR BOLLYWOOD! a Bollywood Dance Concert
June 20, 2009 8 PM @ Harmony Hall [10701 Livingston Road Fort Washington, Maryland]
Tickets: $20 general admission; $15 students and seniors
Order by phone: 301-203-6040

An internationally acclaimed dancer, scholar, educator, and choreographer, Laurel Victoria Gray is the Artistic Director of Washington DC’s award-winning Silk Road Dance Company (SRDC). Founded in 1995, SRDC specializes in traditional women’s dance from Silk Road cultures and the Islamic World.

In 2007, Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Culture awarded Gray was awarded an honorary doctorate for her pioneering work in bringing Central Asian dance to the West. She is also the recepient of the Metro DC Dance Award (2006) for Excellence in Costume Design; the Distinguished Service Award from the Embassy of Uzbekistan (2005); the Kennedy Center Local Dance Commissioning Project Award (2003); and the International Academy of Middle Eastern Dance (IAMED) Awards for Best Choreographer (2003) and Best Ethnic Dancer (1999).

Gray’s scholarly articles have appeared in many publications including the Oxford University Press International Encyclopedia of Dance, the World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theater, the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, the Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Culture as well as Dance magazine and foreign journals. In 1984, she founded the Uzbek Dance and Culture Society and in 1994 established the annual Central Asian Dance Camp. Gray has taught “Dances of the Middle East” at George Washington University and George Mason University.

Jackie Hoysted on her Solo Show: Afternoons – Where Drawing Meets Painting

Countdown has begun and I’m wrapping up final decisions for my show “Afternoons – Where Drawing Meets Painting” which will open Friday July 10th in the Fisher Gallery at the Schlesinger Arts Center in Alexandria, VA. You might think it’s a bit early to be finishing a mid-July show, but I used to be an IT project manager and have had more than my share of the horror of praying for miracles at the last moment. There is satisfaction in being a bore, and well prepared (even if it doesn’t seem cool.)

With the insightful guidance of the gallery manager, Megan Peritore, the much dreaded artist statement and press release are written, and the postcards will go to print in the coming week. All I have to do is select the work, make final presentation decisions and stick to them. Sounds like it would be easy…

I will be exhibiting from a body of works, upwards of fifty, that I have created over the last eighteen months. These works are a mixture of drawings of the nude and clothed model. Depending on the length of the drawing session, they range from demure illustrative-type works, to works that detail obsessive preoccupation with the sad empty gaze of a model in the long pose. For those who haven’t experienced drawing a model: there’s a particular exquisite human vulnerability in the expressive constant of a model’s sitting.

how-men-really-are-by-jackie-hoystead-framed-for-webI have had my husband Prem play judge and jury and select his picks. I have also had my good friend, and fellow artist, Lisa Rosenstein make her selections. But I am the Artistic Director of my shows, and the decision is mine. I will pick the drawings that I think best activate the paper, and evoke a strong human emotion. I expect this show to deliver a visual statement about what I am trying to achieve through my mark making, and to suggest where I am going in the future. Presenting my artwork, even in a solo show, I must control how my work is presented. I’ve complained to friends and colleagues that many exhibitions are more like interior design exhibits than art showcases. (You might know what I mean: the type of exhibit where you enter the space, take in the beautifully appointed wall pieces and feel no compunction to actually view any of the art.) I have to consider the presentation of the artwork, and the organization of the space, in order to appropriately focus attention on the work itself.

I’ve been checking out how other artists are presenting their art to see what works. Within the last month I’ve gone to the Hirshhorn in D.C., and the MOMA and The Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, to check out what others are doing. What I’ve learned is that I must first decide on the overall impression I want the viewer to have when he/she first enters my exhibition space and then decide how each individual work should be framed. For this exhibition, the entire body of work has been executed with acrylic on pastel paper. The works are vivid, contemporary, and vulnerable. I want the space around them to feel crisp, uptight and precise. I want each individual artwork to achieve a sense of coolness and detachment.

Several months ago I sent out five of my works to be professionally framed. I spent less than a half hour with the framer, as we quickly agreed on floating the artwork, and using a simple black metal frame. When I got the work back I was disappointed – there was nothing wrong with the framing job per se, but it just seemed to barelythere_smdiminish the artwork. This was a costly mistake on my part – I had not been clear about what I wanted and the look I wanted to achieve. I have learned not to assume that a framer will make the right framing decision for me. There is no such a thing as a neutral frame.

Framing is very costly and it can be prohibitively expensive to change a poor framing choice. For this upcoming show at the Fisher Gallery I will be exhibiting around 15 mid sized works, 1 large and several small works. But this will be the first and smallest of three upcoming solo shows of my figure drawings. I have an exhibition in Jan 2010 at the Delaplaine Arts Center, Frederick, MD, followed by a show in Glenview Mansion, Rockville, MD in November 2010. Whatever decisions I make on framing now will influence how my work is presented for the next few years. I’ve invested days in researching picture molding, and archival mounting techniques, and comparing prices for molding and matting options at online framing shops (Framing4Yourself.com, AmericanFrame.com and Framingsupplies.com.) I’m considering buying picture molding online, and combining it with backing and mounting materials (like Acrylite, Gatorfoam and Coroplast) cut from sheets to my specifications by the plastics distributor Piedmont Plastics in Beltsville, MD. I’m currently waiting for the samples to arrive to make final choices, and to decide whether I want to tackle the job by myself or have a framer do it for me. At the moment I’m inclined to do the former – it hurts when you pay a professional to do a job and it is less than what you expected.

I’m very excited for this first show, Afternoons – Where Drawings Meets Painting that will run July 10th – August 7th, 2009. The opening reception is July 10th, 7-9pm. I’ll give a brief artists talk at 8pm on the July 10th. I hope you’ll come enjoy the exhibit, and would love to hear what you think of the work. The Margaret W. and Joseph L. Fisher Art Gallery is located within the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center at 3001 North Beauregard Street, Alexandria, Virginia. Call (703)845-6156 or visit http://www.nvcc.edu/alexandria/schlesingercenter/ for more details.

jacqueline-portrait-smallJackie Hoysted is a native of Ireland, and currently lives in Gaithersburg, MD. She quit her career as an IT consultant four years ago to pursue a career in the arts. She has since graduated from a fine arts degree program at the Corcoran College of Art & Design, Washington DC. She is a multi media artist and selects materials based on what she wishes to communicate. She has had a number of solo shows in the area and her work has been selected for numerous juried shows at a regional and national level. Her ongoing project Send Me Your Last Cigarette has been featured in The Gazette, the Washington City Paper, The Falls Church News Press and the Westmeath Examiner, Ireland and numerous blogs.