February Madness, Butoh Study and First Thursday Show Recap

So, just before I left for Mexico in March, and while I was struggling through some crazy serious medical complications, roommate and $$ worries, winter blahs and heartache, I pulled off some kind of amazing stuff that I’m overdue in discussing, and I guess I owe myself a bit of a pat on the back.

After singing and performing in my first Cathedral Band concert in months, even managing to send out a newsletter about it beforehand (if you did not get this newsletter, please email me), I came home and managed to pull together a photo show in 3 days on no sleep, no money, and very little training. I had given up on the show, but Sheri talked me into it and pulled me along with her positivity and confidence in me!

Here are some photos of the opening at the Tashiro Kaplan Artist Lofts Vandenbrink Community Center for the March 1 Artwalk:

Infinite thanks are owed to the following people:
Sheri Brown for curating
Paurl Walsh and and his boss at the Framesmith for the glass and the lessons in last minute budget hanging and archival protection
Galen and Michael at Kit’s Camera in NG for being patient with my insane random self
Jay Mason for helping us hang last-minute
I know that everyone says this, but seriously it would not have been possible without them. What a crazy week.

The very next day I flew to Mexico, so thanks a million as well to Sheri for babysitting the show for 2 weeks and to the amazing Susan Robb for taking it down so gently and lovingly when it was time for hers to go up, and for sending compliments back through Sheri which lifted my spirits on my return/crash landing!!!

Thanks also to the students of the Butoh study for their patience, as this was the most difficult photo project I’ve ever undertaken and I was so unhappy with much of the process. Honestly I was so heartbroken about what I felt was a sub-par quality of output, and the succession of catastrophic equipment/resources failures I had all winter, and the forced retirement of my digital camera, that I didn’t feel that I could pull together a final product that I accurately documented the whole process. But your enthusiasm and support, and your patience in helping me understand some of the concepts you were working with, makes me want to at least give you this. But then as I think about it, and what we all learned about the dance form, and the personal philosophies and styles of each teacher… How apropos that for me it should be so awkward, and involve struggles with light and dark, and mirror deep frustrations from within. All of what I was confronted with was overwhelming, and my efforts to put that on paper into a coherent gesture (if you will), is going to be an ongoing process. Ultimately, it was a workshop for me too! And what I learned is that I have a lot to learn.

I will post the slideshow here for your (online) use shortly. Feel free to use the images for your websites and sharing, but contact me before any sort of printing to get the large files.